Rules for stamp cards: stamps, reward and expiry
A stamp card is easy to make, but a few choices decide whether it works for you and for the customer. Here are the rules you set yourself, and the ones the law sets.
Updated · 4 min read · Written by Klipz
How many stamps?
There is no single right number, but two things to work out: how often the customer comes, and what the reward costs you. A card that takes half a year to fill risks being forgotten. A card that fills in a week gives a lot away.
Think in time. How many times does a regular come in one to two months? If they buy coffee every day, the card can have 10 stamps or more. If they come once a month, as at a hairdresser, 5 or 6 is enough.
Then do the sums. Here is a 40 kr coffee, where the free coffee costs you 8 kr and Klipz charges 5 kr for the filled card. The numbers are an example.
| Stamps | The customer has spent | The reward equals | It costs you per visit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 200 kr | 20 % off | 2.60 kr |
| 10 | 400 kr | 10 % off | 1.30 kr |
| 15 | 600 kr | 6.7 % off | 0.87 kr |
The more stamps, the less the card costs you per visit, but the longer the wait for the reward. For everyday buys, 10 is a good place to start because it is easy to grasp. In Klipz a stamp card can have from 2 to 20 stamps.
Which reward?
- Pick something you make yourself. A coffee, a pastry or an ice cream costs you the ingredients, but the customer sees the menu price.
- Make it concrete. "A free coffee" is easier to remember than "10 % off".
- Match it to what the customer buys. The reward on a hairdresser's card is a wash or a styling, not a coffee.
When do you give a stamp?
The rule many forget to print on the paper card matters most: does the customer get a stamp per purchase, per visit or per item? Write it on the card and say it the same way every time, so nobody has to negotiate at the counter.
In Klipz you can set a wait of up to 48 hours between two stamps, so the same customer cannot get two stamps in a row. New cards can also start with one or two stamps on, so the customer is under way from the first visit.
May a stamp card expire?
Yes, if it says so clearly. A stamp card is a perk you give, so you decide whether it expires. Without an expiry the customer never loses stamps they have collected, and you never have to explain a date at the counter.
In Klipz you can give a card a lifetime in days when you make it, or leave the field empty so it never expires. If the card has a lifetime, it shows when it expires.
Punch cards: three years as a rule
A punch card is different, because the customer has paid for it. As a rule the customer can use it for three years, like a gift card, under the Danish Limitation Act (forældelsesloven). If you want a shorter limit, it must be agreed and printed on the card, and it must be reasonable: the Danish Consumer Complaints Board has, for example, struck down three months on a credit note as too short.
What the law says about the conditions
The Danish Marketing Practices Act requires the conditions of a perk like a stamp card to be clear and easy for the customer to find. In practice: say what the customer gets, how many stamps it takes, when a stamp is given, and whether the card expires. And don't change the conditions for customers who have already started.
In Klipz a card's reward and number of stamps cannot change once the card is made. That is on purpose: if you want something else, you make a new card, and those already collecting keep their terms. You can change the look whenever you like.