Your business relies on a number of things to keep it running, like a stable wifi connection. However, unexpected moments happen. And when wifi or servers goes down, you should still be able to keep things running smoothly, including your Fivestars rewards program. 

At Fivestars, we want your business to be prepared for those unexpected moments – that’s why we’ve introduced the offline mode feature.

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Offline mode allows you to temporarily check in, sign up and award points to your customers, when, for any number of reasons, you can’t connect to the Fivestars server via wifi. However, you won’t be able to use the full features like viewing and applying a customer’s rewards until your connection to wifi or the Fivestars server has been reestablished. 

How offline mode works

Offline mode will be enabled automatically when your Fivestars Connect tablet or point-of-sale is unable to establish a connection to your wifi or the Fivestars server. You’ll then be notified that you’re operating in offline mode when you see a yellow badge icon appear on the home view of the Connect tablet or point-of-sale.

When you click on the yellow badge icon, you’ll be taken to the side menu where you can learn more about the connectivity issue. If it’s related to your wifi, click on “Troubleshoot Connection” for tips on how to reestablish your connection.

If the connectivity issue is not related to your wifi, but due to a server issue from Fivestars, you’ll also be notified and can check on the status of the issue on our support site. 

How to check in, sign up and award points while in offline mode

While in offline mode, you can check in or sign up a customer by entering their phone number on the Fivestars Connect tablet or your point-of-sale. Once a customer is checked in, you can give them points to finish the transaction. You will also see a confirmation on the screen once the points have been given to the customer.

While in offline mode, your Customer Touchscreen will not be operational, but instead will display a message prompting the customer to give you their phone number in order to check in or sign up. Offline mode can be used for up to 12 hours, after which you will need to reconnect to wifi or the Fivestars server in order to check in, sign up or award points.

What happens after connectivity is reestablished

Offline mode will automatically turn off when your Connect tablet or point-of-sale has reestablished a connection to your wifi or the Fivestars server. All activity that was performed during the time offline mode was enabled will be saved to your merchant dashboard and reflected in the recent transactions tab on your Connect tablet or point-of-sale.

With offline mode, we hope to keep your Fivestars rewards program running and your customers coming back in, even through all the unforeseen challenges of running a small business. We’ll be rolling out offline mode to all Fivestars businesses in the coming weeks. As always, if you need any immediate technical support, please call our support team at 860-578-2770, option 2.