Managing Customer Rewards | TORO Cigar POS

A good rewards program does more than give stuff away — it gives people a reason to come back to your shop instead of the one down the street. TORO gives you several tools to make that happen, and the best part is they all work together without you having to think about it too much.

Here's a quick tour of what's in your toolbox. Ready to actually build one? Setting Up Your Rewards Program walks the screens field by field — and if you need to stop one, Turning Off Your Rewards Program covers pausing, retiring and opting a single customer out.

Loyalty Points

This is your bread and butter. Customers earn points as they shop — typically 1 point per dollar spent, though you can configure this differently. Points accumulate automatically whenever a customer is attached to a transaction. (Not everything earns; see What Actually Earns Points below.)

When they've built up enough, they can redeem points for discounts or free items right at the register. You can see any customer's current point balance on their account screen, and so can your staff — which makes it easy to mention during checkout. "Hey, you've got 500 points — want to use some today?" That kind of thing builds goodwill.

If you'd rather run your program on an annual cycle — points expire every January 1, that kind of thing — there's a paid add-on for that. Two ways to pay: a one-time fee (own it outright, no recurring charges) or a smaller annual fee for five years, whichever fits your cash flow better. Reach out to support if you want it switched on for your store. See Rewards Program Reset for the full walkthrough.

What Actually Earns Points

Two things decide it, and they're checked separately: what's in the basket, and how it was paid for.

What's in the basket. Every product type has an "earns rewards" setting, and so does every individual item. Out of the box, cigars earn and the odds and ends don't — Miscellaneous, Refreshments, Soda and Water are all switched off, so a can of pop doesn't build a points balance. Gift cards, coupon lines and gratuity never earn either. If a customer's points look lower than expected, this is usually why, and it's yours to change on the product type or the item.

How it was paid for. Real money earns: cash, every kind of card, check, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, Cash App. What doesn't earn is anything that isn't the customer's money — comps, account holds, payroll deductions. That's deliberate: a comped sale shouldn't quietly buy the customer loyalty points at your expense.

Gift cards earn when they're spent, not when they're bought. Buying a $100 gift card earns nothing. Spending it earns exactly like cash. That way the same hundred dollars earns once instead of twice — and because the basket still decides, a gift card spent on drinks earns nothing, while the same card spent on cigars earns in full.

Split payments earn on the part you actually took money for. Pay half on a gift card and half in cash, and the whole sale earns. Pay part with a comp, and only the paid part earns — worked out in proportion, so the tax on the comped half never gets charged against the half the customer paid.

You don't have to take any of this on faith. Open any sale, click View Rewards, and the notes spell out the whole calculation line by line: which items earned and how much, which didn't and why, and — if part of the sale was paid with something that doesn't earn — what that was and how many points it cost. If the numbers ever look wrong after you change a setting, Reprocess Rewards on that same screen works them out again.

One caution on Reprocess Rewards: it recalculates using the rules you have today, not the rules that were in force when the sale rang up. If you've changed your earn rate since, the customer's points for that sale can change. TORO asks you to confirm before it does anything.

Points Rate Schedule

Your program has one normal earn rate — usually 1 point per dollar. A Points Rate Schedule lets you bend that rate at particular times, so you can pull people in when the shop is quiet and ease off when it's already packed.

Open the rewards program and click Points Rate Schedule… next to the "Points Per $" box. That box is your everyday rate; this button is the exceptions to it.

Each rule answers three questions:

When does this apply? Always, or only between two dates. "Next weekend only" is a date range.
Which days? Every day, or just the ones you tick.
What time of day? All day, or between two times.

Pick a date range and only a couple of weekdays, and TORO shows you a calendar with exactly the days you picked lit up, plus a plain sentence underneath: "This rule is active on 6 days: Jul 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30." Choosing "the 10th through the 30th" and ticking Wednesday and Thursday selects six days, not twenty-one — and now you can see it.

A few things worth knowing:

A rule can pay less, not just more. Set half a point per dollar on a Friday night that's already slammed. Set it to zero and points are simply off for that stretch.
The better rate always wins. If two rules overlap, your customer earns the higher of the two. TORO warns you when one rule is completely covered by a richer one, because that rule will never actually pay out.
Late nights work the way you'd say them. "Friday, 8 PM to 2 AM" means tick Friday and nothing else. A sale at 1 AM still counts as Friday night, the same way your close-out report does.
Points already earned are never touched. Changing or deleting a rule only affects what future sales earn.

While a rule is running, the top of your register shows REWARDS PROMO and the rate. When none is running, it shows NEXT REWARDS PROMO with the date and time of the next one, so your staff can mention it before the customer asks. If points are switched off, it says so, and tells you when they come back on. No promos scheduled? The banner stays out of your way.

Punchcards

Think of these as the digital version of those old paper "buy 10, get 1 free" cards — except nobody loses them in the washing machine. Punchcards are perfect for specific product categories. Buy 10 cigars from a particular line, get the 11th free. Buy 5 drinks, get one on the house.

