To know whether your numbers are good you need something to compare them to. These are ranges observed in small-business programmes — not a study we ran, and not a promise.
Observed in real programmes
25% – 45%
It depends almost entirely on who offers it. If your team mentions it while taking payment you are at the top of the range; if there is only a sign, at the bottom.
Observed in real programmes
55% – 75%
This is why your campaign reach is always smaller than your customer count. It is the difference between holding an email and being allowed to use it.
Observed in real programmes
20% – 40%
It drops sharply when the card is long for the real frequency of the business. Twelve stamps somewhere people visit monthly is nearly a year: almost nobody gets there.
Observed in real programmes
70% – 90%
If yours drops below 70%, check two things: that the prize is worth it, and that asking for it is not embarrassing.
Arithmetic, not statistics
Prize cost ÷ stamps
A coffee that costs you 1,000 spread over ten stamps is 100 per visit. Compare that to what you make on the visit, not to the menu price.
Observed in real programmes
15% – 30%
Of those who open the Google link. Asking more people does not raise this percentage: it only raises how often you bother someone.
Trade rule of thumb
5% – 15%
A well-aimed win-back campaign brings a minority back. It is still worth doing because the campaign costs almost nothing, but do not expect miracles.
Trade rule of thumb
Between 6 and 10
The rule that works best: the card should be finishable in about two months at your real frequency. More than four months and it is too long.
We do not have our own data for every trade or every country, and we are not going to invent it. Where a number rests on a rule of thumb rather than an observation, it says so above the number. If your figures sit well outside these ranges, the likeliest explanation is that your business is different, not that it is wrong.
The words are defined in the glossary. To work out your own, the calculator.
