85% of South African adults belong to at least one loyalty programme (BrandMapp 2025/6). Belonging is easy. Getting people to come back is the actual work.
Most Lekka vendors set up a card, print a QR code, and start stamping. That alone does the job. But there is a second layer to the platform that owners tend to discover months in, usually by accident, and it is where the interesting growth comes from.
Here are ten of them.
1. Message only the customers who are one stamp away
Sending "we miss you" to your whole list is a blunt instrument. Lekka splits your customers into five groups automatically, based on what they have actually done.
- ✓Almost at a reward. One stamp from the finish line.
- ✓Reward ready. Earned it, has not claimed it.
- ✓New members. Joined in the last 14 days.
- ✓Haven't visited. No stamp in 30 days or more.
- ✓Everyone.
Pick a group, write your message, and send it by email, in the app, or both. Names and referral links drop in automatically for each person.
💡 Tip
The part people miss: you can preview before you send. Hit preview and Lekka shows you exactly who would receive the message and how many people that is, without sending anything or using anything up. You can also send a test to yourself first.
There is no send limit. There is a fairness rule instead: each customer hears from you at most once every seven days, so your list stays worth being on. Anyone who has opted out is excluded automatically.
📌 Note
Broadcasts go out by email and as a notification in the customer's Lekka card. There is no SMS. Available on Starter and up.
2. Give a small reward before the big one
A ten-stamp card is a long walk for a new customer. Lekka lets you add up to five milestone rewards along the way, so the card pays out before the finish. Free cookie at four stamps. Upgrade to a large at seven. Free coffee at ten.
The customer sees the next milestone on their card, which changes the shape of the whole thing. They are never more than a couple of visits from something good happening. Available on all plans.
Live demo
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Milestones break the card into shorter goals. The pull of the next empty slot is the whole mechanism.
3. Turn your regulars into your marketing team
Every customer gets a personal share link. When a friend joins through it and visits, both people get rewarded, and you decide what each side gets. Bonus stamps, or a free item, set independently for the referrer and the friend.
You also choose when the reward lands, which matters more than it sounds.
- ✓On the friend's first visit. Both get rewarded when the friend gets their first stamp.
- ✓When the friend earns their first card. Both wait until the friend is properly a regular.
- ✓Friend gets theirs at signup. The friend gets a welcome reward immediately, and the referrer only gets paid when the friend actually walks in.
💡 Tip
That third option is deliberately built so a made-up signup never pays anyone out. The referrer only earns once the friend actually walks in, which is what makes it safe to be generous with the welcome reward.
Free-item rewards come with a six-digit code the customer reads out at the counter, and you have a lookup tool to check it. Available as an add-on at R99 a month on Starter and Growth, and included on Premium.
4. Let your team stamp without handing over your account
Staff sign in at the till with their name and a four-digit PIN. No email address, no account for you to create, no Lekka login shared around the counter.
What staff can do: stamp customers, remove a stamp they got wrong, confirm redemptions, and see the dashboard.
📌 Note
What staff cannot do: see full customer contact details, delete customers, open your reports, send broadcasts, touch billing, change settings, export your customer list, or regenerate your QR codes. Email addresses are masked and phone numbers are hidden.
And every stamp is attributed to whoever was signed in, so your dashboard shows a per-person activity breakdown. You can see who is actually stamping. Available as an add-on at R99 a month on Starter and Growth, and included on Premium.
5. Ask for a Google review at the exact right moment
Add your Google listing once, and Lekka asks on your behalf at the three moments a customer is most likely to say yes.
- 1On the screen right after they get a stamp, while they are still standing there happy.
- 2In the email confirming their stamp.
- 3On a printable review QR poster for your counter.
💡 Tip
The link opens straight into the star picker on a phone. No hunting for your business on Google Maps first, which is where most review requests quietly die.
Available as an add-on at R99 a month on Starter and Growth, and included on Premium.
6. Get a written report on your business, not just numbers
Two things here, and they are different.
Tap any chart in your Insights and get a short written read on what it means. Your busiest hour, your top customers, your redemption pattern, explained in plain language, along with a specific next step.
Generate a monthly performance report and Lekka writes the whole thing: busiest times, top customers, how your redemption rate is trending, how long a customer currently takes to earn a reward, and what happens to that number if you drop your stamp target. All of it against the previous period, so you can see direction and not just position. Print it or save it as a PDF.
Every figure in it is calculated from your actual data before a single word is written, so the numbers are your numbers. Available on Starter and up.
7. Put your loyalty programme on your own website
Three things sit in the Promote section that most owners never open.
- ✓A short link. lekkacard.co.za/yourbusiness, claimed by you, ready for your Instagram bio.
- ✓An embeddable widget. One line of code drops a live card onto your website showing your logo, your current reward, a QR code and a join button, in your brand colours.
- ✓A website badge and a set of social icons, ready to paste.
Plus pre-written share captions for WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, X and LinkedIn, each tagged so you can tell which channel actually brought people in. Short links are free on every plan, including Free.
8. Make it look like your brand, not ours
Upload your logo and set your colours: top bar, buttons, page background, bottom navigation, and a separate colour for the customer's card.
