How to Start a Loyalty Card for a Small Shop: Reward, Stamps, Rules and a Counter Script

A new face comes in on Monday. They come back on Thursday. You start to remember their order. Then they are gone, and you never find out why.

Or you already have a card. It is paper. Half your regulars left it in last week's jeans. One customer has a card with stamps that do not look like yours.

A loyalty card, also called a stamp card or punch card, gives a customer one stamp each time they come, and a reward when the card is full. It fixes the first problem, if you set it up well. Set it up badly, and you get the second. This guide walks you through it, step by step, for $0. It works for a cafe, a bakery, a salon, a barbershop, a nail studio or a small food spot, with or without a POS.

Before you start, open the free Loyalty card calculator in another tab. You will use it in step 1 and step 2. It runs in your browser, with no sign-up.

The short answer

Pick one reward your regulars already want. Work out what it costs you to give, not what you charge for it. Set the number of stamps so a regular fills the card in under three months. Give one stamp per visit. Write the rules down. Teach staff one sentence. Put a poster at the counter. Then give it four weeks before you change anything.

Key Takeaways

• A free item costs you what it cost to make. That is why a 10-stamp card is usually far less than a "10% discount".
• Match the stamps to how often people come. A weekly coffee regular can fill 10 stamps. A monthly haircut client cannot.
• One stamp per visit is the simplest rule. Staff cannot get it wrong.
• Never give a stamp, or anything else, for a Google review. Google's rules forbid it.
• Paper works on day one. A card on the customer's phone number cannot be left at home, and nobody can draw extra stamps on it.

Step 1: Pick one reward, and know what it costs you

Pick one thing your regulars already buy and like. A coffee. A pastry. A beard trim. A drink with a meal. One reward is easy to say, easy to print and easy to remember.

Now work out its real cost. A free item costs you what you paid to make it. The menu price is a different number.

Here is the calculator's own worked example. It opens with these numbers:

• Average sale: $5
• Gross margin: 75%
• What the reward costs you: $1.25
• Stamps on the card: 10
• Visits a month: 8

Ten paid visits at $5 is $50 spent. The reward costs $1.25. So the card is really a 2.5% discount, not 10%. Those ten visits leave $37.50 of gross profit, and the reward uses 3.3% of it. One extra visit pays for the reward.

That is the move to remember: cost the reward at your cost, not your price. Type your own numbers into the calculator. If the reward eats more than about a fifth of the card's profit, the tool tells you. That 20% line is the tool's own rule of thumb.

What makes a good reward:

• People want it. A free item they already buy beats a discount on something they don't.
• It is cheap for you, but feels big to them. Coffee, tea, a pastry, a simple add-on service.
• It is the same every time. "A free drink, any size" causes arguments. "A free regular coffee" does not.

If you run a salon or barbershop, the reward may be a service, like a wash, a trim or a small add-on. Count your cost as your time and products, not the price on the board.

Step 2: Decide how many stamps

Use how often your regulars come. A card nobody finishes does not bring anyone back.

The calculator uses three limits, and they are good ones to think with:

1. The card must pay for itself. Too few stamps, and the reward eats too much profit.
2. The card must be worth collecting. The tool caps the card where the reward stops feeling like a real thank-you: about one free in ten.
3. A regular must finish it in about three months. Longer than a season, and the card gets lost or forgotten.

With the default example, a regular who comes 8 times a month fills a 10-stamp card in about five weeks. The tool suggests 10 stamps.

Now think about a client who comes once a month, as many salon clients do. Three months is three visits. So that card has to be short, whatever the margin says.

Do the same sum for your shop: visits a month, times three. That is the longest card a regular will finish.

Put your own visit rate into the calculator. It shows the card length that fits, and why.

Step 3: One stamp per visit, or one per amount spent?

One stamp per visit is the safe default. Staff do not do sums. Customers understand it at once. It rewards the thing you want most: coming back.

One stamp per amount spent (for example, one stamp per $10) suits shops where a visit can be $4 or $60, like a bakery that sells cakes or a shop with large orders. It is fairer to big spenders. It is also more work at the counter, and it confuses people at first.

If you choose per amount, cap it. One big order should not fill a whole card in one go. Write "up to one full card per visit" on your rules.

Most small shops should start with one stamp per visit. You can change later, once you see how it goes.

Step 4: Write the rules down

Write the rules on one card or one sheet behind the counter. If it is not written, every staff member will run a different program.

Your rules, in five lines:

1. One stamp per visit (or per amount, with the cap).
2. The reward: "Your 10th coffee is free" or "Every 5th cut, a free beard trim". Say exactly what it is.
3. No expiry. No expiry is the simplest and safest choice. A stamp that disappears feels like a broken promise. If you want an end date, print it on the card, so nobody is surprised.
4. One card per person. Stamps cannot be combined from two cards.
5. What staff do when unsure: "Give the stamp, and tell the owner." A missed stamp can cost you a regular. An extra stamp costs you very little.

Keep the rules on the card itself, in short words. A customer should understand it in five seconds.

Step 5: Paper or digital?

Both work. Pick the one you will actually use every day.

Paper cards are good when:

• You want to start today. The free Printable stamp card maker prints four punch cards per sheet and a counter poster, with no account.
• Your customers like something to hold.
• You have no computer or tablet at the counter.

Paper's weak points:

• Cards get lost, washed or left at home. The customer starts again, or gives up.
• Stamps can be faked, and you cannot check.
• You learn nothing. You do not know who your regulars are, or when one stops coming.

