How a Bristol coffee shop grew repeat visits by 40% in three months

Milk & Grounds is an independent coffee shop in Clifton, Bristol. Owner Priya Mehta had been running a paper stamp card scheme for years. Customers liked it well enough, but she had no way of knowing whether it was actually driving repeat visits or just rewarding people who would have come back anyway.

"I had no idea how many customers I had," she says. "I could see how many coffees I was selling, but I had no sense of whether the same people were coming back or whether I was constantly serving new people and losing them."

The switch

Priya moved Milk & Grounds onto Spark in October 2025. The setup took about twenty minutes - she picked a card colour that matched her brand, uploaded her logo, and set her stamp rules (eight stamps for a free coffee or pastry of equal value). She printed a small QR code card for the counter and that was it.

In the first week, 43 customers added the loyalty card to their phones. Within a month, that number was over 200.

What changed

The most immediate difference was visibility. Priya could now see, at a glance, how many active customers she had and how often they were visiting. "I could see that I had a core group of about 80 people who came in at least twice a week. I had no idea that group existed before. They were just faces."

The data also revealed something less encouraging: a large group of customers who had added the card but not visited in over three weeks. Left to its own devices, that group would quietly churn. With Spark, Priya could do something about it.

Reaching customers who were drifting away

Using Push Agent, Priya sent a short message to her "At Risk" segment - customers who had not visited in 21 or more days:

"We've missed you. Come in this week and get a double stamp on your next order."

Seventy-three messages went out. Nineteen customers came back within 48 hours. "That is nineteen people who might have just stopped coming," she says. "For the cost of some double stamps, I got them back."

The results after three months

By January 2026, Priya's data showed:

• Repeat visit rate up 40% compared to the same period the previous year
• Average visits per active customer per month: 3.2, up from 2.1
• 94 rewards redeemed in three months - compared to an estimated 12 to 15 paper card completions over the same period the previous year

"The paper cards were being redeemed, but not many," she says. "Either people were losing them before they got to nine stamps, or they were just not that motivated. Now the card is on their phone, they actually use it."

What she would tell other independent businesses

"Just do it. I put it off for a year because it felt like a project. It took me twenty minutes. The hardest part was printing the QR code."

Milk & Grounds is now on the Growth plan and is piloting a second card for its retail coffee beans and merchandise.

---

Want to see results like these? Start your free 30-day trial at sparkloyalty.co.uk.