Tiers don’t reward spending: they reward habit
A customer with a tier has something to lose if they stop coming. That is the whole trick — and it is why a club with well-designed tiers retains more than any discount.
What keeps people isn’t the reward: it’s what they could lose
A discount gets spent and forgotten. A tier stays put: the customer carries it around, written on the card on their phone, and knows what it took to get there. That’s why a tier keeps working for you even when the customer isn’t in your venue.
The maths fits on a napkin. You give a permanent 10% on your top tier and your average ticket is €5: that’s €0.50 per visit. If that customer comes six times a month, the tier costs you €3 a month. At a 70% margin, a single extra €5 visit leaves you €3.50. In other words: the tier pays for itself with one extra visit a month. Anything after that is yours.
And now the sum almost nobody does. If half your members reach the 10% tier, you don’t have a club with tiers: you have a menu that’s 10% cheaper. The top tier has to be a minority; if it isn’t, the threshold is in the wrong place.
How you go up and how you go down
In etlas everyone starts on tier 1 — the welcome tier, which nobody ever drops out of — and from there they move up by one of three routes. You choose one for the whole programme:
| How they move up | What it measures | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| On completing cards | Each full card moves them up a step | A ticket that’s always similar: café, bakery. On top of that, each tier can ask for its own number of stamps. |
| By accumulated stamps | Lifetime stamps | When you don’t want the tier to depend on the size of the card. |
| By what they spend | Total spend | A very variable ticket: restaurant, shop, services. |
Dropping down is decided tier by tier, with the “Can they drop if they stop coming?” switch. There are two ways to keep a tier: days without buying (the counter resets with every purchase) or a minimum number of visits within a period — for example, 2 visits every 90 days. If they don’t meet it, you choose: drop one tier or back to the start.
A process that runs every day applies this on its own, without anyone checking anything, and the customer’s pass updates as soon as it happens. With two courtesies built in: a member who has only just joined isn’t penalised for a visit window they haven’t had time to live through yet, and notifications are sent within the business’s sensible hours.
Setting it up in the panel
- In Set up → The rules, switch on “I want tiers for my customers” and choose how they move up: “On completing cards”, “By accumulated stamps” or “By what they spend”.
- Go to Set up → The tiers and say how many you want: 2, 3 or 4 are created in one click with sensible values already filled in (you can add more, up to 6).
- Give each one a name — Bronze, Silver, Gold, or whatever suits your place. The customer will see it on their card.
- On every tier above the first, answer “Can they drop if they stop coming?”: by days without buying or by a minimum number of visits in a period. And what happens if they don’t meet it: “Drop one tier” or “Back to the start”.
- Switch on “A permanent benefit at this tier?” only where you’re actually going to give something: a fixed percentage, a phrase (“free extra topping on every visit”), or both.
- Right at the bottom, decide “When someone drops a level, what happens to their stamps?”: they reset to 0 (dropping costs them their progress) or they are kept.
Two finishing touches people forget: in Set up → The rewards you can set different rewards per tier — including a surprise group of each tier’s own — and in Set up → The design each tier has its own card, with its own colours. Making the tier visible is half the effect.
What to set by type of business
Three tiers work for almost everyone. What changes is the route and the time limit:
| Business | Tiers | How they move up | Top tier time limit | Top tier benefit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local café | 3 | On completing cards | 30 days without buying | Large size, always |
| Fast food, poke | 3 | On completing cards | 21 days without buying | Fixed 10% |
| Dinner restaurant | 3 | By what they spend | 2 visits every 90 days | Complimentary starter or coffee |
| Hairdresser, beauty | 2 | By what they spend | 1 visit every 120 days | A short free treatment |
The rule for the time limit: it has to be longer than that customer’s normal frequency, with room to spare. If your regular comes in every ten days, 30 doesn’t crowd them and does give them a nudge when they’ve been missing for three weeks. With 15, a business trip costs them their tier — and they’ll be annoyed, rightly so.
The mistakes that spoil it
- Giving the top tier away. If people get there in two weeks, it isn’t a tier: it’s your new price. Check it in Statistics, under “What tier they are on”: if the fattest bar is the top one, the threshold is too low.
- Benefits nobody can feel. “Priority service” means nothing at a counter. Product or percentage.
- Punishing too early. A short time limit doesn’t create urgency, it creates drop-outs. And a misunderstood tier drop is the perfect excuse to leave the club.
- Not warning before the drop. In Automations you have the “About to drop a level” trigger: each tier sets the time limit and you only choose how far in advance the warning goes out. A message two days before wins back visits that the drop on its own only turns into annoyance.
Frequently asked questions
How many tiers should a loyalty club have?
Three. With two there’s nowhere to go, and with five the customer no longer knows which one they’re on or what they get. In etlas you can create 2, 3 or 4 in one click and go up to 6, but every extra tier forces you to come up with a benefit people genuinely notice.
Can a customer drop a tier?
Yes, if you switch it on, and it’s decided tier by tier. Each one has its own criterion: days without buying, or a minimum number of visits within a period. A daily process applies it and updates the customer’s pass. Tier 1 never drops: nobody gets thrown out of the club.
What benefit should I put on each tier?
On the middle tiers, product that costs you pennies and is highly visible: a large size, an extra, a topping. On the top one, a fixed percentage off everything they buy or a little something on every visit. Both are written on the customer’s card, so they have to fit in a short phrase.
Do tiers work if my ticket varies a lot?
Yes: choose “By what they spend” and the tier goes up with total spend rather than completed cards. That’s the natural choice for a restaurant, where a small beer and a dinner for four can’t be worth the same.