For barbers
A card for the fade that needs redoing every three weeks
A barber's regular is back every three or four weeks, often on the same day at the same hour. That rhythm suits a short card with a free cut at the end of it, and a club you can text when Tuesday afternoon has empty chairs. Counter Club keeps the card on the client's mobile, so there is nothing to lose in a gym bag.
Larkhill Lane Barbers
One stamp per cut. Eight earn a free cut of your choice.
5 of 8 Three cuts to go.
What gets in the way for barbers
A walk-in goes wherever the queue is shortest
A client who walks in will try the shop across the road if yours has three waiting. Being two stamps from a free cut is the reason to sit down and wait the ten minutes.
Weekday afternoons sit empty
Friday after work and Saturday morning run full, while Tuesday at two is quiet. A text to the club on Local Favourite, sent at lunchtime, puts a few of those chairs to work.
Paper cards and clippings
A card handed back across a cape full of hair goes into a pocket and then into the wash. Saying a mobile number at the till takes two seconds and nothing gets lost.
Dads bring the kids
Families come in together. Decide whether each kid's cut earns a stamp on the parent's card, put it on the sign, and the question is answered before anyone asks it.
A worked example
Barber work, with Counter Club
Larkhill Lane Barbers is a fictional two-chair shop near a train station. A skin fade is $45 and a good regular comes every three weeks: about seventeen cuts and $765 a year. The owner sets the card at 8 stamps, one per cut, and writes the reward as "a free cut of your choice". A three-weekly regular fills it in under six months, so the reward costs the shop two cuts a year from a client worth $765.
The QR is taped to the mirror ledge by each chair and to the end of the waiting bench, so clients scan while they wait or while the cape comes off. In the first month 120 clients join and the shop moves to Regulars. Few clients fill in the optional email box, so by winter, with 390 members, the owner moves to Local Favourite for its own texting number.
On a quiet Tuesday he sends one text at 12:30: "Both chairs free from 2 to 5 today, no wait. Walk straight in." Fourteen come in that afternoon. The send used 390 of the month's 2,000 campaign messages, so quiet-afternoon texts stay at twice a month at most.
Not a Chain
Barbers on Not a Chain
Not a Chain ranks barbers by their Google rating, adjusted for how many reviews stand behind it, with chains left out. Figures as of October 2026.
See the barbers on Not a Chain. Being listed there has nothing to do with using Counter Club: no listing is sold and no rank changes.
Questions from barbers
How many stamps for a barber's card?
Eight suits a client who comes every three or four weeks: the card fills in six or seven months, so a regular earns a free cut about twice a year. A client who comes every fortnight gets there faster, and that is a fair thank you for the extra visits.
Does a beard trim on its own count?
Your rule decides. One stamp per visit with any paid service is the simplest rule, so a beard trim earns a stamp the same as a cut. Whatever you choose, put it on the sign by the mirror.
Can I text the club about a quiet afternoon every week?
You can, within your plan's monthly messages, but a weekly text teaches clients to wait for it. Twice a month at most, only when the chairs really are empty, with the hours in the text.
Can a parent collect stamps for the kids' cuts?
Yes, if that is your rule. The card belongs to the mobile number that joined, so a parent bringing two kids can earn three stamps on one visit when you stamp per cut. Write it on the sign so every barber stamps the same way.
Also for
Other shops and services
Pubs and bars
A local's best customers turn up every week for the same thing: trivia on Wednesday, the parma on Thursday, the footy on Saturday.
Counter Club for pubs and barsBeauty salons
Beauty regulars return on a cycle: brows every four weeks, waxing every five or six, a facial each season.
Counter Club for beauty salonsCar detailers
A full detail or a paint correction happens once a year at most, but the owners who care enough to book one also come back for a…
Counter Club for car detailersPut the QR by the till this week
Setting the card takes two minutes. The first fifty members are free, paid for by a marketing consent instead of a card, and the card runs in full from day one.