Strategy
Understanding Loyalty Reporting: 6 Metrics That Really Matter (for Cafés, Hair Salons & More)
Which numbers in the reloop dashboard actually carry weight — and which you can ignore. An explanation of the most important loyalty KPIs (redemption rate, repeat visit frequency, cohort retention) with concrete examples from food service and personal services.
The reloop reporting dashboard shows you dozens of numbers — new cards, stamps issued, rewards redeemed, charts by program, by location, by staff member. But which of these numbers are genuinely meaningful, and which are vanity metrics that look good but don't drive any business decision? This article explains the 6 KPIs you really should track as a café, restaurant, hair salon, or service business — and gives you concrete benchmarks from the industry.
Vanity vs. actionable
Before we get into the details: not every number is a KPI. A KPI (key performance indicator) is a number you can act on when it moves. A vanity metric is a number that looks good but doesn't tell you what to do differently.
Vanity metrics in a loyalty context (visible in your dashboard, but NOT the number that matters most):
- Total cards issued — only tells you how active your onboarding was, not whether the cards get used
- Total stamps issued — grows monotonically over time, is always "more," and says nothing about the trend
- Top staff member — interesting for internal bonuses, but not a strategic signal
The following 6 metrics are actionable.
Metric 1: Redemption rate
What: The share of issued cards on which at least one reward was redeemed.
Formula: (cards with ≥ 1 redeemed reward) / (total cards) × 100
Why it matters: This is the one number that measures whether your card actually generates repeat visits. A card that was issued but never redeemed is a lost sales opportunity. If your redemption rate is < 15%, you have an activation problem: the card gets saved, but no one comes back.
Industry benchmarks:
| Industry | Healthy | Needs improvement |
|---|---|---|
| Café (10 stamps) | 25-40% | < 15% |
| Bakery (10 stamps) | 30-50% | < 20% |
| Hair salon (5 stamps) | 40-60% | < 25% |
| Restaurant (8 stamps) | 20-35% | < 12% |
| Food truck | 15-25% | < 10% |
Hair salon cards tend to have higher redemption rates because the visit cadence (every 4-8 weeks) is naturally high; restaurant cards run lower because typical restaurant frequency, even among loyal guests, is 1-2x a month.
If your redemption rate is low:
- Check the card setup hurdle: is the number of stamps too high? A 20-stamp card structurally converts worse than a 5-stamp card.
- Check the reward: is it attractive enough? "A free espresso" on a 10-stamp card means a 10% discount — not very motivating. "A free breakfast" on 10 stamps might mean 25% off — much better.
- Send a reactivation push broadcast to cards with 5+ stamps that haven't been active in 4 weeks.
Metric 2: Repeat visit frequency
What: The average number of days between two stamp events on a card.
Formula: average across all cards of (days between stamp N and stamp N+1)
Why it matters: Tells you how quickly a guest returns. If the value is stable, your program is running healthily. If it starts to climb (e.g. from 7 to 12 days), your customer loyalty is cooling off — typically because a competitor became more attractive, the weather is changing (an ice cream shop in the fall), or the reward is being taken for granted.
Industry benchmarks:
| Industry | Healthy frequency |
|---|---|
| Café | 3-7 days |
| Bakery | 4-8 days |
| Hair salon | 28-42 days |
| Restaurant | 7-14 days |
| Dog groomer | 30-45 days |
| Car wash | 14-21 days |
What to do when the value rises: A push broadcast with a time-critical promotion ("double stamps this week only") can break the trend. Longer term: raise the reward value or add a promotion.
Metric 3: Cohort retention
What: What percentage of the cards issued in a given month is still active 30, 60, or 90 days later?
Why it matters: Vanity metrics are cumulative — they always grow. Cohort retention is the one metric that tells you whether your newest generation of cardholders is doing better or worse than the previous one. If the April cohort has 25% retention after 60 days and the March cohort had 35%, you're doing something wrong in your April onboarding (or your product has a different problem).
You'll find the cohort table in the dashboard under Reporting → Retention. Columns: cohort month (April, March, February). Rows: 30d / 60d / 90d after card issuance. Value: % of cards with ≥ 1 stamp in the period.
Healthy: stable or rising retention per cohort. Problem: monotonically declining.
Metric 4: Average stamps per active card per week
What: How often an active card gets stamped per week.
Formula: (stamp events in the last 7 days) / (cards with ≥ 1 stamp in the last 7 days)
Why it matters: This is the high-frequency version of repeat visit frequency. If you check it weekly, you can see whether your "core of loyal regulars" is growing or shrinking.
Healthy for cafés: 1.0 - 1.5 stamps per active card per week. At 1.5+, you have a regular who comes in practically every day — your "engagement champions." Nurture them with a special reward (e.g. a handwritten card for their 50th stamp).
Metric 5: Average days to first reward
What: How long does a card take from its first stamp to its first redeemed reward?
Formula: average across all cards with ≥ 1 reward of (date of first reward − date of first stamp)
Why it matters: Measures your program's "time to value." The longer the path, the higher the dropout probability. If your value is > 90 days, you have a patience problem: cards give up before the reward is within reach.
Rule of thumb: Time to first reward should be at most 2× your typical customer frequency. Example:
- Café with a weekly frequency → time to reward ≤ 14 days
- Hair salon with a monthly frequency → time to reward ≤ 60 days
If the value is higher: lower stampsRequired or switch the bonus mode to before_max (reward at N-1 instead of N).
Metric 6: Email capture rate (when enabled)
What: The share of new cards where the guest provided an email address.
Formula: (cards with email) / (total cards) × 100
Why it matters: Email addresses are your owned marketing channel. Push broadcasts are great, but if a guest deletes the card, they're gone. Email stays. A 30%+ email capture rate is good — meaning one in three guests lets you reach them outside the Wallet, too.
If you're below 15%: offer email capture as a reward bonus ("Enter your email → 1 free stamp as a welcome gift"). In our experience, this lifts the rate to 40-60%.
What you'll find in the monthly PDF
The automatic monthly PDF (delivered by email on the 1st of each month) contains exactly these 6 metrics, plus:
- Top 10 programs by stamp volume
- Top 10 locations by stamp volume
- Top 10 staff members
- 7-day trend of the key KPIs
- Anomaly alerts ("Program X had -50% stamps this week vs. last week")
The PDF is formatted for store management / accounting / owners — A4, in German, branded with your logo.
What the KPIs do NOT replace
Even the best dashboard doesn't replace a conversation with your guest. If your redemption rate drops, ask your regulars why they come in less often. Use loyalty data as a hypothesis generator — the final answer lies in the behavior and feedback of real people.