This guide is for brands that run dozens or thousands of restaurants, many of them franchised. It explains what the software does and how it plugs into the point of sale. Then it works through kiosks, delivery and franchise rules, ending with a demo checklist and the build or buy call. For program design, read our restaurant loyalty programs blog. For the programs worth studying, see the best restaurant loyalty programs guide. To compare loyalty platforms by name, see our guide to loyalty management software.
What does restaurant loyalty software do?
It runs the program behind every order. The till, the app and the kiosk pass the check along. The loyalty platform makes the calls. Toast's developer guide says the loyalty program is responsible for the rewards a guest can use and the rewards a check earns. The POS shows the result and takes payment.
In practice the software does six jobs:
- Find the guest. A phone number, email, QR code or card finds the member at the till, the kiosk or in the app.
- Price the reward. It sends back the rewards this guest can use on this check. Some apply to the whole check and some to one item.
- Post the visit. After payment it reads the check and posts points, visit credits or tier progress.
- Undo it. A void, refund or comp takes back the points or the reward.
- Run the offers. It picks which member gets which offer and in which channel. It also sets when the offer ends.
- Keep the books. It tracks the points and rewards guests still hold. Finance carries them as deferred revenue.
The rule types are familiar. Oracle's Simphony guide lists points per visit, points per dollar, discount cards and category club cards. With a club card, the guest earns by ordering one type of item, such as burgers. An enterprise platform takes rules like these off each POS and runs them once, for every brand and channel. Our POS integration entry covers the request types in detail.
How does it connect to the POS and ordering stack?
Start by counting the systems that take orders in your brand: the store POS, web and app ordering, kiosks, catering and delivery marketplaces. Each one needs the same calls to the loyalty platform. Each one also sends the check in its own format.
Standards help. The Object Management Group hosts POSLog for Foodservice, a cut-down version of the ARTS POSLog record made for food service. It also hosts a Self Service Order Interface for orders placed online, by phone, on mobile or at a kiosk. Ask each vendor which of your systems it already reads, and which it would map for you.
Toast
Toast publishes a loyalty integration spec for outside providers. During payment, the POS app sends the check to the loyalty program, which sends back the rewards. A redeemed reward shows as a negative amount on the check, at check level or item level. Points post after the guest pays, in a separate step. Toast's own Toast Loyalty product sits outside this API. The spec exists for outside providers.
Oracle Simphony
Simphony sets loyalty options at the enterprise, property or revenue center level. A group can set one behavior for the whole company and change it for one site. Oracle's CrowdTwist guide lists what a Simphony loyalty link can carry. Members can identify by email, phone, name, QR code or check-in code. They can pay with points, and more than one member can share a split check.
What happens when a store goes offline?
Plan for it before launch. Toast states that its loyalty integration API is not supported during an internet outage at the location. Oracle's Simphony guide tells operators to turn off offline support in the loyalty options, because loyalty transactions do not run offline. The sale goes through, and the member earns nothing at the till. Ask each vendor how those guests get their points later. Two answers work: a receipt claim in the app, or a batch post from the POS journal once the store reconnects.
How do app, kiosk and delivery orders change what you need?
The app. El Pollo Loco says members reach Loco Rewards on its website and on its iOS and Android apps, per its 2025 annual report. The app holds the balance, the offers and the order history. Its loyalty calls have to match the till's to the cent, or guests see two different balances.
The kiosk. Kiosks and guest-facing screens let a guest join with no staff help. On a Toast kiosk, the guest taps to add rewards and enters a phone number, an email or a QR code. Toast searches for the account. If there is none, it sends a sign-up request to the loyalty provider. Toast's guide makes the provider solely responsible for consent and privacy rules on those sign-ups.
That screen has legal weight in California. Under the CCPA rules, a program or benefit offered in return for collecting or keeping personal data is a financial incentive. The rules' own examples include loyalty programs. A notice of that incentive must be easy to find where people see it before they opt in. On a kiosk, that is the sign-up screen.
Delivery. The ordering surface decides the earn, even when the courier is the same. Chick-fil-A One members earn points on DoorDash delivery ordered in the Chick-fil-A App. Delivery orders started on third-party apps, DoorDash included, earn nothing. Points also leave out delivery fees, tips and taxes. To enforce rules like these, the platform needs a channel tag and a line type on every check.
What do franchise systems need from a loyalty platform?
One program, many owners. McDonald's counts sales to loyalty members at both company-operated and franchised restaurants. The guest sees one brand. Behind it, each restaurant can have its own owner and its own data rights.
Data rights start in the franchise deal. In the US, the FTC Franchise Rule makes the franchisor disclose whether franchisees must buy or use a set cash register or computer system. It must also say if the franchisor can reach the data those systems hold on its own. A program that needs every check from every store rests on that clause.
Funding comes next. Red Robin's franchise agreements require the company and its franchisees to pay up to 3% of revenues into two national advertising funds. Loyalty is one of the channels those funds pay for.
Ask a platform to show you these on a franchise system:
- A hierarchy of brand, region, franchisee and store, with set rights at each level.
- National rules a franchisee cannot break, plus local offers a franchisee can fund and run.
- Store-level reports of the points earned and rewards redeemed, with the cost of each.
- Settlement when a guest earns in one owner's store and redeems in another's.
The last item is a policy choice before it is a feature. Decide who pays for the free meal. Then make the software report it by store.
How should the software pick and test offers?
Public chains describe the same pattern in their filings. El Pollo Loco builds campaigns for each segment of its guests. It also sends surprise offers based on what each member has bought. Red Robin pairs its Royalty database of about 16.4 million members with a customer data platform. It uses the two to aim its messages and offers. Noodles & Company says Rewards members are often first to hear about new dishes. Some get a dish only members can order, for a limited time.
