Switching from a paper stamp card to digital: a step-by-step guide

Why switch from a paper stamp card to digital?

A paper stamp card is cheap and familiar, but it gets lost, forgotten in a wallet, easily copied, and tells you nothing about your customers. A digital stamp card lives on the phone, only staff can add stamps, and you can see who comes back and how often.

• No more lost cards: even if a customer forgets the card at home, they have their phone.
• Fake stamps get hard: a stamp is recorded when staff scan the card at the till.
• You get to know your customers: you see how many come back and which days are busy.
• No reprinting: changing the design or the reward doesn’t mean printing new cards.
• You can reach customers again: with their consent, you can remind people who haven’t visited in a while.

If you are reading about digital cards for the first time, start with what is a digital loyalty card.

How do you move existing paper card customers over?

The fairest approach is to carry the stamps on the paper card over to the digital card one for one, and reward the switch with a small bonus. That way nobody feels their effort was wasted, and everyone has a reason to switch.

1. The customer comes to the till with their paper card; staff show the QR and ask them to open the digital card.
2. Once the customer has the card, staff add the paper stamps to the digital card one by one (by scanning at the till or from the dashboard). If the dashboard has a waiting time that blocks stamping the same card again within a short window, turn it off during the switch.
3. A gift stamp is added as a switching incentive (e.g. “+1 stamp for going digital”).
4. The paper card is cancelled on the spot by writing “transferred” on it or cutting it; this stops the same stamps being used twice.
5. If the paper card is almost full, give the reward straight away and start the digital card fresh – the best advert for the switch.

Example (purely an assumption): a barbershop customer with 7 stamps goes digital, 7 stamps are transferred and a +1 switching bonus is added. With a 10-stamp goal, 2 stamps are left – a concrete reason for the next visit. See sample cards for barbers on the barber loyalty card page.

What rules should apply during the transition?

The transition period needs a clear start and end date, and during it the paper card should no longer receive new stamps. A fuzzy period where both cards get stamped wears out staff and customers alike.

• Start date: from this day, new stamps go only on the digital card.
• Last day for paper cards: give a reasonable window to transfer a paper card or claim its reward (e.g. two to three months). If many customers visit rarely, make it longer.
• No new paper cards: after the start date, don’t hand out paper cards to anyone; exceptions cause confusion.
• Make the rule visible: put a note at the till and in the window, like “Transfer your paper card to digital by …”.
• Customers without a smartphone or who don’t want one: decide in advance what staff should do, e.g. let them keep filling their existing paper card until the last day.

You don’t need a separate ad budget to announce the switch; use the places customers already look. Two to three weeks before the start date, put a short note at the till and in the window, tell every paper card customer in one sentence at the till, and share the date on your social media if you have accounts. Make three things clear in the announcement: no stamps will be lost, the switch takes a minute and no app is needed. Customers worry most about losing the stamps they have collected; clearing up that worry at the very start speeds up the switch.

While writing the rules down you may want to change the reward or the goal too. If so, do it a few weeks after the switch, not at the same time; two changes at once can make customers feel the rules were broken.

How do you prepare staff for the switch?

Staff training takes one short meeting and a few practice scans at the till; what matters is that everyone uses the same sentence and follows the same steps. The success of the switch depends a lot on how comfortable the person at the till feels.

• Have each staff member open a test card on their own phone and try scanning it themselves.
• Rehearse a paper card transfer together once: adding the stamps, adding the bonus, cancelling the paper card.
• Agree on one line: “Let’s move your paper stamps to your phone, and one extra stamp is on us.”
• Ready answers to common questions: “Do I need an app?” – No. “Does it work on Android?” – Yes, the card opens as a saveable page in the browser.
• Make sure each staff member uses their own account, so there is a record of who gave how many stamps.

In the first week it helps to have one person handle switching questions at peak times. Note down any problems and talk them through briefly at the end of the week.

What should the flow at the till look like?

The flow at the till differs for new customers and paper card customers, but neither should take more than a minute. You can pin the two flows below next to the till.

For new customers:

1. Staff point to the table card or the QR on the till stand.
2. The customer scans it with their phone camera, fills in the short form and gives explicit consent.
3. On iPhone the card is added to Apple Wallet; on Android it opens as a saveable page in the browser.
4. Staff scan the QR on the card and the first stamp is recorded.

For paper card customers:

1. The four steps above are followed exactly.
2. Staff count the paper stamps, add them to the digital card and add the switching bonus.
3. The paper card is cancelled or collected.
4. The customer is told how many stamps are left: “2 more stamps to your reward.”

If the queue is long, putting the transfer off with “let’s do it on your next visit” is fine too, as long as the paper card stays valid until the last day. In businesses where customers wait anyway, such as a car wash, doing the transfer during the wait is easier; see examples on the car wash loyalty card page.

How does digital solve the fake stamp problem?

On a digital stamp card a stamp is only recorded when staff scan the QR on the card at the till, so the copied rubber stamps and hand-drawn stamps of paper cards are not an issue. And when each staff member works under their own account, there is a record of who gave how many stamps.

• Copied rubber stamp: finding a similar stamp is easy on paper; digitally, customers can’t add a stamp themselves.
• Extra stamps: a staff member giving friends extra stamps leaves no trace on paper; digitally it is recorded per staff member.
• Combined cards: merging several half-filled paper cards to claim a reward can’t happen digitally, because each customer has one card.
• Risk during the switch: always cancel the paper card when transferring, or the same stamps could be used twice.

Reviewing the per-staff records regularly helps you spot anything unusual early. The aim isn’t to blame staff, but to make sure the rules work the same for everyone.

How do you make the switch with Dokun?

Dokun is an app-free QR loyalty card that brings everything you need to move off paper into one dashboard. Setup starts with carrying your paper card’s rule over to digital.

1. Pick the ready-made Wallet template for your sector and enter your logo, colour and the reward from your paper card.
2. Download the table card, A4 poster and sticker designs from the dashboard, print them and put the QR where the paper cards used to be.
3. Create staff accounts; each employee records stamps under their own account.
4. Set the start date for the switch and put the transition note up at the till.
5. In the first weeks, use the daily visits and returning-customer reports to see how the switch is going.

We explain how the card looks on iPhone in the Apple Wallet loyalty card guide. Staff accounts are included in the Büyüme (Growth) plan; compare plans in the pricing section, or get started with a 7-day free trial.