Honour every paper stamp. When a regular joins the new card, add the stamps from their paper card on the spot, or hand over the reward if the paper card is full, and then retire the paper card in front of them. Run both side by side for four to eight weeks, name the month the paper card ends, and keep honouring stragglers well after that. Carrying stamps across costs a little, once. Telling a regular that their seven stamps no longer count costs you the regular.
Before you switch: count and decide
Start with the drawer. Many shops keep cards behind the counter for regulars who would otherwise lose them; count those. Then ask staff to estimate how many more are out in wallets, glove boxes and coat pockets. The answer tells you roughly how many stamps you are about to carry across, and it is usually a sobering look at how many cards stalled halfway, which why paper stamp cards leak explains.
Then decide the conversion rule, and write it down before the first customer asks.
If the new card has the same target as the old one, convert stamp for stamp. Six paper stamps become six on the new card.
If the target changes, convert in proportion and round up. Moving from a ten-stamp paper card to an eight-stamp card, six paper stamps are 4.8 on the new card, so give five. Rounding up costs a fraction of a reward and makes every conversion feel generous. Print a small table by the till, from one paper stamp to a full card, so nobody does sums during the rush.
A full paper card gets its reward there and then. Do not convert it to stamps; hand over the coffee, the loaf or the bunch, and let the new card start fresh.
Decide what to do for regulars who do not want to switch. Some have no mobile, some prefer paper, some simply do not want to give a number. Keep honouring their paper card until it fills, hand over the reward, and offer the new card then. Do not push, and do not refuse a paper card because the customer said no to the new one.
The counter moment
The switch happens one regular at a time, at the counter, and it should take about as long as making their order.
The customer produces the paper card. The staff member says something like "we are moving the card onto your mobile, so you never lose it again; scan this and I will put your stamps on". The customer scans the QR and joins on their own phone. The staff member finds their new row, adds the paper stamps, then stamps today's purchase as usual. Then they write "moved" across the paper card and hand it back, or tear it in two with the customer's say-so.
Do it while the order is being made, not at the moment of payment. A regular who is told about the switch while the milk steams has a minute to spare. One told while the queue waits behind them feels rushed into it.
Never copy names or numbers from the paper cards into the new list. A number scribbled on a card was written for the card. Every regular joins the new one themselves.
Set a cut-off month and say it
Put up a sign on the first day: paper cards can be moved across until the end of a named month, four to eight weeks away. Stop handing out new paper cards the same day; otherwise the drawer refills while you are trying to empty it.
The cut-off is there to encourage people, not to cancel stamps. A regular who turns up in winter with a half-full card found in a coat pocket should still get their stamps moved across. The sign gets the bulk of cards in during the switch; goodwill handles the rest.
Keep the drawer for a year. Cards that were left behind the counter belong to customers who have not yet been in.
Doubtful cards
Paper stamps are easy to copy, and someone will occasionally produce a suspiciously full card. For a small shop the risk is a few dollars. A sensible line is one card per person, honoured in full, without questions. A customer with a fistful of full cards is the rare case to talk about, politely and away from the queue.
A worked example: Lanternfish Coffee
Lanternfish Coffee is a fictional cafe with a ten-stamp paper card for a free coffee. The owner keeps the same deal on the new card, so conversion is stamp for stamp. The drawer holds 140 cards, and staff guess another 150 are out in wallets.
Because about 180 regulars are expected to switch in the first weeks, the owner moves to the Regulars plan before day one. The Free plan holds 50 members, and a join page that tells a regular the club is full, halfway through moving their stamps, is the worst possible start; the pricing page has the limits for each plan.
Over the six-week switch, 180 paper cards come back. Twenty-two are full, so 22 free coffees are handed over on the spot. The other 158 hold 790 stamps between them, an average of five, and each is added with one press per stamp on the member's row. A regular who arrives with nine paper stamps and orders a coffee gets nine presses and then one for today; the tenth press fills the card, a reward code appears, and they leave with a free coffee and a fresh card, which is how rewards work on a full card.
The cost: 790 carried stamps will become 79 free coffees as those cards fill, at about $1.50 each in beans, milk and cup, or $118.50 spread over the next few months. The 22 coffees handed over on the spot cost $33. The whole switch costs about $151.50, once.
By the end of the six weeks the club has 230 members: the 180 regulars who moved across and 50 newer customers who joined from the sign. Nobody lost a stamp, the drawer is nearly empty, and for the first time the owner can see who the regulars are.
Mistakes to avoid
Refusing old cards, or converting at a worse rate than the paper card promised. The regular remembers the deal.
Running both cards forever. Name the month and stop issuing paper on day one.
Making staff do arithmetic. If the target changes, print the table.
Copying numbers from paper cards into the new list. Customers join themselves, every time.
Throwing out the drawer early. Some of those cards belong to regulars on holiday.
What to do this week
- Count the cards in the drawer and estimate how many are out in wallets.
- Decide the conversion rule, and print a table if the target is changing.
- Choose a switch window of four to eight weeks and name the month it ends.
- Brief staff on the counter moment, and stop issuing new paper cards from the first day.
- If you expect more regulars to switch than your plan holds, sort that out before you start.
The entries on punch cards and breakage cover why paper cards lose so much of the value they hand out.