How do I switch loyalty providers without losing my members?

You can switch loyalty providers without losing members in 3 steps: export your customer list + points balance from the incumbent, import them into the new provider with the same identifier (phone / PayNow / GCash), and send a one-line WhatsApp notice with the honoured balance. The typical migration takes a single afternoon end-to-end. The failure mode isn't technical — it's honouring balances and communicating clearly.

Step 1 — Export from the incumbent. Every legitimate loyalty vendor supports customer CSV export; if yours doesn't, that alone is a reason to switch. Ask for a CSV that includes at minimum: phone number, name, current points balance, current tier, opt-in status, and (if available) join date and last-visit date. Do not accept a PDF export or a per-outlet split — insist on one unified CSV.

Step 2 — Import on a durable identifier. The most common migration mistake is importing on the incumbent's internal member ID (e.g. Advocado's member number, Eber's member key). Those IDs are meaningless in the new system and often become the deduplication key by accident, causing the same customer to look like two records if they re-engage later.

The right identifier is the one the customer carries with them and re-uses at the till: phone number (universal), PayNow handle (SG), GCash/Maya handle (PH), TNG handle (MY). PEKO imports on phone number by default and deduplicates existing records if the same phone already exists.

Step 3 — Honour the balance on day 1. This is the single move that decides whether the migration is invisible or a churn event. Import the points balance as-is, set the same tier the customer had, and configure the new redemption ratio to match the incumbent's within reason. If the incumbent's rate was 1 point = SGD 0.01, don't quietly change it to 1 point = SGD 0.005 during migration — customers who notice will churn.

Step 4 — Send the one-line WhatsApp notice. 'Hi [name], we've upgraded our loyalty programme. Your points balance (SGD [X]) is safe and redeems the same way. Reply if any questions.' No marketing pitch, no 'exciting new features' preamble. The message exists to confirm trust, not to sell.

The one edge case: multi-outlet chains switching from a POS-embedded loyalty (Ocard, StoreHub loyalty) to a POS-agnostic layer (PEKO). Run the two systems in parallel for 30 days — old system continues accepting redemptions, new system starts scoring — and cut over redemptions at day 31. This avoids the 'my points disappeared' complaint during the transition.