Each of these needs the same inputs: the items on the check, the hour, the store, the channel and the guest's visit history. Without item data, an offer can only discount the whole check. Test each offer before it goes wide. Keep a random group of members off it and compare their visits with everyone else's. The loyalty personalization guide covers how the platform picks the offer.
What goes on a restaurant loyalty software checklist?
Use this table in demos. Ask the vendor to show each item live, on a test check, with your menu and your POS. Slides do not count.
| Criterion | Why it matters | What to ask in the demo |
|---|---|---|
| Your POS and ordering systems | Every system that takes an order has to call the loyalty platform. | Which of our POS, app, web and kiosk systems do you run in production today? |
| Each line on the check | Item rules and item offers need each line on the check. | Show an offer that discounts one menu item on a mixed check. |
| Sales while offline | Toast and Simphony both say loyalty does not run while the store is offline. | A store loses internet for two hours. How do those guests get their points? |
| Kiosk and guest screen sign-up | Guests join with no staff, and consent rules apply on that screen. | Show sign-up on a kiosk, with the privacy notice and the marketing opt-in. |
| Rules by channel | Some orders earn on other terms, like delivery app orders. | Block earn on marketplace orders and on delivery fees. Show the check. |
| Rights by franchise level | Brand, region, franchisee and store need different rights. | Log in as a franchisee. What can you change, and what is locked? |
| Store cost and settlement | Owners pay for rewards redeemed in their stores. | Show the month-end report a franchisee sees. |
| Offer tests | Without a holdout group, nobody knows what an offer caused. | Launch an offer with a holdout and show the gap in visits. |
| Points still owed | Finance defers revenue for points and rewards guests still hold. | Export unredeemed points by store and by age for our auditors. |
| Reversals and fraud | Refunds, comps and abuse must undo points and rewards. | Refund a paid check and show the points come back off. |
| Your data, and how you leave | The member file is the asset the program builds. | How do we export every member, balance and transaction if we leave? |
| Peak load | Lunch and dinner peaks hit every store at once. | Show load test results at our peak check rate. |
Should you build or buy restaurant loyalty software?
Building suits a chain that already owns its ordering stack. Domino's shows that path at the till. It runs its stores on its own point-of-sale system, Domino's PULSE, built for both franchisees and corporate management.
Count what you would own. Toast's guide puts sign-up rules, validation, consent and privacy compliance on the loyalty provider. If you build, that provider is your team. Finance adds a further job. Red Robin defers revenue on each point as guests earn it, net of the points it expects never to be redeemed. It bases that estimate on its own history. Your system has to keep that history, by member and by store.
| Path | What you own | When it fits | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build | The rules, the member data, the POS links and the points books | You already run your own POS or ordering platform | Every new POS, channel or rule lands on your own backlog |
| Buy | Program design, offers and the member data; the vendor runs the engine | You run several POS systems or several brands | Weak data export makes the vendor hard to leave |
| Mix of both | Your app and guest experience, with a bought engine behind APIs | Your digital team already owns the app | Two teams have to agree on every release |
How GRAVTY handles restaurant loyalty
GRAVTY is the loyalty platform from Loyalty Juggernaut. Its integrations page lists Oracle Simphony, Micros and Infrasys among its POS links. Each one carries real-time balance checks, redemption, vouchers and earning. The same page lists the payment partners Orderpay and Qlub for earning and spending points.
Rules live in GRAVTY Visual Rules, the patented no-code rules engine. When a guest pays without the app, GRAVTY AI-Scan reads a photo of the receipt and puts the visit on the member's record. SHARE by Majid Al Futtaim runs on GRAVTY across malls, retail, restaurants, hotels and leisure. GRAVTY runs 500M+ members in production on a 99.99% uptime SLA, with 150+ system integrations. For a franchise brand, that puts every store's checks on one member record.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of restaurant loyalty program providers are there?
There are two broad kinds: loyalty modules built into a POS, and loyalty platforms that connect to many systems through APIs. Toast is an example of both sides. It sells its own Toast Loyalty product, and it publishes an integration spec that outside loyalty providers build to. A group that runs more than one POS, or more than one brand, needs the second kind, because one program has to sit above every till.
Can a restaurant loyalty program work without a mobile app?
Yes. A guest can join and earn at the counter, on a kiosk or on a guest-facing screen with a phone number or an email. Toast documents sign-up and sign-in flows for both its kiosk and its guest-facing display. Simphony offers phone number and name lookup at the till.
What happens to loyalty when a restaurant loses its internet connection?
The sale still goes through, but the member earns nothing at the till. Toast and Oracle Simphony both document that loyalty transactions do not run offline, in the Toast integration overview and the Simphony loyalty options. Ask your loyalty vendor how those visits get posted afterward, by receipt claim or by a batch post from the POS.
How is a restaurant loyalty platform different from a CDP?
A loyalty platform runs the program in the transaction, and a CDP builds audiences from data. The loyalty platform decides what a check earns and which rewards a guest can use, while the till waits. Red Robin runs both: its Royalty database and a customer data platform that it uses to target offers, per its annual report. See our comparison of CDPs and growth platforms.
Who pays for a reward redeemed at a different franchise location?
The franchise system decides, and the loyalty platform has to report it by store. Two models work. A central fund pays for every redemption, or the store that issued the points settles with the store that honored them. Write the rule down before launch, then test the month-end report in the demo.
How do restaurants account for unredeemed loyalty points?
They defer part of the sale as revenue owed until the guest redeems or the points expire. El Pollo Loco reported $1.1 million of revenue allocated to unredeemed loyalty points at the end of 2025. Our points liability guide explains the method.