You can wow your guests with a great meal, great setting, and a great experience, but getting them to come back as regulars can be a tall task, especially when you're in an area with countless restaurant options. That's where restaurant customer loyalty programs can help.

There are ways you can incentivize your guests to return, increase their meal spend, and introduce friends to your establishment. With loyalty cards, you can offer points, discounts, or other incentives that might mean the difference between choosing your restaurant for a meal and trying out another venue.

Let's explore some of the options we like most. To start, check out this quick comparison chart. Be sure to click on the logos for brief explainer videos on each of the restaurant customer loyalty services.

Ready to take a deeper dive into these customer loyalty options for your restaurant? Let's get started.

Stamped

Over 45,000 business owners rely on Stamped to build loyalty, in part because this service offers fully customizable rewards programs that can be shared on social media, through email marketing, through SMS, and as a widget on a website.

Stamped is the lowest-priced option we list here, but it's packed with features to increase engagement. Owners use this tool to reward diners for visiting their restaurants, introducing friends, and making repeat purchases.

With Stamped, you can create tiers within your loyalty program and reward your best customers with fixed amount discounts, percentage-off discounts, annual gifts, access to events, and the ability to earn points faster.

Stamped integrates well with lots of programs you may already be using. These include ActiveCampaign, Drip, ViralSweep, and many others.

Interested in checking it out? Get started here.

Toast

You may already be acquainted with Toast, the point-of-sale powerhouse tool many restaurants rely upon for running their restaurants, but did you know that Toast offers a robust loyalty program, too?

Toast's program creates accounts for your guests during their checkout process, and their account is linked to their credit cards. That means that there isn't an extra card they need to tote around to take advantage of the program.

Like Stamped's program, Toast offers customizations. You can set sign-up bonuses, customize accrual and redemption rates, and offer birthday rewards with Toast's point-based system.

Toast offers its restaurant customer loyalty program for a flat monthly fee. You'll need to work with the Toast team to determine the rate for your business, but any package will require you to have the core Toast system, which starts at around $165/month.

Would you like a demo of this program? Start here.

Glue

Glue is a loyalty program designed specifically for local businesses. It stands out for the wide range of programs it allows you to offer your guests.

With Glue, you can set up a points-earning system, digital loyalty cards, coupons, or a referral program for your diners. You can also establish membership tiers and levels to offer the best rewards to your most loyal customers.

One feature owners like is that Glue engages your customers on their behalf. With reminders, customized offers, and notices of incentives, Glue does the heavy lifting to get your guests back to your restaurant, supporting your business.

Glue works well with lots of other tools you may already be using in your restaurant. It integrates easily with Clover, Square, and Quickbooks, as well as some e-commerce services.

Glue starts at around $30/month. You can try it free here (no credit card required).

Square

Like Toast, you may know Square for its POS system, but the company's loyalty program is a smart add-on.

Square reports that sellers who use this loyalty program see a 40% increase in customer visits. Owners can back this up with their Square Dashboard, a tool that allows them to track the number of loyalty customers they have, their top loyalty customers, and the average spend from loyalty and non-loyalty customers.

It's easy to enroll your guests into Square's loyalty program. You can take on this task during your normal checkout process.

Like some other solutions, Square engages your customers on your behalf, informing them when they earn points and reminding them of their reward balances.

The monthly fee for this program starts at around $45 and can scale up based on your location's total loyalty visits during that period. Many owners find they can offset this cost with the increased sales volumes it can help them achieve.

Would you like a free trial of Square's loyalty program? Get started here.

Would you like to see other solutions you might need to start or grow your restaurant? Check out this resource.

Then, log into your owner's portal for a step-by-step guide to branding, taking on HR tasks, navigating legal concerns, and improving profitability, customized just for your restaurant.