Paper punch cards vs a digital card: an honest comparison

A paper punch card is cheap, instant and understood by everyone. A digital card costs money every month and asks your staff to learn something. So the question isn't which one is more modern. It's what you need the card to do, and whether paper can do it.

What paper does well

• It costs a print run. No subscription, no setup, nothing to plug in.
• Nobody has to explain it. A customer sees the boxes and gets it in three seconds.
• It works for every customer, including the ones who will never give you a phone number.
• It never goes down. No wifi, no tablet, no login at 7 a.m.

What paper can't do

• Tell you who your regulars are. You hand out hundreds of cards and learn nothing about the people holding them.
• Reach anyone. When a regular stops coming, you don't know it, and you have no way to say "we miss you".
• Survive a washing machine. A lost card is lost progress, and the customer starts over a little annoyed.
• Stop a generous pen. Anyone behind the counter, or anyone with a similar stamper, can fill a card. You'll never see it in your numbers.
• Tell you whether it's working. Are people coming back more often since you launched it? Paper has no answer.

What a digital card changes

With Perkaria, the card lives on the customer's phone without an app. They join in about ten seconds at the counter (a first name and a mobile number), or on their own by scanning your sign-up poster, and a text message brings them their card. Here is what that buys you:

• A list of your members and their visits: who comes most, who has gone quiet, and a success report at 30, 60 and 90 days with the share of members who came back.
• A card that can't be lost. It lives on our servers, tied to the customer's number; a new phone just needs a new link by text.
• A counter you can trust. Every stamp is signed with a staff PIN, a double tap can't punch twice, and every stamp stays pending until the nightly run confirms it, with anyone stamped twice or more in a day listed for you.
• A way to reach people, but only those who said yes. Members tick (or don't) the boxes for texts and email themselves, on their own phone, and every send respects quiet hours and a weekly cap.

What a digital card asks of you

• Money: on Perkaria, the Starter plan is 99 $ a month (83 $ a month billed yearly), plus a one-time 499 $ onboarding and training fee, plus tax.
• A tablet by the register, and a short training for the people on the counter (it's part of the onboarding fee).
• A daily sales export from your POS, so the nightly check has something to compare against.
• A phone number from each member. Some customers won't give one, and for them paper is the only card that works.

When digital is worth it

When you want to know whether your program works, to notice the regular who has stopped coming before they are gone, or to send an offer to the people who asked for one. Those are the things paper can't do at any price. To see whether the numbers make sense for your counter, the ROI calculator shows every step of the math with your own figures, and the migration guide covers the switch itself, starting with honouring every paper stamp.