The barista rings up in Square exactly as always — nothing extra to do, and the barista never leaves Square.

Right after the guest selects their tip and receipt type, a QR shows next to the receipt options with a "Tap to scan our loyalty program" prompt — exactly when their phone is already in hand.

It opens the French & Son sign-up page right in their browser — nothing to download.

Their data, typed by them — cleaner and faster than reading it out to a barista.

On the back end it lines up the moment they joined with their Square transaction and grabs that card automatically (see note below).

From here, every visit tracks on its own. This never has to happen again.

The barista just rings up normally. No loyalty step, no app switch, no asking for a phone number again.

$4–8 = 1 · $9–14 = 2 · $15–21 = 3 · $22–28 = 4 · $29+ = 5 (max 5 per visit). Bigger orders earn faster.

The customer can check progress in their welcome message thread; you can see it on the loyalty page.

Within 1–2 stamps of the goal: "So close! Just 1 more and your next drink's on us."

A one-time Redeem link arrives: free drink, any single item up to $8, good for 14 days.

At the register the customer opens the link and taps Redeem in front of staff. (Tapping is what uses it, so it can't be spent by accident at home.)

It flips to a big "REDEEMED" with today's date and a live, ticking clock — a screenshot freezes and can't tick. The barista glances, sees it's being used right now, and hands over the drink.

Reopen the link later and it shows "already used on [date/time]." The customer gets a "counter reset" message, and any leftover stamps roll into the next card.

The instant a card payment clears, Square sends a secure notification ("webhook") to the loyalty system.

The system confirms the message truly came from Square using a cryptographic signature — so no one can fake purchases.

It reads the card's "fingerprint" — a stable ID Square provides for each card (never the card number) — and finds or creates that customer's account.

The sale (amount + time) is recorded, with a safeguard that stops the same payment from ever counting twice.

It works out the stamps from the spend tier and adds them to the customer's running balance.

Within 2 of the goal → "almost there" alert. Hit 9 → create a reward (one-tap Redeem link + 14-day expiry), reset the counter (carrying any remainder), and send the free-drink alert.

When a customer self-signs-up via the QR, the system lines up their join time with their Square payment, attaches their phone/email to that card's account, and sends the welcome.

When the customer taps Redeem, the system marks the reward used (killing the link), records the exact time so the screen can show a live clock, and sends the reset confirmation. No barista input.

Every customer, contact, purchase, stamp and reward lives in your own database. That's the source for your dashboard, exports, and the marketing below.

These are real people who paid you and opted in at sign-up — far more valuable than any bought list.

Filter the database by how customers actually act, then target each group differently:

Slow-day push ("Tue 2–4, free pastry with any latte") · win-back ("We miss you — free coffee next visit") · new-item or event launch · birthday & milestone perks.

The system messages the chosen segment by text (or email) — the exact channel that already sends reward alerts. Nothing new to set up.

Because purchases tie back to customers, you can see who came in after a campaign — and double down on what sells.

Customers opt in at sign-up, every message offers an opt-out, and sending is properly registered so messages land. Each marketing text carries the same small per-message fee (about a penny), so a campaign to a few hundred customers runs a few dollars — a fraction of traditional advertising.