Smartphones to punch out cafe/bar loyalty cards

From time to time in Thailand someone suggests a lotalty card for gay and other bars and restaurants. I lnow in my case i can never be bothered with them, never remember to carry them and not in country lon enough to worry about the credits.

However that is about to change and smart bar and restaurants might have a new tool. I wonder if a gay venue will be the first to try this out.
http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/s ... 1q5hj.html

Smartphones set to punch out cafe coupon cards
January 18, 2012 - 4:28PM

Co-founder of The Specials Board, Jon Williams.

The millions of cafe loyalty cards used by Australians each month - which if stacked flat on top of one another would extend about 2.5 times the height of Sydney Tower - are heading for extinction.

And it's all courtesy of the smartphone revolution.

Patrick Schilling designed the Wealie iPhone app as a replacement for some of the estimated 18 to 20 million loyalty cards that get printed, stamped, punctured and discarded each year. It uses Quick Response (QR) codes to tally purchases so that when a specific number is reached the customer is rewarded with a freebie.


"The idea originally came from a friend who came over and had 15 paper loyalty cards in his wallet," said Mr Schilling, 38, who works as a stock broker. "And he was loyal to none."

He estimates that half of Australia's 15,000 restaurants and cafes use some sort of loyalty card and that, on average, each venue prints and distributes about 2500 cards a year.

"In reality, however, the number is much higher," he said. "Firstly, most venues would go through over 5000 cards."

He claims that, if a year's worth of the loyalty cards used by Australians were stacked flat on top of one another they would extend about nine kilometres into the sky. "[That is] effectively 2.5 times Sydney Tower every month."

That's where Wealie comes in. It is now being used by about 45 to 50 Sydney merchants - about 80 to 85 per cent of which had been referred to it by customers, he said.

"We have got everyone from cafes to restaurants to barbers to bike shops to car washes to delis [using it]."

Customers use the app by scanning a special QR code each time they make a purchase at a shop. When they have enough digital scans, or stamps, they can then redeem a reward which is determined by the merchant using the Wealie service - usually a coffee at a coffee shop. It's similar to what Facebook was trialling in Australia with a number of retailers in August last year. Foursquare has similar functionality.

One such merchant in Redfern, Coffee Tea & Me, has had great success with the Wealie app, with about 550 of its iPhone-wielding customers using it regularly instead of paper loyalty cards, offering obvious environmental benefits.

Te shop's owner, Noam Katzir, said that, not only did the app decrease the number of paper loyalty cards handed out, but also increased profits by about 20 per cent a month since he began using it about five months ago.

"I would say every third customer probably uses it at the moment," Mr Katzir said.

Wealie was keeping "loyal" those customers who did not use loyalty cards or forgot to bring them, Mr Katzir added.

"[The app is] growing more and more popular as ... customers come in and see another person use it."

He said the sound customers heard when it was time for a free coffee was a novelty for some.

"The best thing is that after we do every five coffees you get the sixth one for free ... and when it gets to the freebie it does this 'ca-ching' sound and everybody just loves it."

Mr Schilling added that "for a tiny hole in the wall out in Redfern" it gave the coffee shop immense marketing power, allowing it to send push notifications (similar to text messages) to customers when there were specials.

"If it's raining and foot traffic has been bad and they are stuck with a lot of pastries or sandwiches, they can send something out at like 3.30pm and say 'If you come in for a coffee in the next half an hour ... grab a coffee and cake for four bucks.' The idea [behind] that is to just drive a bit of cash flow for business as well as minimise the wastage that they would otherwise just throw out."

He conceded customers could abuse the system, for instance by taking a picture of a QR code and scanning it at home to redeem a free coffee, but said he had systems in place to track that and block users from using the app.

Mr Katzir noted that it was just as easy to rort paper systems but said it would be obvious for his staff to spot someone who was abusing the system.

The app is free for customers but costs between $10 and $20 a month for retailers to use.

It joins another, The Specials Board, made by London-born Jon Williams, 34, who now lives in North Bondi.

His app, used by about 400 merchants in both Sydney and Melbourne, makes use of a smartphone's GPS location to find and redeem the latest offers, promotions and deals from hospitality venues. It works on Apple's iOS, Google's Android, all Nokia platforms and, this month, will launch on Windows Phone 7.

