Stay AI’s Director of Product Unpacks All Things Digital Punch Card

Stay AI’s Director of Product Unpacks All Things Digital Punch Card

This week, to celebrate the launch of our new-to-market Digital Punch Card feature, we sat down with Karin Brashears, Stay AI’s Director of Product, to unpack all things Digital Punch Card!

Q: Digital Punch Cards are here! What would you say is the “TLDR” of Digital Punch Card for those who haven’t heard about it yet?

Karin: Digital Punch Card is a revolutionary idea that takes on rewards and loyalty with a fun, gamified customer experience. We’ve taken a nostalgic punch card and “digitized” it on the customer portal for your subscribers to actually see their progress and how they’re tracking toward a reward. Merchants have ownership over setting up a free order or a free product and can track those throughout multiple orders. So, it really is just a new take that we haven’t seen anywhere else in the marketplace for loyalty and retention. 

Q: Are there any specific elements of Digital Punch Card that you’re most excited about?

Karin: I’m really excited and interested to see how our merchants use the data we provide on the merchant portal already to tie into their Digital Punch Cards. 

We’ve set up some really cool analytics within the Executive Summary Dashboard that can be used to figure out the most optimal way to set up your Digital Punch Card. For instance, using AOV to determine your brand’s maximum free order value. Additionally, ExperienceEngine’s A/B tests can lead merchants directly to determine which products make the most sense for retention and should be used as incentives.

I’m really excited to see how merchants’ use of Stay’s features comes full circle in terms of application to using Digital Punch Cards.

Q: Can you tell me more about how Digital Punch Card weaves into Stay AI’s existing analytics suite and how it works in tandem with ExperienceEngine? 

Karin: So what I would do is set up an A/B test in ExperienceEngine with whatever products I want to offer as a promotion. Let’s say my brand is trying to determine whether a free shaker bottle or a free key chain optimizes retention best. I would set up a free shaker bottle on order three and A/B test it against a free key chain. Through that A/B test, I can see which one has the highest success rate for retention and see how the product and order cadence drive AOV. Because ExperienceEngine allows for fluid tests, I can swap out those products and order cadences to continuously gauge optimization. 

That data will directly impact how to set up Digital  Punch Cards, allowing me to make data-driven decisions when selecting which product and order number should apply as the Digital Punch Card incentive.

This is how Stay AI sets brands up for success with real data-powered analytics, backed by rigorous split-testing, to then apply to a more sticky and long-term Digital Punch Card that will run for six months, a year, or however long you want it to.

Q: What makes Digital Punch Cards different from other reward tools or features that exist in the market?

Karin: Digital Punch Cards offer a few differentiating factors. Firstly, it’s a simplified no-point loyalty system. Tracking points can be complex and overall challenging, whereas with a punch card system, you either earned a punch or you didn’t. 

For customers, the biggest thing with point acquisition and tracking rewards in that way is that it’s a variable reward at the end. So typically, point programs require in-depth messaging and explanation for customers to understand the benefit and justify the purchase. When it comes to Digital Punch Cards, it’s a one-to-one experience. You know that your punch will equate to a free order or product. The direct association of purchase to reward is extremely impactful in training customer behavior. 

Additionally, it’s really exciting to integrate the Goal Gradient Theory, the idea that the closer customers see themselves reaching a goal, the more likely they are to come back and order again until they reach it. We are truly putting that into place in a digital format.

Digital Punch Cards give customers a feeling of success, coupled with a dopamine hit after a successful purchase. That gives the user more impetus to continue being a repeat purchaser compared to maybe earning something that you can’t see or just aggregating points in the background.

We’re able to have customers see their action as an accomplishment and then further want to experience that dopamine hit over and over again, inching them towards that end reward.

Thanks for chatting with us, Karin!