Paper punch cards, and what replaces them
A paper card costs almost nothing and works surprisingly well — right up to the moment you want to know whether it is working at all.
What paper is good at
It is worth being honest about this. A printed card needs no connection, no phone and no explanation, it costs a few fils each, and a customer can be given one before they have said a word.
- No technology to fail at the counter.
- Nobody has to hand over a phone number.
- Cheap enough to hand out to everyone.
What it costs you
Everything a paper card cannot do is invisible, which is why it survives. It cannot tell you how many cards are half-finished, who is about to earn a reward, or who has stopped coming — and it cannot be reprinted into the pocket of someone who lost theirs.
- No numbers: you never learn what the programme returns.
- Lost cards are lost customers, and they are the norm.
- Stamps can be faked with any similar pen.
- Nothing to say to a regular who has drifted away.
What a wallet card changes
The same offer — the same free tenth coffee — moves into Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. The customer keeps it because it is in the app they already use, and you get the record of every stamp as a side effect.
- The card cannot be left at home.
- Every stamp is a row you can count, per branch and per day.
- You can see who is one visit from a reward, and who is gone.
- Printing stops being a running cost.
Where paper still wins
If your customers do not carry smartphones, or you cannot ask for a mobile number, paper is the honest answer. For everyone else, the deciding question is whether you want to know how the programme is doing.
- Keep paper for a one-week promotion you will never measure.
- Move to a card in the phone for anything you intend to run.
Common questions
Can I run both while I switch?
Yes, and most businesses do for a few weeks. Honour the paper cards until they are used up and issue digital ones to everyone new.
What about customers without a smartphone?
Their card still exists and can be looked up by number at the counter; they simply do not have a copy in a wallet app.
Is it more work for staff?
Scanning a pass is about as fast as punching a hole, and there is no drawer of half-finished cards to manage.
Hand out your first card today
Set up a programme, print the counter stand and start stamping. The free plan has no end date.