Bait El Mashawy Restaurant: How Loyalty Points Brought Customers Back a Second and Third Time

Hesham has run Bait El Mashawy restaurant in Alexandria for five years, and he noticed something odd: a lot of customers came once and never came back, even though the food and service were good. He felt he was losing repeat customers to other restaurants that people were just trying out.

The problem: no reason to come back specifically to him

Hesham tried paper stamp cards ("order 10 times, get a free meal"), but the cards got lost, and customers didn't feel like anything was building up for them. There was also no way to know which customers kept coming back and which ones visited once and disappeared.

How TtaKkaa's loyalty points solved it

With TtaKkaa, every invoice automatically earns loyalty points against the customer's phone number, whether they paid cash, card, or QR. Here's how it works:

1. The customer gives their phone number at checkout (or is recognized automatically if they've registered before).
2. Points are calculated on the invoice value and recorded the moment of payment.
3. The customer gets a signed QR code they can show on any future visit to see their points balance.
4. If there's a discount coupon the customer qualifies for, it shows up as a quick chip for the cashier at checkout.

All of this happens without the customer installing an app or needing a plastic card that gets lost in a wallet.

A welcome bonus that makes the first visit count

Hesham also enabled a welcome bonus for new customers, so as soon as a new customer signs up, they get welcome points that encourage them to come back and try something new from the menu, instead of the first visit being the only one.

A simple progress bar that motivates the customer

In the customer app, a simple progress bar shows how close they are to their next reward, which makes the customer feel there's a near goal, not just abstract points piling up with no clear meaning.

The numbers, honestly

Hesham isn't claiming exaggerated numbers, but he personally feels a lot more customers now ask about their points balance when they come in — something that never happened with paper cards. Instead of having lost cards scattered in customers' pockets, he now has one record per customer tied to their phone number.

Tied to table QR ordering

Hesham's restaurant also uses table QR ordering, so every order goes straight to the kitchen while loyalty points are calculated for the customer at the same time, with no extra step from the waiter.

If you want to start a loyalty program at your restaurant

If you run a restaurant or café and want to start rewarding your regulars, read our step-by-step welcome bonus setup guide, or see a deeper explanation of the points mechanism in our loyalty points on every sale guide.