How Punch Card Rewards Help You Build Customer Loyalty Faster
While traditional loyalty programs are often considered a cornerstone of customer retention practices, they are pretty complex. They require companies to invest considerable time and resources to implement and maintain them.
To overcome this challenge, you can use customer loyalty software to switch from paper to digital punch cards. It helps you streamline loyalty program management and minimize setup time with automated features. Customer loyalty platforms enable you to establish your loyalty program in minutes, monitor its performance, and make adjustments based on your results.
For example, Loopy Loyalty, our customer loyalty solution, helps you create a punch card rewards program. You can design digital punch cards for your customers using Google Pay or Apple Wallet.
Creating and customizing your digital punch cards only takes a few minutes, so you don’t have to develop your custom app and don’t need any design or coding skills to use Loopy Loyalty. The process is easy: sign up for free to evaluate all features.
In this article, we will explain how punch card rewards help you build customer loyalty faster and give you a handful of valuable tips to achieve success. We will also explain how to use Loopy Loyalty to create your digital rewards program. Let’s start by explaining loyalty punch cards.
What are loyalty punch cards?
Customers receive loyalty punch cards from businesses as an incentive to make repeat purchases. Loyalty punch cards can be paper or digital.
Paper punch cards include stamps representing the number of purchases a customer needs to make to receive a reward. After each purchase, the staff punches a hole on the card, removing one stamp each time. To get a reward, customers need to have all stamps punched.
Nowadays, digital punch cards have become more popular. Customers store and carry them in their mobile wallets and present them at the register. The salesperson scans the cards, and the system tallies purchases. When customers reach the required threshold, they get a reward.
3 crucial differences between paper and digital punch cards
Digital punch cards allow you to achieve things that are not possible with traditional punch cards. For example, they enable you to
- Add personalization — since digital loyalty programs are so flexible, it is possible to personalize the cards. An action as simple as adding the customer’s name to the card helps build a stronger customer relationship.
- Track data in real-time — traditional punch cards only show how many times the customer has bought your product or service — you can see the number of punches. With digital punch cards, you have access to the loyalty program data, which allows you to track the information about your customers in real-time and understand their preferences. It helps you adjust your punch card rewards program according to the present customer behavior.
- Be more versatile — paper punch cards include only one offer, while digital punch cards are much more versatile. You can create different offers for each business location or consider the specific needs of your customer segments to develop personalized offers.
Due to these benefits, it is obvious why you should create a digital punch card rewards program. Now, let’s focus on rewards, as they are a crucial aspect of the story.
What are punch card rewards?
Punch card rewards are products, services, or discounts you can offer your customers when they collect a specified number of punches.
For example, you can create digital stamp cards for your coffee shop and offer the following rewards to your customers:
- Buy ten coffees to get one free
- Get a stamp each time you come with your own cup. When you collect ten stamps, you get a free muffin
- If you order breakfast from us 15 times, you get one free of charge
Creating a system where each punch is an incentive to return and earn additional punches is easy with Loopy Loyalty. Create your free account to see how it works.
How do reward punch cards work?
With reward punch cards, customers need to collect a set of stamps to get a reward. When they fill out the punch card and redeem rewards, they can get a new card and repeat the process.
For example, if you run a hair salon, you can offer your customers a reward punch card with ten stamps. After they collect all the stamps, they can get one haircut for half the price and start collecting new punches.
3 benefits of using reward punch cards
Apart from being easy to create and simple to understand, reward punch cards have many benefits.
1. Customers can get rewards almost effortlessly
With punch cards, customers get rewards for actions they would take anyway. Let’s say you sell delicious sandwiches and many customers drop by on their way to work to get one for lunch. Giving them a reward punch card incentivizes them to continue doing so each day.
2. Puch cards help you stand out from the competition
When you offer your customers discounts and freebies for their loyalty, you invoke positive emotions and increase the likelihood that they will choose you over the competition.
3. Punch cards are cost-effective
You only pay a small monthly fee when using ready-made punch card rewards platforms such as Loopy Loyalty. You don’t have to create an app or reprint cards that your customers have used up.
Since no solution is ideal, let’s talk about the downsides of punch cards.
2 drawbacks of using punch card rewards
One drawback of using punch card rewards is that some customers may miss an opportunity to redeem rewards if they don’t earn enough points in a specific period. It can discourage people and make them lose interest in your punch card rewards program.
There is also a danger that customers will only use your loyalty punch card for the premium features or discounts, but it won’t encourage them to stay loyal. Once they find a cheaper alternative or the program ends, they’ll stop using the punch card.
Let’s discuss how you can smartly distribute punch card rewards to increase your customer base.
10 ways punch card rewards increase your loyal customer base
More customers get interested in your offer when you set up a rewards program with punch cards. Let’s discuss other ways how punch card rewards improve your business.
1. Punch card rewards are easy to use
Some loyalty programs offer a complex reward structure, where the customer has to collect thousands of points to qualify for a reward. It often takes months or even years. Then the customer gets dozens of reward options, and it’s hard to determine the best one that aligns with their needs.
With punch card rewards, the whole process is much easier. Customers get clear rules. They get one free when they buy ten slices of pizza from your snack bar. That’s it — a clear incentive to come back.
2. Reward punch cards increase brand awareness and customer engagement
Customers who receive punch cards they can redeem for free items or services pay more attention to your brand. They get more interested in your offer and learn more about your products and services because they know they can get rewarded for using them.
3. Punch card rewards make your customers feel appreciated
Punch cards are an excellent way for businesses to reward customers for their loyalty. You let them know you appreciate them by giving them a chance to earn discounts or free items with reward punch cards. You show them that you care for them and invite them to repeat the visit.
