For nail salons
A card for the infill that comes round every three weeks
Nail clients run to a timetable their own regrowth sets: an infill every two or three weeks, a new set every few months. That is often enough for a short card to fill quickly and keep paying the client back. Counter Club puts the card on their mobile and lets you message the club when weekday stations sit empty.
Pearl Moth Nail Bar
One stamp per appointment. Ten earn a free gel infill.
7 of 10 Three infills to go.
What gets in the way for nail salons
Fresh gel and a wallet do not mix
Nobody wants to dig through a bag with nails that are still curing. The client says their mobile number at the counter and the stamp is one press on their row.
A cheaper infill down the road
When the visit is every three weeks, a salon a few dollars cheaper is a real pull. A free infill every so often keeps the regular at your station without cutting your prices.
Saturdays book out, Tuesdays do not
Saturday mornings are full weeks ahead while Tuesday afternoons have free stations. A text to the club on Local Favourite moves a few regulars into the quiet days.
Occasions arrive in waves
School formals, weddings and the weeks before Christmas all land at once. An email to the club ahead of the rush, on a paid plan, gives your regulars first claim on the busy dates.
A worked example
Nail salon work, with Counter Club
Pearl Moth Nail Bar is a fictional five-station salon in a shopping strip. Its regulars come every three weeks for a $55 gel infill: about seventeen visits and $935 a year. The owner sets the card at 10 stamps, one per paid appointment, and writes the reward as "a free gel infill or gel manicure". A three-weekly client fills the card in about seven months, and the reward costs the salon product and forty-five minutes of a technician's time.
The QR stands on the counter beside the card machine and on the waiting bench. In two months 210 clients join and the salon moves to Regulars. Half the club left the email box empty, so before the busy season the owner moves to Local Favourite to text everyone.
On a slow week in November, with 280 members, she texts on Wednesday morning: "Two stations free this afternoon from 1 to 5. Gel manicures $10 off today only, call the salon to book." Nine of the ten open slots fill by three o'clock. The text used 280 of the month's 2,000 campaign messages.
Not a Chain
Nail salons on Not a Chain
Not a Chain ranks nail salons by their Google rating, adjusted for how many reviews stand behind it, with chains left out. Figures as of October 2026.
See the nail salons 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 nail salons
Should a removal or a repair earn a stamp?
Keep the rule simple at the till. One stamp per paid appointment is the cleanest; a quick repair under a set price, say $15, can be left out. Put the rule on the sign by the counter so every technician stamps the same way.
What if a client sees a different technician each time?
The card belongs to the client's mobile number, not to the technician. Whoever takes the payment finds the client on the Members page and presses Stamp.
Is a free infill too generous after ten visits?
After ten paid appointments the client has spent about $550 with you. A free infill costs the product and forty-five minutes, and it is a good reason not to try the cheaper salon down the road.
Can I text about the quiet afternoon every week?
Every text goes to the whole club, so keep them for days that are genuinely empty, and no more than twice a month. Put the time window and the price in the text, and a phone number to book on, because Counter Club does not take bookings.
Also for
Other shops and services
Pet groomers
Grooming runs on the coat's timetable: a poodle cross every six weeks, a short coat for a bath and nails in between.
Counter Club for pet groomersPharmacies
An independent pharmacy sees its locals more often than almost any shop on the strip, and competes with discount chains that run…
Counter Club for pharmaciesPhone repair shops
Nobody plans a cracked screen, so a phone repair shop's regulars are not weekly.
Counter Club for phone repair shopsPut 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.