Loyalty cards, and whether yours is worth printing
A stamp card is cheap, low-tech and works well for some businesses and not at all for others. The difference is how often people come back.
The short version
Worth it if customers could plausibly come back weekly. Ask for six to eight stamps, give the first one free on the day they take the card, and make the reward something you would be pleased to receive.
The stamp card is one of the oldest ideas in retail and it survives because it is cheap, needs no app, and does something specific: it makes the next visit feel like progress rather than another purchase.
It only works under one condition, though, and businesses that ignore it print a box of cards that live in a drawer.
Whether it works for you
The condition is frequency. A stamp card works when a customer could realistically come back weekly, or close to it, and where the choice between you and the place forty metres away is genuinely a coin toss.
Café, sandwich shop, barber
Plumber, electrician, roofer
Nail bar, car wash, dog groomer
Estate agent, dentist
Something bought weekly
Something bought every few years
A competitor on the same street
The only one in the area
If you are on the right-hand side of that table, you do not need a loyalty card. What you need is to be remembered in two years, which is what a business card with your details on it does, and what reviews do for the people who never met you.
How many stamps
Six to eight for something bought weekly. Ten starts to feel like a long way for a free coffee, and cards that feel like a long way get lost.
One trick that genuinely changes behaviour: give the first stamp when you hand the card over, and make the card ask for one more than you otherwise would. A card with eight boxes and one already stamped gets finished more often than a card with seven empty ones, even though both ask for the same seven purchases. Starting something is harder than continuing it.
Make the reward the thing they actually buy. A free coffee for a coffee card. Not a branded mug, not ten per cent off, not entry into a draw - those all read as the business avoiding the cost of the thing you came for.
The card itself
- Wallet sized, so it is with them rather than at home.
- Uncoated stock, because a stamp or a pen has to mark it. This is the one item where a gloss finish actively breaks the product.
- Your name and the reward on the front, so a card found in a coat pocket in March explains itself.
- No expiry date, unless you genuinely need one. An expired card is a small insult for a very small saving.
- A stamp, not a pen. A rubber stamp costs very little, is much harder to copy and makes the whole thing feel less like homework.
Try this now
Before printing a thousand, print fifty and run them for a month. You will find out whether the number of stamps is right while it is still cheap to change.
The appointment card version
For a salon, a clinic, a dentist or a garage, the same small card does a different and more valuable job: it carries the date of the next visit.
Booking the next appointment while the customer is standing at the desk, and handing them a card with the date written on it, is the single most effective thing most appointment businesses can do about gaps in the diary. It costs one sentence and a card.
Put your name, your number and a space for the date on the front, and use the back for a QR code to your reviews. The card is then doing two jobs on one piece of print.
A few common questions.
How many stamps should a loyalty card have?
Six to eight for something bought weekly, and consider giving one free at the moment you hand the card over. A card that already has progress on it gets finished far more often than an empty one asking for the same number of purchases.
Are paper loyalty cards better than an app?
For most single-site local businesses, yes. An app costs money every month, needs the customer to download something, and gives you a reason to collect personal data you then have to look after. A card costs a few pence and works for everyone, including people who do not want another app.
What should the reward be?
The thing they came for. A free coffee on a coffee card. Discounts and branded merchandise both read as the business avoiding the obvious reward, and the obvious reward is what makes the card worth carrying.
Do I need to worry about people forging stamps?
Barely, at this scale, and a rubber stamp with your own mark on it makes it impractical anyway. The cost of a handful of extra free coffees is far less than the cost of designing a system that treats your regulars as suspects.
