Wallet Pass Notifications: What You Can and Can't Send

A wallet pass notification is a short, plain-text message of up to about 160 characters. It lands on your customer's lock screen through the loyalty card in their Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. You can send a greeting, a reminder, a treat or a reward. You can't send images or formatting, you shouldn't count on a link being tappable, and one or two messages a week by hand is the limit worth keeping.

Most pages about wallet notifications are written for developers: API endpoints, HTML tags, pass IDs. This one is for the owner who has two hundred customers on her card, has never messaged them, and wants to know what she's allowed to say before she says anything. The rules below come from Passtastic's own help guides and from the two wallets themselves.

#What you can send in a wallet notification

You can send text, and text only. Up to 160 characters is the guidance for best delivery, which is about two short sentences. That's enough for "who, what, until when": who it's from, what's new, and the day it ends.

There are three ways a message can reach the people who carry your card:

The reward kind matters. A by-hand message is a notification only, good for a hello or a nudge. An automatic message can carry a reward the customer claims at the counter, valid for 3 days, a week, two weeks, a custom number of hours, or with no limit. The reward is the part that turns "nice to hear from you" into a visit.

By hand, you choose who gets the message on the Send a message screen: everyone with your card, or one of the built-in groups such as inactive customers or new members, on every plan. Groups you define yourself are on Multi-Location and up, and they live on the Customers page: tick the people you want, then Send message. There's no one-customer option on the Send a message screen; to reach a few named people, tick them on the Customers page the same way. Either way, one text goes to everyone you picked, exactly as you wrote it. The developer guides let a programmer drop a pass ID or a variable into a message; here you write the words once, so write them so they read right for every person on the list.

If you don't have a card yet, set up a loyalty card for your shop first; the messages travel with the card, so there's nothing to send until customers have added it.

#How to send your first message

The whole by-hand path, as the help guide describes it:

1. 1Log in to Passtastic, open your loyalty card (your program) and go to the Campaigns tab.
2. 2Click Send a message.
3. 3Choose the audience: All Customers (everyone with this card) or Customer Segment (a group, such as inactive customers or new members).
4. 4Write your message, up to 160 characters.
5. 5Send. It goes out when you decide; there's no send-later.
6. 6Check the delivery stats that appear afterwards: how many customers have the card, how many have notifications on, and the delivery rate.

#What you can't send (and what to do instead)

• A link you can count on. Passtastic's wallet notifications are plain text: links, images and formatting aren't supported, so there is no button to add and no link text to set. The wallets treat a bare web address differently: an iPhone can detect it and open it when the customer presses and holds the notification, while Google Wallet needs a coded link that a plain message can't carry. So don't build a message around a page. Put the detail in the words ("Saturday, 9 to 11, no booking needed") and let the counter do the rest.
• A picture or a bold word. No photo of the cake, no bold, no bullet points: the message is one run of plain text, so the words have to do the work.
• A reply. It isn't an SMS or an email. Nobody can answer it, so end with where to come, not "let us know".
• A message to someone who hasn't added your card. There is no list to upload. The card is the list.
• A one-to-one chat. A notification is one-way, even when you tick a single customer on the Customers page and send it only to them. If a regular needs a conversation, their details are on that same page, and you can still call them.
• A nearby reminder from anywhere but your shop. Places can only be your own shops; you can't type a competitor's address or the train station.
• Several in a row. This only matters if you send often, but the limits exist: Google Wallet shows at most 3 lock-screen notifications per pass in 24 hours, and after that the message is only visible inside the wallet. Apple Wallet allows more a day, but messages sent seconds apart may not show. Passtastic adds its own brake on the automatic ones: each customer gets at most one automatic message or reward every 4 hours, even if several would fire at once. For by-hand messages the brake is you; the help guide's advice is one or two a week at most.
• The same words twice. A repeat looks like a mistake. If you must remind, change the wording.

#What your customer actually sees

The notification is made by the wallet app on the phone, not by an app of yours, so it looks slightly different on each phone.