Progress is tracked automatically, and you can run multiple punchcard programs at the same time without any conflicts. When a customer is attached to a transaction, they'll see exactly where they stand — "3 more to go!" It's a small thing, but it keeps people engaged.

Birthday and Anniversary Rewards

Nothing makes a customer feel like more than a number than remembering their birthday. TORO automatically generates rewards based on the dates stored in a customer's profile — birthdays, anniversaries, whatever you've set up.

Even better, TORO can send automatic notifications via SMS or email when a birthday is approaching. It's the kind of personal touch that turns casual buyers into regulars.

You can go further than a single generic message. Birthday rewards can be tiered by how much a customer spends in a year — each tier with its own discount and its own custom message, or one Birthday Message shared across all of them — and you decide per tier whether the text spells out the offer. An Aggressive Days Trigger sends a richer reward to customers who've drifted away, and messages can go out as SMS or MMS. Separately, a Welcome Reward Coupon with its own customizable message greets brand-new customers automatically.

Coupons

Coupons in TORO are tied to specific customer accounts, which means they're targeted and trackable. You can create one-time or limited-use discounts for individual customers or groups.

They're great for win-back campaigns when someone hasn't visited in a while, seasonal promotions, or just saying thanks to a loyal customer. Since they're tracked by phone number, you don't have to worry about someone using the same coupon five times.

Coupon Code Formats

Every coupon gets a unique code — the thing customers type in or that gets printed on their receipt. You get to pick the style. Open the Dashboard, click the Customers tab on the left, and click the Manage Rewards Program card. (Can't find it? Type "rewards" in the search box at the top right.) On that screen you'll see the Coupon Code Format dropdown. Three options:

Word + Numbers — a random word followed by three digits, like PIE713 or BULK205. This is the default and what most stores have been using. Easy to read, easy to say over the phone.
All Numbers — a six-digit code split by a dash, like 847-291. Feels more "official" and corporate. Some stores prefer this if they want their coupons to look less playful.
Two Words — two random words joined by a dash, like PIE-SKY or EMU-COUP. This is the OG format from way back in the early days of the system. It's fun, it's memorable, and yes — depending on how many words are in your list, you might occasionally get a combination that raises an eyebrow. Some stores consider that a feature, not a bug.

Changing the format only affects new coupon codes going forward. Any existing coupons keep whatever code they already have.

Should Reward Coupons Print at the Register?

When a customer earns a reward coupon, how does it reach them? If your store has text messaging, the coupon is texted. If not — or if the text can't go out — TORO can print it on your receipt printer instead.

That's now your call. In the Rewards Program setup screen there's a checkbox: Print Reward Coupons at the Register. Stores without text messaging start with it ON (paper is how your customers get their coupons); stores with text messaging start with it OFF (the text does the work). Tick it or untick it to suit your shop, and it stays how you set it.

One thing to know: a coupon that doesn't print isn't lost. Every coupon a customer earns stays on their account, and your staff can pull it up right on the Apply Coupon screen at checkout.

The Coupon Word List

The words used for coupon codes come from a customizable list. From that same Rewards Program screen, tap Manage Coupon Word List to see all the words, add new ones, or remove any that don't fit your shop's vibe. The list ships pre-stocked with words that have been scrubbed for anything too offensive, but every shop is different. The window header shows the current word count, so you always know how many you have. Make the list yours.

Automatic Cleanup

TORO quietly retires old coupon codes in the background. On the first of each month, any coupon that's been expired for over a year gets its code freed up so it can be reused. You don't need to do anything — the system handles it. This keeps the pool of available codes fresh, especially important if you're using the two-word format where the combo count is smaller.

Membership Levels

For your best customers, membership tiers add another layer. You define the tier names and benefits — whatever structure makes sense for your business. Each tier can have its own pricing discounts and perks.

Tiers are assigned manually when you set up a membership, so you control who gets what level. It's up to you how exclusive you want to make it.

If your store runs the Membership Module (which bills memberships to the card on file automatically), one more thing can happen here: a membership whose payment declines can have its discounts switched off until the member is paid up again. Their tier never changes — they keep their level, they just pay full price while behind — and the discounts come back automatically as soon as the next successful payment is recorded. That only happens if you ticked Remove the customer's discounts if their membership payment declines on that membership in Membership Setup; out of the box, nothing is removed unattended. The full story is in The Membership Module.

How It All Fits Together

Think of it as layers. Points provide the baseline that keeps everyone engaged. Punchcards layer on top for specific product categories you want to push. Membership levels reward your best customers with something extra. Birthday rewards strengthen personal relationships. And coupons are your targeted tools for specific situations.

You don't have to launch everything at once. Start with points, get your staff comfortable with it, then add punchcards or tiers when you're ready.

The One Thing You Can't Forget

Here's the most important thing in this entire article: rewards only work when the customer is attached to the transaction. If your staff forgets to look up the customer before ringing them up, that customer earns nothing. No points, no punchcard progress, no birthday coupon applied.

Train your team to ask every single time. "Can I look up your account?" should be as automatic as "Would you like a bag?" It takes two seconds and it's the difference between a rewards program that works and one that frustrates your customers.