The scariest part of leaving a loyalty platform isn't learning new software — it's the moment your regular walks in, checks in on the new kiosk, and asks where their 800 points went. Handle the migration right and members barely notice the switch. Handle it wrong and you've reset years of goodwill to zero. Here's the complete checklist, from doing this for our own stores and for stores we've moved off TapMango.
The three things that must carry over
1. Member records
Name, phone, email, join date, and — if you can get it — visit history and purchase totals. History powers day-one segmentation; without it, everyone looks “new” and your lapsing campaigns fly blind for months.
2. Point balances — to the point
Balances are a liability you owe your members, not vendor data. Migrate them exactly. Rounding up “to be safe” distorts your reward liability; rounding down breaks trust with precisely your most engaged customers. If your old platform used a different points-per-dollar scale, convert at the redemption-value level (what a point was worth), publish nothing until the math is right, and spot-check your top 50 members by hand — they're the ones who know their balance to the point.
3. SMS consent — with provenance
The one people get wrong, and the one with legal teeth. You need not just the opt-in flags but the provenance: how and when each member consented. Export opt-in status, opt-out lists, and any timestamps/source data your platform will give you.
How consent transfers (and how it doesn't)
Not legal advice — but the operating rules that keep stores out of trouble:
- Consent belongs to your store, not your software. Members agreed to hear from Peak Nutrition, not from the platform sending on its behalf. Same store, same kind of messages → switching the sending platform does not void that consent.
- Opt-outs transfer absolutely. Whatever else is messy, the do-not-text list crosses over on day one, complete. Texting a previously opted-out customer from your shiny new platform is a TCPA violation and a complaint-rate grenade.
- Undocumented consent is a judgment call — make it conservatively. Numbers collected verbally at a register years ago, with no recorded opt-in? The safe play: don't market to them until they re-consent (the kiosk makes this painless — they check in, they see the checkbox). Cheap insurance against both regulators and carriers.
- Never mass-flip consent. No “import everyone as opted-in.” On our platform this is architecturally blocked — consent is only ever recorded from an explicit opt-in — because the temptation is exactly that strong during a migration.
Getting your data out
- Request the full export while your account is active — customers, balances, transaction history, opt-in/opt-out lists. Do this before you cancel; leverage drops sharply after.
- Ask specifically for consent data. A bare CSV of phone numbers is not a consent record. Get status plus any source/timestamp fields.
- Screenshot your rewards catalog and earn rules. You'll rebuild them, and memory lies.
- Keep the archive. Consent provenance is something you may need to show — file the export somewhere permanent.
Sequencing the cutover
Run it in this order and nobody stands in a store with no loyalty program: import and verify data → set up branding, rewards, kiosk → file A2P registration (the ~2-week wait overlaps setup) → go live on points and kiosk → first text campaign after carrier approval, opening with a soft “we've upgraded our rewards system — your points came with you.” That last line, sent honestly, turns the migration into a marketing moment.
Or skip the project management: concierge migration — export review, balance conversion, consent mapping, the lot — is what our one-time $500 setup & migration covers, because we'd rather do it right once than debug it with you later. Either way: your members' points and their trust are the same thing. Move them together.
The cutover checklist (print this)
- ☐ Full export requested from old platform before cancelling: members, balances, transactions, opt-ins, opt-outs
- ☐ Consent provenance captured (source + timestamp fields, or the closest the platform will give)
- ☐ Rewards catalog and earn rules screenshotted
- ☐ Point conversion computed at redemption value; top-50 balances hand-verified
- ☐ Opt-out list imported first, verified blocked
- ☐ A2P registration filed (day one — the clock is the project)
- ☐ Kiosk + points live; staff walked through the new redemption flow
- ☐ Old platform kept read-only through one full billing cycle as the audit trail
- ☐ First campaign post-approval: “your points came with you” — then the normal cadence
Two questions everyone asks
“Should I announce the switch in advance?” In-store, yes — a counter sign and staff one-liners the week before. By text, no: sending “we're changing systems” from the old platform spends deliverability on administrivia. The right announcement is the first text from the new system, and its content is reassurance: points intact, same store, better kiosk.
“What if my old platform stalls on the export?” It happens, usually as slow-walking rather than refusal — which is why you request everything while the account is active and paid. Be specific in writing (“customer list with phone, email, join date, current point balance, and SMS opt-in status, as CSV”), keep the correspondence, and remember the leverage order: paying customer > cancelling customer > ex-customer. If you're evaluating replacements, this is also the moment to notice which vendors put a guaranteed exit export in writing. We do — it's in the no-contracts section — because the test of “your data is yours” is the day you leave, not the day you sign.