On an iPhone, the lock-screen banner shows your logo and the message text. The text is also kept on the back of the card, so a customer who swiped it away can still find it.

On an Android phone, the banner usually says only that there's a new message on the pass; the full text sits on the back of the card in Google Wallet. So write the first words of your message as if nobody will see them on the lock screen, and the back of the card as where they'll read it. One more Android detail: the card has to be in the same Google account as Google Wallet, or nothing arrives.

On both, delivery is not instant or guaranteed. Google Wallet typically shows it within about 10 seconds to 2 minutes; a short delay is normal, and nobody promises the exact second. Both wallets have notifications on by default for a pass, and a customer can switch them off (per card on an iPhone; for pass notifications in general on Android). Not everyone will receive every message for that reason, which is what the delivery stats after a send show you. On an iPhone, pulling down on the back of the card refreshes it.

Nearby reminders differ too. On an iPhone your own words show on the lock screen when the customer comes within the distance you set, as long as the phone's location setting is on for Wallet. On Android, Google Wallet decides when to show a nearby prompt and what it says, so your custom text may be replaced by a generic "you're near" line.

And if your customer portal is on, every message you send also stays in the customer's inbox there, so they can read it again later.

#Six wallet notifications you can copy

Each is under 160 characters. The shops and names are invented; change the words to your own and keep the shape: who it's from, what's new, until when.

Notice what none of them do: give something away for nothing. A message that hands out a free coffee teaches people to wait for the next free coffee. The messages that work give a reason to come in and buy: progress on the card, a reward they've earned, a day when every purchase counts for more, something new on the shelf.

1. The welcome, the day they join. Sends itself on Multi-Location and up; on Single Location, send a hello like it by hand to everyone once (the Monday message in the week-one plan below).

“

Thanks for adding the Rye & Rise card! Show it with your next coffee for your first stamp. Ten stamps and the next coffee is on us. — Mia

“

2. Double stamps on a slow day, sent by hand in the morning. A by-hand message is a notification only, so tell your team the wording before you send it: they add the second stamp at the counter. On Multi-Location and up, you can let the card do it instead, with an automatic after-visit bonus stamp that you switch on for the day and off in the evening (it applies to all your shops).

“

Double stamps today at Rye & Rise! Every coffee before 5 pm counts twice on your card. — Mia

“

3. Almost there, when a customer is close to a reward. An automatic message on Multi-Location and up: it fires when a stamp or point balance reaches the number you choose, here 8 stamps out of 10.

“

Two more stamps and your next coffee at Rye & Rise is on us. See you this week? — Mia

“

4. The reward is ready. The same automatic message, set at the number where the reward unlocks, here 500 points. Say what they can pick and how long it waits.

“

You've got 500 points at Spoke & Chain! Your reward is ready: pick a bike light or a bell at the counter by Sunday. — Dan

“

5. The win-back, after about a month away. Automatic on Multi-Location and up; on Single Location, by hand to the built-in group of inactive customers. Remind them what they already have, rather than bribing them back.

“

We've missed you at Polish & Co. Your stamps are still on your card, so book this week and pick up where you left off. — Dana

“

6. The birthday, which sends itself on every plan. Let the automatic message add bonus points to the card, so the gift only pays out when they come back and spend.

“

Happy birthday from Spoke & Chain! We've added 100 bonus points to your card. They're waiting for your next visit. — Dan

“

A seventh, if you run events: a tasting, a class, a quiz night. Same shape, sent two days before: "Sourdough tasting Thursday at 6, 12 places. Every ticket earns a stamp on your card. Tell us at the counter to book."

Read each one aloud before you send it. If you wouldn't say it across the counter, rewrite it.

#How often is too often?

One message a week by hand, two at most: that's the help guide's advice and it's the right rule for most shops. The automatic ones (birthday on every plan; welcome, milestone and win-back on Multi-Location and up) don't count against that, because each goes to one person at a moment that's about them.