It applies everywhere. Your dashboard, the card in your customer's pocket, your public listing, and the widget on your website. There is a live preview as you pick, and a one-tap reset if you change your mind. Available as an add-on at R99 a month on Starter and Growth, and included on Premium.
9. Pause the clock when you are trading late
Lekka knows your opening hours and will not accept stamps outside them, which stops customers self-stamping from the car park on a Sunday.
But real trading is messier than a schedule. Private function, late market, pop-up at a different venue. Flip Accept stamps anytime and the rule lifts.
💡 Tip
The override turns itself back off automatically, so you cannot forget and leave your card open all week. Available on all plans.
10. It keeps working when you are not looking at it
A set of things run on their own, whether or not you log in.
- ✓A weekly digest every Monday morning with your week’s numbers and one practical tip.
- ✓Real-time alerts when someone joins or claims a reward, or a weekly summary instead, or nothing at all. Your call, per category.
- ✓Milestone emails when you cross 50 customers, and at stamp counts along the way.
- ✓Loyalty tiers. Your customers are sorted into bronze, silver and gold based on how they rank against your other customers, updated daily.
- ✓A review request sent to a customer 24 hours after they claim their first ever reward, once per customer, ever.
- ✓Your Google rating and review count refreshed on your public listing every week.
You set none of this up. It is on.
The full picture: what Lekka gives a business
If you are weighing Lekka up, here is the honest inventory, grouped by what it does for you.
Running the programme
- ✓QR stamp cards. Customers scan with their phone camera. No app to download, no card to lose.
- ✓Counter display mode. A fullscreen QR for the till phone, saveable to the home screen.
- ✓Loyalty programmes. Stamp target, reward, icon and terms. One on Free, three on Starter, five on Growth, unlimited on Premium.
- ✓Milestone rewards. Up to five smaller rewards along the way.
- ✓Self-service redemption. The customer claims on their phone and you glance at the confirmation. No staff workflow.
- ✓Manual stamping. Add or remove a stamp from the customer’s page when the QR is not practical.
- ✓Opening hours control, with a temporary override.
- ✓One-time stamp codes. Each scan mints a code valid for 30 seconds and used once. Regenerate to void all printed material instantly.
Knowing your customers
- ✓Customer list. Search, filter by active, lapsed or near-reward, sort, and open full profiles.
- ✓Activity timeline. Every stamp, redemption, milestone and referral for a given customer.
- ✓Private notes. Your own notes on a customer, never visible to them.
- ✓Insights. 30, 90 and 365 day views covering stamps, unique visitors, return rate, redemption rate, busiest hour and day, top customers and per-programme performance, all against the previous period.
- ✓AI chart insights and a written monthly report, on Starter and up.
- ✓CSV export of your customer list, on Starter and up.
Bringing people back
- ✓Segmented broadcasts. Five behavioural segments, email and in-app, preview before sending, personalised names and links. Starter and up.
- ✓Message templates. Six starting points so you are not staring at an empty box.
- ✓Promotions. Dated offers with promo codes and terms, and a one-tap button to broadcast them.
- ✓Refer a friend. Two-sided rewards with three payout triggers. Add-on, or included on Premium.
- ✓WhatsApp invites. Type a number, get a pre-filled message with the join link.
- ✓Automated lifecycle emails. Weekly digest, activity alerts and milestone celebrations.
Looking professional
- ✓A public listing with photos, hours, locations and your live Google rating.
- ✓A cover photo library, if you do not have your own photography.
- ✓AI help writing your business description and your programme terms.
- ✓Custom branding across the whole experience. Add-on, or included on Premium.
- ✓A vanity short link and an embeddable website widget and badge.
- ✓Multiple locations with separate addresses, hours and notes. One included, more at R199 a month.
Running the business
- ✓Team accounts. PIN logins for staff, restricted permissions, per-person stamp attribution. Add-on, or included on Premium.
- ✓Notification control, per category and per channel.
- ✓Billing self-service. Your invoices, balance, usage and payment details in one place.
- ✓Priority support on Growth and above.
- ✓Personal support from a real person who knows your account, on every plan.
What it costs
A flat monthly fee based on how many regulars you carry. Free to start with 50 customers, then R249, R499 and R1,499 a month as you grow. VAT at 15%. Add-ons are R99 a month each, and all four are included on Premium.
No cut of your sales, no per-transaction fee, and no requirement to change how you take payment. Your card machine stays exactly where it is. That is the structural point of Lekka: your loyalty programme belongs to you and moves with you, whatever you do with your payments later.
📌 Note
There is no card on file and no debit order. When you are ready to move up a plan, we invoice you and you pay by EFT.
Every paid vendor also contributes R10 a month to FoodForward SA. Your dashboard shows the meals your business has funded.
Where to start
If you are already stamping and want one thing to try this week, make it the first one on this list. Message the customers who are one stamp away from a reward. It is the shortest distance between a feature and a person walking through your door.
Free resource
Everything here is already on your account
Lekka is a stamp-and-reward programme built for independent South African businesses. Flat monthly pricing, no per-transaction fees, no cut of your sales, and no change to how you take payment.
Set up your loyalty cardFree for your first 50 customers · no app for customers · no per-transaction fees
