With PerQ, you can contact those customers any time you like. Your own list. Your own text messages. Straight to their phone.
Start Your Free 30-Day TrialRunning an ice cream or gelato shop is unlike almost any other food business in the UK.
When summer arrives you can't make it fast enough. Queues out the door, regulars in every day, families driving across town because someone mentioned you on Facebook. Those months are brilliant.
Then October comes. And November. And December, January, February, March. Five months where the footfall drops off a cliff and you have absolutely no way to reach the customers who were in every week in July.
They haven't gone for good. They'll be back when the sun comes out. But every spring you're starting from scratch, hoping they remember you exist, hoping they drive past and think of you before they think of somewhere else.
I owned an independent milkshake and smoothie shop for seven years. I know what that seasonal cliff feels like. And I know that the answer isn't a better Instagram strategy. It's owning your customer list outright so you can reach those people directly, any time you like, without asking a platform's permission.
That's what PerQ is.
PerQ works just like a paper stamp card. Your customers collect stamps, hit the target, claim their reward. Simple. Familiar. Nothing to explain.
The difference is where the card lives. Instead of a bit of cardboard that ends up in the back of a drawer, it lives in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. The same app your customers already use for their Tesco Clubcard and their train ticket. Always on their phone. They never lose it. You never have to reissue it.
But here's the part that actually matters.
When your customer scans your QR code to get their loyalty card, they type in their name and mobile number. Card appears on their phone in seconds. Their details land straight in your PerQ dashboard.
Do that with fifty customers. A hundred. Two hundred. And you've built something most ice cream shops never have. A list of real people who love what you make, that you actually own. Not rented from Facebook. Not borrowed from Google. Yours.
You send them a text message.
Not a post that gets buried by the algorithm. Not an ad you pay for every time you want someone to see it. A text message, straight to their phone, from your PerQ dashboard, in about thirty seconds.
95% of text messages get opened. Most within three minutes of landing.
For an ice cream or gelato shop, that changes the entire shape of your year.
Come March, when the weather starts turning and people are thinking about summer, you send one text. "We're back. New flavours in. Come and see us this week." Your regulars who'd half forgotten about you suddenly remember exactly where you are. You don't wait for them to walk past. You go to them.
But it's not just about the seasonal return. Think about what a shop with 200 names and numbers can do all year round.
A new flavour launch, announced to your list before it goes on the board. A Mother's Day special they can pre-order by text. A Valentine's Day limited edition that sells out because your regulars got first look. A kids' party package — ice cream or gelato for the whole class — that you can sell any month of the year, not just in summer. A wedding dessert table or gelato cart for a summer reception, booked months in advance because you texted your list in January when couples are planning their big day. Ice cream making lessons through the winter, when the shop is quiet and the ovens are cold — your customers come in, learn how it's done, and create their own flavour to take home. A make your own flavour evening that sells out on pre-order before you've put a single sign in the window.
Every one of those sales happens because you've got a list and you used it. Not because you got lucky with the algorithm.
When someone wants to opt out of your messages, every text includes an unsubscribe link. They tap it, they're gone from your list immediately. You never have to think about it.
And when your customers receive a text, it doesn't come from a random number. It comes from your shop name. Up to 11 characters, so Gelato Roma becomes GelatoRoma or similar. Your customers know exactly who it's from.
When your customers join through PerQ, they give their consent to receive marketing messages from you. It's built into the sign-up flow. We handle the opt-ins, we handle the opt-outs, we keep everything GDPR compliant. You just send the messages.
Your customer data is protected by industry-leading software from internationally recognised businesses including Google. We also carry insurance to cover against data security incidents. Your customers' details are in safe hands.
£12 a month. No contract. No variable fees. No per-customer charges.
That gets you the loyalty pass, the customer database, the dashboard, and the scanner app. SMS credits are bought separately in bundles when you need them, so you only pay for messages you actually send.
Picture 200 customers on your list. You send one text in March announcing you're open for the season. A hundred of them come in that first week and spend £6 each. That's £600 in your till from a text that cost you a few pounds to send and thirty seconds to write. Every year. Without starting from scratch.
Try PerQ free for 30 days. Your card won't be charged until the trial ends. Cancel before then and you owe nothing. No phone calls. No questions.
