Loyalty program for small business: how to set one up, and what it costs

Updated 22 October 2026

A loyalty program for small business works when it is simple: one reward people actually want, a clear number of points to reach it, and a card nobody can lose. You can start with paper cards for the price of printing them, or with a loyalty app on your customers’ phones. Below, how to set one up in five steps, and what each option costs.

Telaio: an app of your own, from €59 a month

Your own app, with your name, logo and colours, on your customers’ phones. They install it by scanning a QR code: ten seconds, no App Store, no account.

A model for every trade: restaurant, bar, hotel, B&B and mountain hut, winery, shop and seller
Offers and a digital loyalty card that count by themselves
Notifications, scheduled if you like, to people who said yes
Eight languages, and it works offline
Live the same day, and you update it from your phone

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1. Pick one reward people want

A gift works better than a discount: a coffee, a dessert, a basket of fruit, a glass of the house wine. It costs you little, and it doesn’t teach people to wait for a lower price. One reward is enough to start; add a second, bigger one later.

2. Decide what earns a point

Keep the rule short enough to say at the counter. On a paper card it is usually one stamp per visit or per purchase. In Telaio a point is earned each time the customer uses one of your offers in front of you, and the point arrives on its own: nobody stamps anything, and nobody keeps count.

3. Paper card or app?

Paper cards cost almost nothing, but they end up in drawers and wallets, and you never know how many are out there. A digital card lives on the customer’s phone: it can’t be lost, and if the customer changes phone they get it back with their own code. You also see the numbers: how many cards are open, how many points are out there, how many rewards have been claimed.

4. A loyalty app for small business: what to look for

Check four things before you choose one. Customers shouldn’t have to sign up or hand over their email to join. It should install in seconds, from a QR code at the counter, without an app store. You should decide the rewards and the points yourself. And there should be no commission on what you sell. Telaio was built on those four points.

5. Tell people it exists

A loyalty program nobody knows about doesn’t exist. Put the QR code at the counter, on the bill, on the card you hand out with every order, and have your staff mention it in one sentence. The first reward someone claims is your best advert.

What it costs

Paper cards cost what the printing costs, and nothing else. A custom-built loyalty app costs thousands to build and more every year to maintain, as How much does it cost to build a small business app? shows. With Telaio the loyalty card is part of your own app: €59 a month, or €41 a month on the 12-month plan (for hotels and B&Bs, €69 or €48), with offers and notifications in the same price.

Who already does it

A fruit and veg seller, a country inn, a farm restaurant, and hotels by the sea and in the mountains run their loyalty program for small business inside their own app, under their own name.