Reward the 5th visit for most salons — the 10th is usually too far away
For most Saudi salons, the free treatment should land on the 5th visit, not the 10th, because salon visits are spaced weeks apart rather than days. A client who books a color or treatment every 5–6 weeks needs roughly 25–30 weeks to fill a 5-stamp card — a 10-stamp card stretches that past a year, long enough that the reward stops feeling connected to the behavior you wanted to encourage.
The 10th visit works only for genuinely high-frequency services: a blowout or manicure client who comes weekly reaches 10 visits in about ten weeks, which is a reasonable horizon. The mistake is applying a single threshold across a salon's whole price list when the visit cycle underneath it isn't uniform.
Whichever number you pick, it lives on one stamp card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, working the same way across every branch on one dashboard.
- Color, treatment, or full-service clients on a 5–6 week cycle → reward the 5th visit
- Blowout, manicure, or wash-and-style clients on a weekly cycle → the 10th visit is fine
- Mixed clientele → run the 5th-visit threshold as your default and adjust per service if you split cards
- Never mix a fast cycle and a slow cycle on the same 10-stamp card — the fast group finishes early and forgets the program exists in between
5th-visit vs. 10th-visit cards, side by side
The two mechanics aren't different card types — both are ordinary stamp cards — the only variable is the number you set as the threshold. But that one number changes the felt discount, the time to reward, and which clients the card actually motivates.
Set the threshold low enough that a client can picture reaching it. A number that feels distant stops functioning as a nudge and becomes background noise on a card nobody opens.
| 5th-visit card | 10th-visit card | |
|---|---|---|
| Felt discount per free visit | ≈20% | ≈10% |
| Time to complete (5-week cycle) | ≈25 weeks | ≈50 weeks |
| Best fit | Color, treatment, full-service clients | Blowout, manicure, weekly clients |
A worked example: a 200 SAR treatment client
Take a client who books a 200 SAR hair treatment every five weeks. On a 5th-visit-free card, she pays for four visits (800 SAR) and gets the fifth free — a discount of roughly 20% spread across the cycle, which is generous enough to notice without giving away a full visit's margin every time she books.
Push the same client onto a 10th-visit card and the discount per cycle halves to about 10%, but the real cost is time: fifty weeks is close to a year, and a client who doesn't feel progress that slowly tends to stop checking her card at all.
If your price list varies, consider points instead of a fixed visit count
A fixed visit count assumes every visit is worth roughly the same amount. If your salon's price list spans a 60 SAR trim and a 300 SAR full-color treatment, a points card tied to amount spent rewards clients fairly across that range instead of treating a trim and a treatment as identical progress.
Stamp cards stay the simpler default when most services cluster around a similar price — nothing to calculate, one stamp per visit, easy for reception and the client alike to track at a glance.
Write the stamp-added message around the threshold you picked
Waya's stamp-added trigger fires automatically and lands on the customer's wallet lock screen the moment a staff member scans the card — no separate SMS step, since Waya has no SMS channel at all. Write the message so it counts down to your chosen threshold rather than using a generic line.
For a 5th-visit card: "2 more visits and your next treatment is free." That kind of specific countdown does more to pull a client back than a vague "thanks for visiting" ever will.
Free plan is enough to test the threshold before you commit
Free is 0 SAR forever, no credit card, and covers up to 100 customers, 1 stamp card, and 100 wallet messages a month — plenty of room to run a real 5th-visit test with your regulars before deciding whether to lock it in. Everyone enrolled keeps their card even after the 100-customer ceiling pauses new sign-ups.
If you later want a second card for a different service cycle, or more than 100 customers, Growth at 85 SAR/mo unlocks up to 10 cards and removes the customer ceiling entirely.
Set your threshold in five steps
Picking the number is the easy part. Getting the whole salon scanning consistently against it is what actually makes the reward mean anything.
- Step 1: Group your services by visit cycle
Separate weekly services (blowout, manicure) from 4–6 week services (color, treatment).
- Step 2: Pick 5 for slow cycles, 10 only for weekly ones
Don't default to 10 across the board just because it looks more generous on paper.
- Step 3: Build the stamp card
Set the threshold, add your logo and colors, and choose the Free plan to start at 0 SAR.
- Step 4: Write the countdown message
Tie the stamp-added notification to the exact number of visits left, not a generic thank-you.
- Step 5: Brief reception on the scan habit
A threshold only works if every visit gets scanned — assign it to one role, not "whoever remembers".
Frequently asked questions
Should a salon reward the 5th visit or the 10th?
The 5th visit, for most salons, because color and treatment clients typically book every 4–6 weeks and a 10-stamp card can take close to a year to fill. Reserve the 10th visit for genuinely weekly services like blowouts or manicures.
What discount does a 5th-visit-free card actually give?
On a 200 SAR treatment, a 5th-visit-free card works out to roughly a 20% discount spread across the cycle — the client pays for four visits and the fifth is free.
Should a salon use points instead of a fixed visit count?
Only if your price list varies widely, say a 60 SAR trim next to a 300 SAR color. Points tied to amount spent handle that fairly; a fixed visit count treats every visit as equal, which stamp cards can't do.
Can a salon run two thresholds for two different services?
Yes, by running a separate card for each service cycle once you're on Growth (up to 10 cards). On the Free plan you get one stamp card, so pick the threshold that fits your most common service.
Does the stamp-added message need to be written manually?
Yes — the trigger fires automatically on every scan, but the message text is written once by the merchant and then reused. A countdown line like "2 more visits and your next treatment is free" performs better than a generic thank-you.