It’s safe to say we’re living in the future, with so many businesses using digital punch cards now.
These loyalty punch card apps allow loyal customers to continue getting their stamps but without the hassle of carrying around those cards anymore.
It’s all in digital format and all online. And for business owners it’s even better here in the future, too. Now you have a wealth of buying and spending information at your fingertips. At the click of a button you can which customers buy what most most often and keep up to the minute track of your hottest selling items.
Plus, of course, with a few keystrokes and a punch of the button you can get your loyal customers and VIP members back in your store almost any time you want. Sending a chime and a special message to your customers’ phones telling them about a big discount or time sensitive deal is almost like being able to print money on demand.
You couldn’t do this with physical loyalty stamp cards. You just had to wait until they came back.
Now? You’re in control.
The currently rudimentary method of handing out paper cards to your customers — which the clerk in your store would then physically add punches or stamps to when the customer made a purchase — has since largely gone digital, with some pretty awesome, futuristic features added.
If you aren’t familiar with the concept of punch cards, not to worry. It will be easy to catch you up on what you’ve missed. It’s a simple concept.
Businesses used to hand out (some still do) small paper cards with numbers on them and a few simple instructions for their customers to read. Each following visit to the store, they would produce their card to the clerk at the time of purchase, and the clerk would give them a punch in their card.
Once they filled their punch card, they would receive a free item or discount on a special promotional product. This is a form of loyalty program, albeit in a very simple form.
Loyalty programs are designed to do one thing: retain customers and encourage them to buy more stuff, more frequently.
Most are very successful at doing this. Many of these programs have switched to digital methods because of the inherent wealth of data it provides the business, as mentioned above. It only makes sense these programs would switch to a digital platform given how much your customers rely on their digital devices for just about everything these days, anyway.
Digital punch card apps, for instance, can be customized by you to cater to each individual’s regular buying habits, which are all tracked within the app.
Let’s say you own a salon and your customer is particularly fond of the hot stone therapy sessions you offer. Whenever you have an upcoming promotion on hot stone therapy, the app notifies your customer of this promotion.
Or maybe you run a grocery store or market and are having a big sale on dairy products. Your customer buys a lot of dairy, so the app has record of this and will let your customer know when those promotions are upcoming! How cool, right?
How much less work for you as far as marketing and just plain time and effort saved, right?
Digital punch cards keeps track of your customers “punches” so when they fire up their app at your store (which they will!), they can see “Oh, hey! I only have one purchase left to fill my punch card! Sweet!” You may have just made their day.
Digital loyalty programs have so many other great features for you to integrate into your business, too!
Did you know you can also segment your customers based on how often and how much they spend in your store? Sort of a “Gold, Silver, Bronze” concept. Your customers who spend the most receive special discounts based on their “Gold” status or are provided tailored offers based on the items and services they purchase and use most.
Wow. Pretty amazing stuff isn’t it?
One of the best things about digital loyalty programs is it eliminates the ability for those who would cheat the system to do so. Everything is tracked digitally so there is no way for anyone to “cheat” the system by fabricating a hole punch or ink stamp on their paper card. This is great news for small businesses! All the lost revenue is now saved.
Most digital loyalty apps allow you to also have push-notifications or even send special messages to users of the loyalty app within a certain distance from your business! This is awesome for small businesses. Most are already counting pennies as it is.
One of the best options for these such digital programs is Pirq.
(See our comparison of the best digital loyalty programs here.) This particular digital loyalty program is extremely user friendly! For both your customer and for you, the business owner!
The app is free to download for your customers. All you do is give them a business card with simple download instructions. Once they have downloaded the app, they can start using it immediately!
They can even login with their Facebook profile. No need to fill out any forms.
When they make purchases at your store, they use the app to scan your promo code at the register. This adds a “punch” to their digital punch card and keeps track of how many visits they have left before they receive their reward.
Pirq keeps track of all your customers visits and purchases for you. This way you can see when they visit and what they like to purchase, which is very useful when coming up with special deals with their individual needs in mind!
With the premium package (which you can get free for life from us!), you can offer private VIP deals to your customers who shop in your store often. You can reach out to them through the app, or through email and text. This is great for flash sales when you want to get the word out quick! Just shoot them a text with the info for the deal.
Pow. Er. Ful.
You can also include a “timer” on the deal. The customer can see when the offer ends and it gives them even more incentive to get into your store before the deal expires and they lose out on their VIP merchandise!
Another great thing about Pirq (and if none of the previous information has made your ears perk up yet, this probably will) you aren’t required to enter a long-term contract. So, if you happen to not like it for whatever reason (which we think will be impossible!) you aren’t stuck in a 12 mo. or even longer contract.
Oh, and there are NO setup fees! (And you thought it couldn’t get better).
If you want to step into the 21st century and give your small business a HUGE boost almost immediately, I would highly recommend looking into this digital loyalty program. It takes the concept of paper punch cards and loyalty programs to a whole new level!
There are so many advantages to going digital! It is far more cost-effective in the long run and you will immediately see returns on your investment. And you save on paper costs too! Save some pennies while you help save the environment.
Loyalty punch cards have never been so fun… or so powerful. We can’t stress enough how much these can boost your earnings. We’re talking an increase in business and revenue of 30%, and this is just average. You could use the VIP message system and really skyrocket your business’ earnings.
We’re happy to craft a killer, proven to work marketing plan for your business specifically.
Let’s discuss any and all of this stuff on the phone! Our specialty is fine tuning businesses so they run smoother, more efficiently and at less cost while simultaneously increasing profits. It’s a big, substantial boost for most businesses.
For any questions about these and other mobile point of sale systems, give us a call over here at RedFynn. No obligation, of course. Anything you’d like to talk about… merchant services, payment processing, business loans, POS, loyalty programs… you name it!
We do this every day like it’s our job. Because it is! We hope to hear from you soon. (888) 510-9871