4. Customers have a reason to keep coming back
By creating a punch card rewards program, you’re giving your customers something to look forward to every time they visit your store, gym, salon, or coffee shop. It’s also a great way to ensure they won’t forget about your business.
When you reward your customers, they see additional benefits of doing business with you and are encouraged to keep coming back.
5. Customers can track their progress easily
Punch cards are easy to understand. They are a visual representation of your punch card rewards program’s benefits.
Customers can see how often they should buy a product or service from you to get a reward. A glance at the card is a great motivation to make another purchase.
6. Reward punch cards improve customer satisfaction
The quality of your products or services is essential for customer satisfaction, and you should do everything to make them top-level. But offering your customers rewards for their loyalty is an easy way to invoke positive emotions, and it can make their satisfaction even higher.
7. Reward punch cards simplify the customer experience
With reward punch cards, the rules are clear and straightforward. Customers see at one glance how many punches they lack to earn rewards. They know how often they need to visit you to qualify for a free product, service, or discount.
8. Customers are motivated to try new products or services
Punch card rewards get customers excited about your products and services. They give them a sense of achievement and purpose, motivating them to take action.
9. Punch card rewards promote customer retention
Punch card rewards programs can be a powerful retention tool for your customers. By offering a choice of rewards, you’re giving them more value than expected, making it more likely they’ll continue using the product or service. If you do this right, you can save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in churn.
10. Punch card rewards encourage customer referrals
Punch card rewards encourage customer referrals by offering discounts for repeat customers, increasing the average sales per customer, and the likelihood that customers will recommend your business to others.
Considering all we mentioned above, we think there is no better way of creating punch card rewards than using Loopy Loyalty software. In the following section, we will explain Loopy Loyalty features, so create your account now to evaluate our solution while reading.
7 Reasons to create a punch card rewards program with Loopy Loyalty
With Loopy Loyalty, you can create punch card rewards in minutes. Just sign up, choose one of the available templates, and modify it according to your needs.
When you save your design, you are ready to distribute the punch cards among your customers. They can add them to their digital wallets like Google Pay or Apple Wallet and use them to collect punches whenever they purchase from you.
Many small businesses don’t have POS or CRM integration, so if you are one of them, you don’t have to worry. You can use the Loopy Loyalty Digital Stampler (an iOS or Android app) to scan the cards and add points to the customers’ balance.
Loopy Loyalty has many features that accelerate your progress on the route to success. Let’s discuss why you should start using it today.
1. Customize loyalty punch cards according to your needs
When you start working on the card design, you can choose to modify one of the mobile punch card templates or begin with a blank canvas.
In the following steps, you can decide about various details like
- Icon and logo images
- Information you want to appear on your punch card (links to social media pages, link to your website, telephone number, email, and physical address)
- The number of stamps and the stamp image
- The colors for your card, stamps, and stamp circles
- Whether you want the mobile punch card to have an expiry date or not
- The type of reward
2. Provide a single reward or multi rewards
You can choose between two card types: single reward or multi-reward.
- Single reward: customers get one reward after collecting all stamps, for example, one free coffee after collecting ten stamps.
- Multiple rewards: set different points at which customers can get a reward on one stamp card. For example, after collecting five stamps, customers get one free muffin; after collecting ten, they get one free coffee.
3. Promote your digital rewards program online and offline
Once you activate your digital punch card, it’s time to promote the program and encourage customers to join. We make it easy for you to promote your digital rewards program online and offline.
Online promotion
Use the card URL to distribute the digital punch card among your customers via email, share it on your website, and, most importantly, on your social media channels.
Customers can click on the URL and seamlessly add the card to their Apple Wallet or Google Pay.
Offline promotion
Apart from the URL, you can download the QR code of your card and use it for offline promotion.
Print it on in-store tent cards, posters, and window graphics. Remember to share the benefits of joining your program. Once your customers scan the QR code with their smartphones, it will take them to your card URL so they can store it in their mobile wallets.
4. Gather data about your customers
Decide what customer data you will require to join your loyalty program. Choose the format: email, text, telephone number, date, and whether these are mandatory fields or customers can give the information optionally.
5. Target specific customer segments with lock screen messages
You can use lock screen messages to engage with specific customer segments. For example, you can target a sub-set of customers who may not have visited your store for a while or inform them about a special offer.
6. Send location-based messages to your customers
If you add your business location to your punch card, you can target customers with location-based messages. Once the customers are near your store, gym, coffee shop, or salon, they will get a push notification inviting them to step in and get punches.
7. Track redemption rates and optimize your digital rewards program
After your punch card rewards program is activated, you can track the sales it has generated. To do so, you need to set a stamp and reward value. The program will automatically calculate the revenue your digital rewards program has driven.
Here’s how you can do it:
- Click on the card in your online dashboard and pick the Insights tab in the left-hand menu.
2. Set a stamp value. It is the amount your customers need to spend to earn a single stamp. For example, if the average cost of a cup of coffee in your place is $5 and you give your customers one stamp for each cup they buy, the stamp’s value is $5.
3. Set Reward Cost. Define how much it costs you to give away a reward. In our example, the cost is $2.25.
4. Click submit. The program will automatically calculate and display your digital rewards program’s gross and net benefits.
As you can see, Loopy Loyalty gives you much flexibility and provides you with various methods to encourage repeat visits.
Punch card rewards: The bottom line
Punch card rewards programs are a great way to engage your customers. They can build brand loyalty, boost customer satisfaction, generate more sales, and strengthen customer relationships. The best part is that you can customize the program according to your business needs.
If you are interested in implementing a punch card rewards program that can help you boost your sales and retain loyal customers, sign up for the Loopy Loyalty service today.
