To compare loyalty solutions honestly, you have to judge them on the same criteria. Here are six, and they are enough: what needs installing? What does the customer have to do? What does the team have to do? Can it be cheated? What do you learn? How much does it cost? Let us put each family through them.
The paper stamp card
Installation: none. Customer: carry the card, do not lose it. Team: stamp it at every visit. Fraud: trivial (an obliging stamp). Data: zero. Cost: hidden but real: rewards handed out with no measurement, time at the till, disappointed customers every time a card is lost.
The dedicated loyalty app
Installation: development or licence, app store updates. Customer: download, create an account, accept notifications: the step most people never take. Team: explain the app at the till, help those who get stuck. Fraud: variable. Data: rich but extracted under duress, so of poor quality. Cost: high, for a channel the customer refuses to install.
QR code / wallet card solutions
Installation: light, sometimes a screen or tablet to add at the till. Customer: open the camera or the wallet, frame, scan. Team: often called upon to validate, because a QR code is an image: it can be photographed, shared and replayed. Fraud: the structural Achilles heel. Data: decent but noisy because of fraud. Cost: a moderate subscription, plus the possible screen, plus human vigilance.
The programme built into the till software (points per spend)
Installation: the heaviest: POS compatibility, a technician, extra screens, training. Customer: identify themselves at the till (card, number, email). Team: involved at every visit. Fraud: low. Data: precise (amounts). Cost: subscription + integration project + dependence on the till software vendor. It is the only family that natively knows how to count points "per euro spent" (we come back to this below).
Lecy: the NFC tag with proof of presence
On six criteria, Lecy comes first or joint first on every one. That is not a fluke of execution, it is an architectural choice: every other family puts an effort on someone: the customer (app, account, scan), the team (stamp, validation, data entry) or the shop (integration, screen, training). The proof-of-presence tag puts an effort on no one: place the tag, hold the smartphone near it. That is the whole journey.
The one case that deserves thought: the highly variable basket
One point per visit treats the €3 coffee and the €300 bill the same way. If your baskets are homogeneous (which is the case for the vast majority of local shops: restaurants, hairdressers, bakeries, clubs, everyday fashion) the visit is the ideal unit: simple, understood, impossible to cheat.
If a customer exceptionally makes a very large purchase, Lecy lets the team add points manually (two taps on a screen) to reward in proportion to the basket. It is the only manual action in the whole product, it is optional, and it only concerns the exception. A structurally very variable basket with a need for automatic per-euro counting remains the territory of till-integrated programmes, at their full price: integration, identification at the till, training. For everything else, the comparison's verdict is clear-cut.