Three habits keep your messages welcome:

1. 1Test it on your own card first. Add your card on your own phone. Before a message goes to everyone, tick yourself on the Customers page and send it to just you; read it on the lock screen, not on the dashboard (on an Android phone, open the back of the card to read it). If the first five words don't say what it's about, rewrite them, then send it to everyone. Keep carrying the card afterwards, so every message you send lands on your lock screen too.
2. 2Say something true today. "Buns until noon" on a day you have buns beats "Come and see us" on any day. A by-hand message goes out when you decide, with no send-later; if you want a message to arrive at a set moment for each customer, that's what the automatic messages are for.
3. 3Once it's sent, it's sent. A notification can't be edited or recalled after it goes out, which is one more reason to write it as if two hundred people will read it, because they will.

#Sending by hand, or letting the card send it

Some messages are yours to write on the day. Others are better left to an automatic message, because the right moment is different for every customer.

On Single Location, then, you can message everyone on the card or a built-in group, and the birthday message sends itself with its reward. A win-back there is by hand: pick the inactive-customers group and send it. On Multi-Location and up, the card watches for you: it can message everyone who hasn't been back in 30 days on its own, and from the Customers page you can act on a group you built at once with a message, a stamp, points or a note. If that's the part you're after, how to win back lost customers walks through the message, the treat and the numbers.

For each automatic message you also choose how often one person can get it: once ever, once a year, every time, or once every X days.

Week one for a bakery with 200 cards, by hand on Single Location:

• Monday: a hello to everyone who already has the card ("Thanks for carrying the Rye & Rise card. From now on we'll tell you here when the good stuff comes out of the oven. — Mia").
• Thursday morning, a quiet day: the double-stamps message.
• Saturday morning: nothing. A busy day doesn't need a message.

That's two messages, the top of the range. Next week, one. The customers who come in because of the Thursday message are your answer to "does this work?"

#Nearby reminders: the message that waits for them

A nearby reminder isn't sent by you at a time; it's set up once, per shop, in the same notification settings, and it fires when a customer with your card comes close to that shop. You set how close before it shows, between 50 and 1,000 meters (about 160 to 3,300 feet). A program can remind people near up to 10 shops, a wallet limit; your plan sets how many shops you run, so on Single Location that's your one shop, on Multi-Location three are included, on Groups & Brands ten. On an iPhone the customer doesn't have to stand still: it fires as soon as the phone detects it's within that distance.

Two things to know before you switch it on. First, the text has to be true whenever it fires, so write it for the whole day ("warm pretzels until noon", not "two left"). Second, 1,000 meters on a busy street can fire for a regular every time they walk past. Start small, 100 to 200 meters, and widen it only if nobody sees it.

Why bother, given an owner can't choose the moment? Because the moment chooses itself: the customer is already outside.

#What it costs

Nothing per message. All Passtastic plans include unlimited push notifications, with no per-message fee. Single Location, at $39 a month, covers by-hand messages to everyone or a built-in group, the automatic birthday message and nearby reminders for your one shop. Multi-Location, at $99 a month, adds the other automatic messages and groups you define yourself, for up to three shops. Both start with a 14-day free trial, no card needed; the full plans are on the pricing page. If you're weighing this against building an app with its own push notifications, build your own loyalty app sets out what that costs and what you'd give up; the wallet version is the same lock-screen banner with no app to install.

#One thing a message can't fix

A notification can bring someone to the door; it can't fix what happens when they get there. If a regular stopped coming because the queue at 8 am got too long, "we've missed you" reaches them, and then the same queue greets them. Fix that first, then send. And remember the customer is in charge: notifications for your card are on by default, and one tap turns them off. One good message a week keeps that tap from happening; three a day invite it.

Already have a card? Open your program, go to Campaigns and send your first message this week. If not, start here.

“

They love that I'm up to date, they love seeing their progress and getting the notification when they're nearby. I love using the data on my clients because any question I have, I can look it up.

“

Estela, Owner of Fuchsia Nails

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