His app had generated more than 10,000 reward redemptions for customers to date, he said.

Venues having success with it in Sydney include the Arthouse Hotel, Helm Bar and Two Black Sheep, a coffee shop.

The Arthouse Hotel has had more than 100 table bookings through the app and "hundreds" of repeat customers being sent to its bar for cocktail offers, Mr Williams said.

The same applied to Helm Bar, which has had 90 table bookings for discounted food and "hundreds" of repeat customers for its drinks promotions.

Mr Williams said both Nokia and Microsoft appoached him late last year. Both have financed development of his app and are using The Specials Board to showcase the app capabilities of their new mobile platforms. To use The Specials Board customers pay nothing while merchants pay $675 a year to be listed.

twitter This reporter is on Facebook: /bengrubb

bgrubb@smh.com.au

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/s ... z1jmv731Mr

Listen (or read quietly), I spend a lot of time talking to the elderly and vulnerable - so I reckon I have a handle on the ex-pat population in Pattaya.

Most can't operate the microwave.

They still listen to vinyl records @ home on their phonograph.

They won't turn their Hearing Aids up in the Cinema because they think the movie is silent anyway.

They refer to a landline phone as "that infernal contraption"

Smartphones?

:evil4:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scottish-guy

Smartphones?

:evil4:

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Yes that little toy that tells you where the nearest "mary" is :withstupid:

This year or last I finally started using this thing called a DVD Player. :tongue3:
I still don't know how to speed dial on my 10 year old Motorola Flip Phone! :dontknow:
I still have a landline in the house as well as a mobile phone and I miss my call forwarding, speed dialing, and call waiting on the house phone! I have a fax machine as well as a printer and I know I can have something scanned and sent to me and print it out and get rid of the fax machine but it is a crutch that I need. I still hate that I have to order a truck of water when back in the USA I just had to turn on the faucet and I would have never had to buy a "water filter"!!

But the boys are beautiful and the food is great :hah: and the people are usually wonderful to talk to,so it all makes perfect sense to retire in the LOS. I would have it no other way. :3some:

Was not going to post this but last october a friend i was travelling with, joined an expat and his visiting friend at La Cuisine au Burree. great meal average wine but you get what you pay for.

Our host was an expat with work permit who has worked for 20 years plus at professional level e.g high income
At the conclusion of the meal we paid our host cash for our meal which he put on his credit card. We had an unusual wait of over 20 minutes which he explained was his for "loyality card" to be stamped Every 13 meals gives him one free.

FFS the meals were 330/350 baht per head. All this trouble for a 330 baht meal once a month.I have told this story a number of times and the general comment, things like that card are hugely popular with expats.

Certainly a lot of restaurants could quite easily adopt the app. Few bars would have the knowhow.

But the situation is changing all the time and who knows.

I received a "loyalty card" from one of the massage places. I am pretty sure it was from someplace in Day / Night, but I do not have it with me right now to confirm.

It would probably take me a year to reach the "reward" as I only visit for a week at a time....but sure enough, I put it in my wallet to keep. It will go back and forth on the plane with me each trip. Not really sure why. :tongue3:

Silly falang.

What is the best smartphone now that has the best battery life? I am about to get a smartphone, but I have heard that the iPhone doesn't have the best battery life, but which one has the best out of them all?

Whilst I know it's not answering your question but just for the record I use my iphone every day - lots and find the battery life to be OK, like all smart phones I depends very much on what APP's etc you're running and how you're running your phone etcand whether you are sitting surfing the net all day on it or not, but aside from doing that I find the phones battery life acceptable - and if you're a mac user as well then it really should be one to consider due to the many benefits of compatibility etc.

A lot of bars ban smart phones because they have camera's in them and these scanners use the camera so once again the wombat has posted a completely irrelevant story from the Aussie press.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NIrish Guy

I find the [iPhone] battery life acceptable - and if you're a mac user as well then it really should be one to consider due to the many benefits of compatibility etc.

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and of course you can always just carry a spare battery if you need longer life - oh wait no ... Steve though this was a bad idea ...

and rounded corners on a rectangle are great for trade dress up - but Samsung has just been slapped on the wrist for cross-dressing like this in the USA so be careful where you wear it!

and just to show affiliations I have a Samsung Galxy SIII and an iPad2 - I'm nobody's fanboi

bkkguy