Foursquare loyalty schemes pay off, check-ins increase and users get free truffles..

Foursquare’s loyalty scheme deals seem to be working out pretty well. The network published a blog post last night about how shops and merchants are using Foursquare to reward their regular customers.

It tends to be quirky one-offs that are doing well, but we can imagine the well-oiled reward scheme being picked up by more companies.

Starbucks is biggest chain using Foursquare to engage and reward customers – and the mayor of local Starbucks’s now get $1 off any size Frappuccino. Nice if you like cream. And good for Starbucks – it increased check-ins by 50% at its locations.

A rather more fun deal can be found in Monique’s Chocolates in Palo Alto where you just need to write a tip about the place to get a 2 for 1 deal on truffles. They said they’d acquired over 50 new customers and saw well over 100 redemptions.

Kind of scarily for local newspapers, the owner of Monique’s, a guy called Mark said that..

“he is running the same special in his local newspaper (cost of ad = $300!) and has acquired only one customer with one redemption from that print ad. He adds that for those who redeem the special via foursquare “more than 25% return regularly to get something, to check in, to see who the mayor is…the gaming part of foursquare really does resonante with people and we’re excited about it!”