San Jose, United States

A free loyalty card for a banh mi shop in San Jose

A banh mi counter at noon is a queue that moves or a queue that leaves. Anything you add at the register has to survive that, which rules out an app, a sign-up form and a plastic card nobody brought. A phone number takes three seconds and the customer already knows it by heart.

Short answer

Is there a free loyalty card for a banh mi shop in San Jose?

Yes. KANJIN (kanjin.app) is free for restaurants in San Jose: a digital stamp card on the customer's phone number, with no app for them to download, no limit on customers and no time limit. The free plan also sends up to 20 Google review requests a month and one email a month to as many as 150 customers, everyone asked the same way. Email works from every country, United States included. The paid plan is $39 a month per shop and is never needed to run the card.

Nothing new at the register, and nothing to slow the queue

Staff type the number the way anybody in the United States writes one, and the card is found or made on the spot. No tablet is required: it runs in a browser on whatever screen is already by the register, and a phone works if that is all there is.

A customer who would rather not hand over a number can scan the poster instead and put it in themselves. Either way nobody installs anything and nobody signs up for an account.

If the shop takes payment through Square, a paying customer who is already on the card gets their stamp without anybody typing anything, provided Square holds their number on the payment. That connection is free on both plans. A payment never adds somebody to the card by itself: joining stays the customer’s choice, made at the counter.

  • San Jose is 42.0% foreign-born, and 39.5% of residents are Asian alone (people who reported one race), in the 2020 to 2024 estimates. U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, checked 2026-10-14.

More than half the city speaks another language at home

The card page a customer opens, the kiosk they type into and the emails they receive can all be in a language other than English, and you choose which. The screens you work on are a separate setting, so nothing forces a shop to run its own back office in a language it would rather not.

A customer can switch the language themselves on their own phone, and it sticks for their next visit.

A shop with two counters, or a second unit across town, runs them from one account and one list. The same customer is the same customer at either, which is the thing a paper punch card can never do.

Whatever is on the list belongs to the shop. It downloads as a spreadsheet, free, in one press, and there is no step where somebody has to ask us for it.

  • In San Jose, 58.9% of people over five speak a language other than English at home, in the 2020 to 2024 estimates. U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, checked 2026-10-14.

Review requests that follow Google’s own rule

Everybody is asked the same way, an hour after a visit, and nothing is offered for the review. That is not our preference, it is what Google requires, and a shop that ignores it risks the reviews it already has.

The reward on the card is for coming back. It is never attached to what somebody writes, and KANJIN gives you no way to attach it.

Replies are drafted for you when a review lands, and you post them yourself. Five drafts a month come with the free plan. Nothing is published by anybody but you, and no draft ever offers a discount to somebody who complained.

Questions

Common questions

Will this slow down the lunch rush?
It is one phone number, typed while the order is rung up. There is no app to open, no card to find in a wallet and no account for the customer to make.
What languages can the customer side be in?
English, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Japanese and French. Not Vietnamese yet, which is worth knowing before you decide. You pick what your customers see, separately from the language you work in, and a customer can change it on their own phone.
Do I need a new point of sale?
No. KANJIN runs beside whatever you use, in a browser. Square can be connected free if you have it, and nothing else has to change.
Is the free plan a trial?
No. It has no end date, no customer limit and needs no credit card. You pay only if you want the emails that bring people back, and the card keeps working either way.

Put your stamp card on the counter this week

A discount cuts the price for everyone who would have paid anyway. KANJIN emails your regulars only on the days you need them, and finds local creators you can invite.

  • Calculators need no account
  • The back office is free
  • Cancel any time