How much does it cost to run a loyalty programme?

Two costs matter: the rewards you give away and the tool you use to track them. Keep the reward cost to a small share of what a loyal customer spends with you over the months it takes to earn it. Software like Zawadi is a monthly fee in shillings that includes SMS credits.

Do my customers need smartphones?

No. If customers are signed up by phone number and get their balance by SMS, the programme works on any phone. A smartphone app is a bonus for customers who want it.

How long before I see results?

Give it at least two to three months. That is long enough for regulars to earn their first reward and for you to compare how often members come back against customers who never joined.

Should I give points on discounted items?

You can, but most shops leave points off items that are already on offer, or give fewer. Decide once and tell your staff so the rule is applied the same way every time.

How to Start a Customer Loyalty Programme in Kenya

By Zawadi team Updated 5 October 2026 5 min read

The short answer

To start a loyalty programme in Kenya, decide whether you reward visits or spend, pick one reward customers want, set a target they can reach in a month or two, and sign customers up by phone number at the counter. Then tell them their balance by SMS after every purchase so they keep coming back.

A loyalty programme is a promise to your regular customers: keep buying from me and I'll give you something back. Done well, it gives people a reason to choose your shop over the one across the road, even when the price is the same.

You don't need a big budget or special equipment to start one. This guide walks through the decisions in the order you'll face them, using examples from Kenyan shops, salons and food businesses.

1. Decide what you're rewarding: visits or spend

Every loyalty programme rewards one of two things.

Visits work best when customers buy roughly the same thing each time. A barbershop, a car wash or a nail salon sees the same service again and again, so counting visits is simple and fair. "Your sixth wash is free" is easy for anyone to understand.

Spend works best when baskets vary a lot. A butchery customer might spend KES 300 one day and KES 3,000 the next. Rewarding spend means the family buying for a whole week earns more than someone picking up a quarter kilo, which feels right to both of them.

If you can't decide, ask yourself what you want more of. If you want people to come more often, reward visits. If you want people to buy more each time, reward spend.

Business	Usually rewards	Why
Barbershop, salon, car wash	Visits	Same service each time, frequency matters most
Restaurant, café, butchery, pharmacy	Spend	Basket size changes from visit to visit
Boutique	Either	Visits for regular browsers, spend for big shoppers

2. Pick a reward people actually want

The best reward is something your customers already buy from you. A free haircut, a free wash, a free coffee or KES 200 off the next bill all work because the customer knows exactly what it's worth.

Avoid rewards that cost you a lot but mean little to the customer, such as branded merchandise. Avoid rewards so small they aren't worth the effort, like a single sweet after ten visits.

A useful test: would a customer mention this reward to a friend? "Every sixth cut is free at my barber" passes. "I get 2% back in points" usually doesn't, even when it's worth the same.

3. Set a target customers can reach

The most common mistake is making the reward too hard to earn. If your typical regular comes twice a month, a reward that takes twenty visits is ten months away. Most people will give up long before that.

Aim for a first reward your regulars can reach in four to eight weeks. Work it out from what you already know:

A barbershop client who comes every two weeks reaches a "sixth cut free" card in about ten weeks. Reduce it to five cuts if you want it to feel closer.
A café regular who buys coffee four times a week fills a nine-stamp card in just over two weeks, which is fine for a cheap item like coffee.
A butchery family spending KES 2,000 a week earns 20 points a week at one point per KES 100. A reward at 150 points takes about two months.

Then check the cost. If a customer spends KES 16,000 to earn a reward worth KES 400, you are giving back 2.5% of what they spent. Most small businesses are comfortable somewhere between 2% and 5%, but only you know your margins.

4. Make joining take less than a minute

If signing up is slow, your staff will skip it when the queue is long, and the programme will quietly die.

The fastest way at a Kenyan counter is the phone number. Almost everyone has one, nobody forgets it, and it doubles as the way you reach them later by SMS. A QR code on the counter lets customers with smartphones join themselves while they wait.

Ask for as little as possible at the start: a name and phone number. A birthday is worth asking for because it lets you send a birthday reward, but make it optional.

5. Train your staff in five minutes, not five hours

Your cashier or attendant decides whether the programme works. Keep their job to two actions:

Find or add the customer by phone number.
Record the visit or the amount spent.

Everything else, from adding points to sending the SMS confirmation, should happen automatically. If a step needs a calculator or a notebook, it will be skipped on a busy Saturday.

Give staff a reason to care. Some owners track which cashier signs up the most new members and reward them at the end of the month. In Zawadi, each staff member logs in with their own PIN, so you can see who is signing customers up.

6. Tell customers their balance every time

A loyalty programme people forget about does nothing. The single most effective habit is confirming the balance after every purchase: "Thanks Wanjiku, you earned 12 points. You now have 85. 15 more for a free wash and blow dry."

A message like that reminds the customer the programme exists, shows them how close the next reward is, and arrives on their phone with your business name on it. With SMS, it reaches every customer, not only those with a smartphone.

7. Bring back the customers who drift away

Every business loses regulars, usually not because something went wrong but because life got busy. The customers who used to come weekly and haven't been back in a month are the cheapest customers you will ever win, because they already know you.

Two simple messages do most of the work:

A win-back SMS when someone hasn't visited for longer than usual. Thirty days suits most shops; a salon with clients on a six-week cycle might wait longer.
A "you're close" SMS when a customer is near their next reward. People hate leaving a reward unclaimed.

We cover this in detail in our guide on how to win back customers who stopped coming.

8. Check whether it's working

After two or three months, look at three numbers:

How many customers joined, and what share of your daily customers that is.
How often members come back compared with before they joined.
How many rewards were claimed. If almost nobody has claimed one, your target is probably too high.

Adjust one thing at a time. If people join but rarely return, the reward may not be appealing enough. If lots of rewards are being claimed and margins feel tight, raise the target slightly for new customers.

A simple starting plan

If you want to start this week, here is a plan that works for most small businesses:

Choose visits or spend using the table above.
Pick one reward from your own menu or service list.
Set the target so a regular reaches it in about six weeks.
Sign customers up by phone number at the counter and put a QR code by the till.
Send an SMS with the new balance after every purchase.
Turn on a birthday reward and a 30-day win-back message.
Review the numbers after two months and adjust.

Zawadi is built for exactly this setup. You can compare plans and prices or see how it works for your type of business.