Literally, in your case. Every spring. Every year.
PerQ means you don't have to start from scratch ever again. You've got the list. You send the text. Your customers come back.
Setup takes sixty seconds. Your first customer could be on your database before you close today.
Start Your Free 30-Day TrialWhen a customer is ready to collect a stamp, they open their loyalty pass in Apple or Google Wallet and show you the QR code on screen. You scan it using one of three options: our free PerQ Scanner app, which runs on any smartphone or tablet you already own; your Square terminal if you use Square for payments; or your Epos Now terminal if you're on Epos Now. The stamp is recorded instantly and the pass on their phone updates in real time.
No. The loyalty pass lives in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, which comes pre-installed on every iPhone and Android phone. Your customers scan your QR code, enter their name and number, and the card is on their phone in seconds. Nothing to download. Nothing to create an account for.
No. There are three ways to scan your customers' loyalty passes. The free PerQ Scanner app works on any smartphone or tablet you already own. Most ice cream and gelato shop owners use this and are up and running in minutes. If you use Square or Epos Now at your till, you can scan directly from your existing terminal instead. And if you have a 2D barcode scanner attachment connected to your Square or Epos Now setup, that works too. Useful if you want to keep things moving fast at a busy counter. We're actively adding more till providers in the near future, including SumUp and Clover. Whichever method you use, scanning takes seconds.
No. Scanning a PerQ loyalty pass takes about the same time as scanning a Tesco Clubcard or Sainsbury's Nectar card at the checkout. Barely any time at all. It's actually faster than stamping a paper card, finding the right spot, pressing hard enough, hoping the ink hasn't run out. Your customer opens their Wallet, you scan, done. The whole thing takes a second.
Yes. With the free PerQ Scanner app, you choose how many stamps are issued per transaction. If you want to reward a bigger spend with two or three stamps instead of one, you can set that. If you're on Square or Epos Now, you get even more control. You can issue stamps by transaction, by minimum or maximum spend per visit, or by specific item if you have your menu set up in Square or Epos Now. So if you want to stamp only when a customer buys a scoop, or only when they spend over £4, you can do that too.
When a customer hits their stamp target, their loyalty pass updates automatically. Next time they come in, you scan their pass as normal and your scanner flags that a reward is ready. You confirm it, hand it over, and their card resets and starts again. If the customer isn't ready to claim their reward straight away, they can delay it and use it on a future visit.
Log into your PerQ dashboard at PerQ dashboard and head to the SMS section. Write your message, choose who to send it to, and the dashboard shows you an estimated cost before you commit to anything. When you're ready, you can send immediately or schedule it for a specific date and time. Useful if you want a message to land on a sunny Friday afternoon when people are already thinking about ice cream, rather than a rainy Tuesday night when they're not.
Yes. If they can use Facebook, they can use PerQ. Your customer points their phone camera at your QR code, taps the link, fills in their name and number, ticks the box for marketing messages, and taps Add to Wallet. The whole thing takes about thirty seconds.
When it comes to showing their pass at the counter, iPhone users can double-click the side button and their passes appear on screen. Android users can swipe up the Wallet icon on their lock screen, pull down the Quick Settings panel and tap the Wallet tile, or set their power button to open Google Wallet directly. Most Android phones also let you put a Google Wallet widget on the home screen so the pass is visible the moment they pick up their phone.
If they can tap a Tesco Clubcard at the checkout, they can use PerQ.
We take data security seriously. Your customer data is protected by industry-leading software from internationally recognised businesses including Google. We also carry insurance to cover against data security incidents. Your customers' details are in safe hands.
When you sign up to PerQ, we give you a QR code you can download and print as many times as you like. Stick it on your counter, put it on your tables, tape it to the door. Wherever your customers will see it. We also have A3 posters available to purchase if you want something more professional-looking on the wall.
We split this cleanly. Any technical queries about PerQ itself, the app, the pass, how things work, we handle directly. If a customer contacts us with a question about your shop, your products, or your loyalty offer specifically, we pass that to you to answer. You're never left dealing with technical problems that aren't yours to solve.
We know ice cream and gelato shops don't run nine to five, Monday to Friday. You're open on weekends, bank holidays, and late into summer evenings. If something isn't working, you need help then, not on the next working day. We're here whenever you need us.