A digital card on the customer's phone number is good when:

• You want a card nobody loses. The number is the card.
• You want to see who comes back, and who has gone quiet.
• You want to reach your regulars later. Collecting contacts well is its own job, covered in how to start a customer list for a small shop.

Digital's weak points:

• Someone has to type the number or scan a code at each visit.
• A few customers will not want to give a number. Keep a few paper cards for them.

If you are choosing a digital tool, the best free digital stamp card apps compares them, and five questions to ask before you pick a loyalty app helps you decide. If you already use a POS, see a loyalty program that works next to any POS.

Step 6: Teach staff one sentence

The card only works if every customer hears about it. Give staff one sentence and ask them to say it to everyone, at the moment they hand over the order.

The counter script:

"Would you like a stamp card? Your 10th coffee is free. It's just your phone number."

For a salon or barbershop:

"We have a stamp card. Every 5th visit, a free beard trim. Want your first stamp today?"

A version for second-language speakers. Short words. No idioms. Easy to say, easy to hear:

"Stamp card? 10 stamps, 1 free coffee. Your phone number, please."

Print the short version on a small card next to the register. New staff can read it on their first day. If you and your staff share another language, write it in that language too, on the same card.

Two more rules for staff:

• Give the first stamp today. An empty card gives nobody a reason to come back. A card with one stamp on it has started.
• Say how close they are. "Two more and your next one is free" is the best line in the program.

Step 7: Launch it at the counter

You do not need a launch party. You need three things in the right place.

1. A poster at the counter, at eye level where people pay. Big text: the reward and the number of stamps. "10 stamps = a free coffee." If your card is digital, the poster carries the QR code to join.
2. Cards or the QR code at the register, so nobody has to ask.
3. The sentence, every time, for every customer, for the first four weeks.

If you have a website, an Instagram page or a Google profile, add one line about the card. If you don't, the counter is enough.

The first 4 weeks

Do not change the rules for four weeks. Give people time to collect.

• Week 1: Offer the card to every customer. Count how many say yes each day, on paper is fine. Fix the script if people look confused.
• Week 2: Watch for the first second stamps. That is a customer who came back. Learn their names.
• Week 3: Ask staff what customers say. Is the reward clear? Is anyone asking "how many do I have?"
• Week 4: Check your numbers against the calculator. Is the card too long for how often people come? Change it only now, and only once. Honour every stamp already given.

Common mistakes

• Giving stamps for Google reviews. Never. Google's Maps content policy lists offering "free goods and/or services" in exchange for posting a review as prohibited (Google Maps user generated content policy, checked 7 November 2026). The same page also forbids asking only happy customers for reviews. Keep the stamp card and reviews apart: ask everyone for a review, the same way, and offer nothing for it.
• A card that is too long. Twenty stamps for a monthly service means nobody ever finishes. Match the card to visits.
• A reward nobody wants. "10% off your next visit" is weak. A free item people already buy is strong.
• Quiet rule changes. Changing the reward or adding an expiry without telling people breaks trust. Announce it, and honour the old cards.
• Staff who only offer it sometimes. Half the customers never hear about it. One sentence, every time.
• Stamps given as favours. Extra stamps for friends make the card worth less for everyone else. One stamp per visit, for everyone.

How KANJIN does it, free

We make KANJIN (kanjin.app), so treat this section as ours. Everything above works with paper and a pen.

As of November 2026, on the free plan, with no time limit:

• A stamp card on the customer's phone number. Unlimited customers and stamps. No app for customers to download. Each customer has their own card page.
• You set the card. From 3 to 20 stamps, and you write the reward in your own words.
• One stamp per visit, or per amount spent. If you stamp by amount, one sale gives at most one full card.
• Three ways to join. A customer scans the QR code on your counter poster, uses a tablet at the counter, or staff type their number on the keypad.
• Using Square? Connecting it is free. A payment stamps the card of a customer already on it, when Square has that customer's phone number on the payment.
• Google review requests by email, free. They go to customers who ticked the box to get emails, and every email has a one-click unsubscribe.

Your customer list is kept on our servers, not on one phone, so a lost tablet does not lose your regulars.

Frequently asked questions

How many stamps should a loyalty card have? Match it to how often people come. A regular should fill the card in about three months. Multiply visits a month by three. For a weekly shop, that points to about 10 stamps. For a monthly service, about 3. The free Loyalty card calculator works out a number from your own sale, margin, reward cost and visit rate.

What is a good reward for a stamp card? One item your regulars already buy, that costs you little to make and feels generous to them. A coffee, a pastry, a beard trim or a small add-on service. Say exactly what it is, so staff and customers never argue about it.

Should stamps expire? No expiry is the simplest and safest choice for a small shop. If you want an end date, print it on the card from the start, so no customer is surprised.

Can I give a stamp for a Google review? No. Google's Maps content policy prohibits offering free goods or services in exchange for a review. Keep the two apart. Ask every customer for a review in the same way, and keep stamps for visits only.

Is a paper punch card still OK? Yes. Paper is free, fast and works without a phone or a POS. Its weak points are lost cards, faked stamps and no record of who your regulars are. You can start on paper today, and move to a card on the phone number when you want a list.

Your next step

Open the Loyalty card calculator and type in your average sale, your margin and what your reward costs you. Write your five rules. Teach the sentence. Put up the poster.

If you want the card on your customers' phone numbers instead of paper, your free stamp card and Google review requests are ready in a few minutes. No credit card, no time limit.