Direct Fire · Loyalty at the terminal
One question at the terminal. That is the whole sign-up.
The payment terminal asks for a phone number. If they give it, they are in. No app required, no form to fill in, and nothing for your staff to explain at the till on a Friday night. There is a Loyalty and Referral App for customers who want one — but nothing depends on it.
“We had a loyalty thing for a year. Six people signed up. Four of them worked here.”Composite of operator language found across review sites and forums
Why it happens
Loyalty programs rarely fail on the offer. They fail at the sign-up, because the sign-up is asked for at the worst possible moment — at the counter, with a queue behind, by a casual who has been on since eleven and would rather not have the conversation. So the ask gets skipped. Then the program gets blamed, and the venue concludes their customers do not want loyalty, when what actually happened is that nobody was ever asked properly.
What we would do about it
Ask on the terminal, not across the counter
The payment terminal asks for the phone number as part of paying. Giving it is the entire sign-up — there is no second step, and your staff do not have to sell anything.
After that, they are recognised on their own
Every future purchase on that card is matched to them automatically. Nothing to scan and nothing to remember — the customer who never opens an app is served exactly as well as the one who does.
A different card is still the same customer
They tap a different card, enter the phone number again, and that card is linked to the same person. One customer, however many cards they carry.
And the reward offers itself
When they have earned something, the terminal tells them and asks whether they want to use it now. Nothing to remember, nothing to produce, and no asking a casual who has been on since eleven whether the coffee card is still a thing. Switch the prompt off if you would rather it stayed quiet through a rush — that is the merchant's call, not ours.
Eight ways to reward them
One program, eight kinds of reward. Turn on the ones that suit the room and leave the rest off — a venue that runs all eight is a venue that has confused its customers. There is a Loyalty and Referral App as well, for customers who want one; nothing here depends on it.
Punch cards
Buy nine, the tenth is on you — counted automatically, so there is no card to lose and no staff member deciding whether that smudge is a stamp.
Discounts
A standing percentage or dollar amount for members, applied at the terminal without anyone having to remember it.
Promotional offers
A time-boxed offer sent to members — a quiet Tuesday, a new menu, a slow month after the holidays.
Referrals
A reward for the customer who brings you another customer. See the referral page.
Next order coupon
Issued after a purchase and redeemable on the next one — a reason to come back, created at the moment they are happiest with you.
Buy X get Y
Two coffees and a pastry, a main and a side. You set the pairing; the terminal counts it.
Promo codes
A code for a flyer, a receipt or a post, redeemed at the terminal like any other reward.
Loyalty card
The familiar one: a balance that builds as they spend and gets redeemed when it suits them.
The objection this page has to beat
“We tried loyalty. Nobody signed up. Why would this be different?”
Because the thing that failed was probably the ask, not the offer. The average consumer is enrolled in eight loyalty programs and actively uses five, and within any one industry more than half engage with only one. Enrolment is not scarce; attention is. So the question is not whether your customers will join a program — they have joined eight — it is whether yours is the one that works without them doing anything. That is the whole design here: the sign-up is one question at the terminal, and after that they never have to participate again for it to keep working — right through to the terminal telling them they have a reward and asking if they want it.
What we can actually stand behind
Every claim below is labelled by how solid it is. The grey ones are where we looked and found nothing credible — those stay off the page rather than getting rounded up into a statistic.
- Independent
The average consumer is enrolled in eight loyalty programs but actively participates in only five, and over 51% engage with just one program within a given industry.
Deloitte, Reshaping customer loyalty programs, 2026 (survey Sep–Oct 2025). US consumers — treat as directional for Australia. - Independent
40% of loyalty program members admit to sometimes forgetting to redeem their rewards.
Deloitte, Reshaping customer loyalty programs, 2026. This is the figure the terminal prompt exists to answer: a reward the customer has to remember is a reward that quietly expires, and an unredeemed reward earns you nothing. - Independent
72% say a loyalty program makes them more likely to spend with that brand, and 56% say they increase their spending because of it.
Deloitte, Reshaping customer loyalty programs, 2026. Self-reported intent, not measured behaviour — read it as a ceiling, not a forecast. - No data
There is no credible published figure for what proportion of customers give their phone number when a payment terminal asks. Anyone quoting one is quoting themselves.
Do not cite a number. Run it for a month in one venue and you will have your own, which is worth more than anybody else's anyway.
When we would tell you not to buy this
If almost nobody comes back, do not buy this. An airport kiosk, a highway stop, a stall at a one-off event — trade that is passing by definition — will collect phone numbers it can never use. Direct Fire earns its money on repeat trade, and if you have not got any, the honest answer is that this is the wrong thing to spend on.