October has brought a run of new loyalty programmes from UK pubs, restaurant brands and drinks companies. Most of the coverage has focused on launch day: the app download, the welcome drink, the competition. At TheLoyaltyCo we think the more useful question is what happens after that, when a new member decides whether to come back.
A busy month for launches
Here is what has gone live in the past few weeks.
- Portobello Pubs & Bars has introduced Portobello Perks across its 21 pubs and bars, with points on every purchase, Perks Hours and birthday rewards (Portobello Pubs & Bars).
- Wingstop opened Flavour Club on 20 October. Guests get one stamp for every £12 spent, a free side after four stamps and a free main after four more, along with prize draws and a founding member competition fronted by AJ Tracey (Verge Magazine, 20 October 2026).
- Heineken and Amazon created “Pubscription”, where people browse pubs in the style of a streaming catalogue and earn free weekly pints. It runs until 6 January or until 15,000 vouchers have been redeemed (Marketing Week, 20 October 2026).
- CityStack, which has sold £10 off beer mat vouchers for London independents since 2021, has moved to a web app. It now covers more than 80 pubs and says it has given out over £1 million worth of food and drink (Beer Today, 22 October 2026).
- FIRSTLINE in Dubai has started the new season with Bâoli Dubai, offering members an extra AED 250 in points for a visit booked through the platform before 31 October (Hotel & Catering, 12 October 2026).
It is easy to see why operators are investing. The BBPA reports that 295 pubs closed in the first nine months of 2026 and expects around 360 by the end of the year, which is roughly one a day (BBPA, 12 October 2026). With footfall that hard to come by, a reason to visit and a reason to return are both worth paying for. We are pleased to see the investment.
Why so many members never come back
Adam Purslow, our founder, began building Club Individual at Individual Restaurants in 2011, and it grew to nearly 2 million members. The pattern he has seen most often since then is consistent. The launch gets the budget, the attention and the staff training. After that, nobody owns the programme week to week, and members quietly fall away.
Figures from programmes Adam has run make the point clearly. In one UK scheme with no engagement activity, 82% of new active members had lapsed within a year. In a UAE leisure and beach club group, only half of members had ever earned anything, and 79% of those who had earned had visited just once.
Technology was not the cause in either case. Both programmes had been set up to win a sign up rather than a second visit.
Welcome gifts can deepen the problem. They do increase sign ups. But in one UK scheme, a new approach to new members brought a wave of joiners drawn by the gift. Membership rose while average visits per member fell, because many of those guests had come for the gift and little else.
What some of the new schemes have got right
Several of the October launches show real thought about the return visit.
Wingstop’s mechanic is easy to follow: four stamps, free side. A guest who cannot work out what they are earning towards is unlikely to change their behaviour, so simplicity matters.
Greene King is giving members who registered by 21 October a one off 15% off voucher for food and drink, valid from 27 October to 4 November (Greene King). That gives existing members a reason to return, rather than only rewarding the download.
The same Greene King FAQ highlights a weakness in any programme that depends on a scan. If a guest forgets to scan their loyalty ID at the till, it cannot be added later. Each missed scan is a visit that never appears against that guest.
CityStack works differently. Ten pubs for £25 is designed for discovery, so it drives first visits. Jordan Cheal of SCNE made a similar point about Dubai last week when comparing restaurant apps (SCNE runs one of the platforms in the comparison). Most venues end up with a network that brings new people in, plus their own tools to remember those guests and bring them back (SCNE, 21 October 2026). We agree with him. A voucher network or booking platform can find new guests for you, but only your own programme turns them into regulars.
How we plan the first 90 days
When we launch a programme, the 90 days after go live get more of our attention than launch day itself. We group members into four stages: new, newly active (they have made a first earning visit), core, and lapsing. In the first 90 days the goal is to move people from new to newly active. That second visit is the hardest to win and the most valuable.
These are the five things we focus on.
Link the welcome reward to the next visit. A free dessert or drink on the guest’s next visit costs less than a points balance on day one, and it brings them back for the visit that counts.
Put the first reward within reach. If the first reward takes ten visits, most guests will never see it. Wingstop’s takes four.
Automate the reminders. Send a welcome message that explains the benefits, and a follow up when the welcome reward has not been used. Once they are set up, they work every day.
Track the scan rate. Look at the share of covers scanned or linked to a member, by site and by shift. If staff do not ask, guests do not join, and every missed scan is a lost visit.
Judge success on visits per member, not sign ups. In the UK scheme where 82% had lapsed, a targeted and personal communications plan brought that down to 55% over two years, and average visits per member rose from 2.4 to a peak of 3.3. That is the figure a finance director will notice.
None of this needs a large budget. It needs someone who still owns the programme in the weeks after the launch.
Talk to TheLoyaltyCo
We design, launch and run loyalty programmes for hospitality groups in the UK and the UAE, with a plan for the first 90 days built in from the start. If you are planning a launch, or want to understand why members are not coming back, get in touch with us at theloyaltyco.app.