topic Re: Employee Reward Point Abuse in Restaurant Operations

Employee Reward Point Abuse

Foxpubs — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 16:38:04 GMT

I have searched extensively and I have not been able to find anything on Employee Abuse with Loyalty Rewards points. Recently, over the last several months I have noticed reward points have been out of control in redemption. So I decided to dig in and see whats going on. I noticed that ALL of my FOH employees (Servers and Bartenders) had created personal Rewards accounts. When a customer did not want to create a customer account or was using cash, the FOH employee would then use their personal cell number or email and apply it to that customers check, thus adding the customers points to the employees account . Then the employees would use their personal Rewards account to REDEEM their fraudlent points on friends tickets, drinks, food, etc. One account had almost 50,000 points accruded on it. Also, the issue gets worse. TOAST allows reward memebers to link multiple credit cards to their accounts. Then the system will AUTOMATICALLY add points when any of those credit cards are used, to that persons/employees account. So anytime a customer comes in, that is not a rewards memeber, and employee used their account number on that customers checks in the past, now automatically gets their points anytime that customer comes in. There are No Controls to prevent employees or tags to send a notification, nothing...well at least that I can fine (Other then the generic email that TOAST DETECTED SUSPECIOUS BEHAVIOR). Shame on me for not looking sooner. Am I the only one with these problems? I spent the last 2 hours cross referincing the employees phones numbers / emails. and looking them up in the loyalty section, and removing ALL linked credit cards on each individual employee account. I also created an SOP for reward points if anyone would like it, that all employees must sign. Something needs to be done on TOASTs back end to at the very least to monitor and flag employee use. Im now checking daily, like an asset monitoring employee for a big chain store. Anyone???

Re: Employee Reward Point Abuse

au79teahouse — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 19:10:38 GMT

Toast does offer a report on suspicious rewards activity. You can find more info here:
https://central.toasttab.com/s/article/Taking-Action-Against-Suspicious-Rewards-Activity

Make sure you also sign up Toast' new Loyalty Misuse Reporting her:
https://www.toasttab.com/customers/shop/test-kitchen/shop-item-loyalty-misuse

Re: Employee Reward Point Abuse

Foxpubs — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 19:16:18 GMT

Thanks. I signed up for the Beta and have been added to the wait list, will see when I can get access to that. And yes, we get the suspecious activity reports, but the employees are smart, and that report does not get nearly. The employees should be crossed referenced with phone number and or email address with the Rewards program and the Employee information. Would make it much easier to monitor and detect. Perhaps the new Beta has this??? Ill have to wait and see. Thanks again!

Re: Employee Reward Point Abuse

au79teahouse — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 20:46:53 GMT

I agree with you. There is definitely room for improvement. However, no system is perfect and there always are people who will find a way to cheat the system.

A side note. Remember to unlink all the credit cards linked to accounts in questions. So those accounts do not receive points when linked cards are used for payment.

Re: Employee Reward Point Abuse

jackiedc — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 13:23:31 GMT

I'm having this problem too. I'd love to see your SOP for rewards points, thanks so much!

Re: Employee Reward Point Abuse

Foxpubs — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 14:57:21 GMT

Hey Jacki, here is our SOP. Since we implemented, and weeded out some bad actors, reward redemeption went way down. But if you arent on top of it, it will creep back up. Another thing that I did, was add an individaul item reward, and it has helped reduce reward redemption, and that was to give a FREE pint of draft beer for 80 points. Customers seem to love this and its an impulse buy. Hope this help>

Fox Rewards Program Policy

Purpose: The Fox Rewards program is designed to reward our loyal customers and encourage repeat business.

Scope: This policy applies to all Fox team members.

Guidelines for Fox Team Members:

1. Use of Personal Rewards Accounts: Fox team members are not allowed to use their personal rewards accounts to

accumulate points from customer transactions while on shift.

2. Redemption for Personal Gain: Fox team members are not allowed to redeem rewards points for personal gain

while on shift.

3. Combining Rewards with Employee Discounts: Fox team members cannot combine rewards points with any

other employee discount or promotion, including but not limited to:

- FOH 50% employee discount

- Manager's discount

- Any other promotional offers

4. Credit Card Linking: Fox team members are allowed to link a maximum of 2 credit cards to their personal Fox

Rewards account. Linking more than 2 credit cards will result in account deactivation.

Guidelines for Customer Rewards:

1. Customer Enrollment: Team members are expected to encourage customers to enroll in the Fox Rewards program.

2. Points Accrual: Only customers with a valid Fox Rewards account can accrue points.

3. Redemption: Rewards points can only be redeemed by the account holder.

Consequences: Failure to comply with this policy may result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination, and

permanent deactivation of your Fox Rewards account.

Responsibilities:

- Team members are responsible for understanding and adhering to this policy.

- Management is responsible for monitoring and enforcing this policy.

Amendments: This policy may be amended at any time, and team members will be notified of any changes.

Acknowledgement:

I, ________________________, acknowledge that I have read, understood, and will comply with the Fox Rewards

Program Policy. I understand that failure to comply with this policy may result in disciplinary action.

Signature: ______________________________________

Date: ___________________________________________

By signing below, you acknowledge that you have read and understood the Fox Rewards Program Policy and will adhere

to its guidelines. Please return a signed copy of this policy to your manager.

Re: Employee Reward Point Abuse

jackiedc — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:05:23 GMT

Thanks so much. The Toast misuse report is frigin confusing, and weeding through everything and examining individual loyalty accounts is exhausting. I wish there was an easier way to ferret out abuse :). Anyway this is really helpful. Appreciate it! (Adding here: I see that you didn't outright prohibit employees from having Rewards Accounts, which I think I'm going to do. We have a generous employee discount policy in place for our staff and I intend to limit their discounts to the existing policies. )

Re: Employee Reward Point Abuse

Foxpubs — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:17:19 GMT

I thought about ellimating it all together, but I figureed that I would still allow them to do it as an incentive. I felt If I took it away all together that moral and performance would dip. Our Reno restaurant is up 90% year over year (I know, its absoultely crazy) and our Carson store, which is 18 years old is up 10% YoY. We run about 5% to 7% in total discounts which include the rewards program. Our Crason location which is more seasonsed with the the loyalty program has much more rewards redemptions then Reno, as Reno is only 3 years old. So if the staff have it, and they believe in it, it makes them better sales people to push it to new customers. This is what has worked for me so far.

Re: Employee Reward Point Abuse

jackiedc — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:38:45 GMT

Well that gives me pause, I may reconsider. Thanks for the comment. And holy crap, I'm in DC and things absolutely suck here. I'd kill for numbers anywhere near that! Congrats!

Re: Employee Reward Point Abuse

Foxpubs — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:44:42 GMT

I almost closed our Reno store, and had it for sale 3 months after we opened. Anyway, here is an article of how we did it, it was SLOW AND STEADY. We started in May 2025 and it wasnt until July 2025 that we started to see an uptick. We had our best month EVER in January! If you end up doing the TRIPLE THREAT (in the article) and have questions, just let me know, happy to help (this relies heavily on the loyalty program): https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fox-restaurant-brewery-from-deep-losses-profitable-growth-jim-phalan-qyvae/?trackingId=R8QfClnjRamorfrsSeDVSg%3D%3D

Re: Employee Reward Point Abuse

Rob — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 21:17:15 GMT

This is so cool, thanks for sharing the link here!