Double stamp days are set periods when one visit earns two stamps on a loyalty card instead of one, so the guest reaches the reward sooner. For a café or restaurant it is one of the cheapest promotions there is, but only if it brings in visits that would not have happened otherwise. Here is the maths, the moments when it works, and how to keep it under control.
What double stamps really cost
Double stamps cost nothing at the till. The guest pays full price and you give no discount. The cost arrives later, when the reward is claimed sooner than it would have been.
Picture a café where ten stamps earn a free coffee. A guest who comes ten times normally gets one coffee. If two of those ten visits fall in a double stamp window, the guest has twelve stamps after the same ten visits, and the reward arrives roughly every eighth visit instead of every tenth. Run double stamps all the time and it arrives every fifth visit: your rewards now cost twice as much.
Visits with double stamps | Stamps per 10 visits | Reward roughly every |
|---|---|---|
| None | 10 | 10th visit |
| 20% | 12 | 8th visit |
| 50% | 15 | 7th visit |
| All | 20 | 5th visit |
The point of that table: you pay for every visit in the window, including those from guests who would have come anyway. The gain comes only from the visits the promotion actually moves, the lunch that shifts from Friday to Tuesday or the coffee bought from you instead of on the way to work. So double stamp days live or die by how narrowly you aim them.
When double stamp days work
Double stamps are strongest with a clear purpose and an end date. Three situations where they usually make sense:
- A specific slot that needs help. Tuesday and Wednesday from 2 to 4 pm is a better target than "weekdays". The tighter the window, the fewer of your existing visits get the extra stamp. More ideas for exactly those hours are in filling quiet hours at a restaurant.
- A slow month. January after Christmas and the weeks after the summer holidays are familiar dips in Denmark. "Double stamps all January" is easy to understand, and the end date stops it becoming the new normal.
- Your best guests. You can limit double stamps to guests on a particular tier. Then it is a thank you to your regulars rather than a promotion for everyone, and the total cost is lower.
It works badly when you are fully booked anyway. Double stamps on a Saturday night are paid for on every single visit without adding one extra guest. It also fails when the reward is too far away. With a goal of twenty stamps, one extra barely moves anyone; fix the reward first, as covered in choosing a stamp card reward.
Double, or a fixed number of extra stamps?
If you give one stamp per visit, double stamps and one extra stamp are the same thing. That is simple to explain and simple to budget.
If you stamp per item or per amount spent, "double" is harder to control, because a big order also earns a big bonus. A fixed number of extra stamps works better there: "2 extra stamps on Tuesdays" gives the same perk whatever the order size, and you know exactly what the promotion costs per visit.
Guests tend to experience both the same way. What they notice is that the distance to the reward got shorter.
How to set it up
In MightyLoyalty a double stamp day is an offer of the bonus stamps type. Offers are part of Standard, so running the promotion needs no add-on. The order looks like this:
Pick the bonus stamps type in the owner portal
A fixed number of extra stamps, or multiply the normal ones
Weekdays, times of day and an end date
For example once per guest per day
Members see the offer in their web app
Scan as usual, then redeem the offer
A few details are worth knowing. Outside the window, guests see the offer with a note on when it applies, and staff cannot redeem it. The per-guest limit is enforced by the system, so nobody at the counter has to remember who already had their extra stamps today. The normal stamp is given as usual and the extra stamps are added on top as a separate entry. How windows and limits work for offers in general is explained in digital coupons vs paper coupons.
Sending the promotion as a push notification or email is an add-on on Standard and included in Pro. Without those you can still announce it at the counter and on a sign by the till.
How to tell whether it worked
Compare the window with itself. How many visits did you have on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons in the weeks before the promotion, and how many now? The owner portal shows for each offer how many times it has been redeemed in total and in the last seven days.
Then look at who used it. If it is the same guests who usually come on Fridays, and Fridays have thinned out to match, you have moved visits without gaining any. That can be fine if Fridays were overcrowded, but it is not growth.
As the end date approaches you have three choices: stop it, narrow the window, or run it again in the same month next year. What you should not do is let it run on because nobody decided. A promotion with no end becomes the new normal, and you have quietly lowered your stamp goal without choosing to.
The stamp card the promotion runs on is described on the stamp card app page.
Frequently asked questions
Are double stamps the same as giving a discount?
No. The guest pays full price today and reaches the reward sooner. It does cost you something, but only when the reward is claimed, and only if the guest actually comes back and gets there.
Can a guest get double stamps several times in one day?
That is your call. Set a limit per guest per day, week or month and the system enforces it at the counter, whoever is working the till.
How long should a double stamp promotion run?
Short enough to feel like an occasion. Two to four weeks, or a single month, is easy to explain and easy to measure. Run it all year and it stops moving anyone.
