The phone would ring, and a budtender already knew what it was about before picking up. A regular had just placed an online order and wanted to use their points. Or they wanted to know how many they had. Someone on the team would stop what they were doing, log into the loyalty platform, look up the balance, and add the points to the order by hand. Then do it again an hour later for the next caller.
The points were real. The rewards were real. The problem was the stack. The Higher Path was running three separate systems: Treez at the register, Tymber for its online menu, and Alpine IQ for loyalty. And Alpine IQ didn't integrate with Tymber, even after Tymber was acquired by Blaze. So every point earned or redeemed on an online order had to pass through a staff member's hands.
This is how The Higher Path replaced three disconnected systems with Meadow + Alpine IQ, and made loyalty work everywhere its customers shop.
In This Post
- The Higher Path Dispensary in Sherman Oaks, CA
- The Challenge: Three Systems, One Missing Link
- The Turning Point: One Platform, One Integration
- The Integration in Action
- The Outcome: Loyalty off the Phone, Time Back for the Team
- What's Next
The Higher Path Dispensary in Sherman Oaks, CA
The Higher Path has been on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks since 2013. Named Best Dispensary in Los Angeles by LA Weekly, it has been run for more than a decade by owner Jerred Kiloh as a community fixture "by patients, for patients." It runs a loyalty program regulars genuinely love and pay attention to, with a high-volume operation where every minute of staff time counts. The program wasn't the problem. The patchwork underneath it was.
The Challenge: Three Systems, One Missing Link
On paper, The Higher Path had every piece a modern dispensary needs: a POS, an eCommerce menu, and a loyalty platform. In practice, the pieces didn't talk to each other where it mattered most. Alpine IQ had no integration with the Tymber menu, so the loyalty program was invisible on online orders. Customers couldn't see their balances. They couldn't redeem their points. And when a program is good enough that regulars actually track their rewards, invisible doesn't mean forgotten. It means phone calls.
"Before the integration, online loyalty was honestly one of our biggest headaches," says Jessica Martin, COO of The Higher Path. "Customers couldn't see their point balances or redeem rewards on online orders, so we were constantly getting phone calls asking us to check balances or explain why they couldn't use their points. It created frustration for customers and extra work for our staff that really didn't need to exist."
Every one of those calls pulled a team member away from the floor to look up a balance in a separate system or add points to an online order manually. For a shop built on personal service, that was the wrong kind of personal. And the root cause wasn't any single product. It was a fragmented stack where the connection the customers needed simply didn't exist.
The Turning Point: One Platform, One Integration
The Higher Path consolidated on Meadow, which runs the register and the online menu on a single platform: sales, inventory, compliance, and eCommerce in one system. That consolidation changed the loyalty math. Instead of needing separate integrations for the POS and the eCommerce menu, and hoping both existed, one Meadow + Alpine IQ integration covers every channel the shop sells on.
The integration syncs sales and customer data between Meadow and Alpine IQ in real time. A purchase earns points the moment it happens, online or in store. Balances are visible where customers actually shop. And redeeming is flexible: rewards can be applied online or in store, at checkout or after an order is placed, so a forgotten reward takes moments to fix instead of a phone call to sort out.
Meadow x Alpine IQ: Enhanced Integration with Premium Features
The Higher Path runs Meadow's Enhanced Alpine IQ integration with select Premium features, and those Premium features are what put loyalty where it matters most: at checkout. Instead of a nightly data sync happening somewhere in the background, the loyalty program lives right inside the POS.
At the counter, budtenders see a customer's Alpine IQ point balance right inside Meadow POS and apply rewards on the spot, with no manual discounts or overrides.
The Integration in Action
- Loyalty at the point of sale, right where it counts. The Higher Path runs Meadow's Enhanced Alpine IQ integration with select Premium features, bringing the loyalty program to the point of sale, exactly where a busy checkout line needs it.
- Loyalty lives at checkout. Alpine IQ balances show up directly in Meadow POS, so budtenders recognize returning customers and apply rewards without slowing down the line.
- Rewards work anytime, on any channel. Points can be redeemed online or in store, at checkout or after an order is placed. Customers see their own balances and use their own points, no phone call required.
- Data syncs both ways, in real time. Sales, customer profiles, and inventory changes in Meadow sync with Alpine IQ as they happen, so points reflect real transactions the moment they occur and customer records stay accurate without anyone maintaining them.
Customers love being able to see exactly how many points they have and redeem them on both online and in store purchases without having to jump through hoops. It creates excitement around earning rewards and definitely helps with customer retention because people know every purchase is working toward something.
Jessica Martin, COO, The Higher Path
The Outcome: Loyalty off the Phone, Time Back for the Team
The manual work that used to fill the gap between systems is gone. Since connecting Meadow and Alpine IQ, The Higher Path reports fewer loyalty-related complaints, less manual work for staff, and a smoother experience across every channel. The team spends its time helping customers instead of troubleshooting loyalty accounts, and a program regulars already loved now runs the way a decade-old neighborhood institution deserves: effortlessly, everywhere they shop.
"We used to spend way too much time manually adding points to online orders and logging into the loyalty platform just to look up point balances for customers over the phone," says Martin. "Now customers can manage so much of that themselves, which has saved our team a lot of time and eliminated one of the most repetitive parts of the job."
What's Next
With clean sales data flowing into Alpine IQ automatically from every channel, The Higher Path has a foundation it can keep building on, from richer rewards to more targeted outreach, with the same low-friction experience customers now expect.
When asked what she'd tell another dispensary owner on the fence about connecting Meadow and Alpine IQ, Jessica Martin doesn't hedge.
I'd tell them it's 100% worth it. Anything that makes the customer experience better while also making life easier for your team is a win. Since connecting Meadow and Alpine IQ, we've seen fewer loyalty-related complaints, less manual work for staff, and a much smoother experience overall. I would absolutely recommend it to any dispensary looking to improve their rewards program.
Jessica Martin, COO, The Higher Path
FAQ
What does the Meadow and Alpine IQ integration actually do? It connects the data. Sales and customer data sync between Meadow and Alpine IQ in real time, so points are earned the moment a purchase happens, on any channel, and budtenders can see a customer's Alpine IQ balance right inside Meadow at checkout. Rewards can be redeemed online or in store, at checkout or after an order is placed. The shop's sales data and its loyalty program tell the same story.
Why does loyalty break when the POS and eCommerce menu are separate systems? Because loyalty only works where it's connected. When the register and the online menu come from different vendors, the loyalty platform needs a working integration with each one, and if either link is missing, customers lose visibility on that channel. Meadow runs POS and eCommerce on one platform, so a single Alpine IQ integration covers everywhere a customer shops.
Can the integration do more than loyalty? Yes. With live POS data flowing into Alpine IQ, dispensaries can build customer segments, automate compliant email and SMS campaigns, send win-back messages to lapsed customers, and run targeted promotions, all powered by real purchase data. Loyalty is just the starting point.
Ready for Loyalty That Works on Every Order?
Run your register, your online menu, and your rewards on systems that actually talk to each other.
Book a Demo
Book a Meadow demo and learn more about the Meadow x Alpine IQ integration.
