A free digital punch card: what you get, and what is missing

What you usually get for free

A free tool for a digital punch card usually gives the basics: a card with a number of visits, a reward at the end, and sometimes saving to the phone wallet. For a business that wants to test the idea, this is a fair start.

One question worth asking in advance: how does the tool make money? A paid plan later, a limit on the number of customers, the tool's branding on the card, or use of the data. None of these is wrong. It is simply worth knowing before you bring customers in.

What usually stays with you

Setup

Someone has to configure the punch card, design it, print a sign for the register and explain it to the staff. With a free tool, that someone is usually you, in the evening, after a working day.

Staff at the register

This is where most punch cards are tested. Ask: who adds a visit, the customer or the staff member? Does a scan on its own already add a visit? What happens when there is no reception? Can you cancel a visit recorded by mistake, and see who cancelled it?

A visit the customer adds for themselves is hard to check. A double visit in a busy line happens to everyone. A tool that does not answer this leaves the problem with you.

The data

A punch card without data only hands out rewards. The interesting questions are different: who stopped coming, at what hours people come, how many rewards went out this month. Check whether the tool shows this, and where.

The customer list: whose is it

The customers who joined are your customers. Make sure you can download the list as a file, and that if you leave the tool, it stays with you.

Privacy and consent

A list of customers' phone numbers is personal information. Amendment 13 to the Privacy Protection Law came into force in August 2025 and strengthened the supervision and enforcement powers of the Privacy Protection Authority.

So it is worth checking where the list is stored, who sees it, and whether the customer can delete the card or ask for no advertising without asking you.

Support

When something does not work on a Saturday morning, with a line at the register, who do you call? With a free tool the answer is usually a written help center. Sometimes that is enough, and sometimes it is not.

A checklist before you choose

What happens with paper punch cards

A business that already works with paper does not start from a blank page. Some customers have a paper punch card in their wallet, half full. Check in advance how they move to the new card without losing what they collected, and who approves the move. With Shortip you move their visits over, with your approval.

When free is enough

• You work alone at the register, and you know almost every customer.
• You want to test whether customers want a punch card at all, before paying for anything.
• You need a reward at the end, and nothing more.

When free is no longer enough

• There are several staff members, and you are not there on every shift.
• You want to know who stopped coming, and when.
• You sell prepaid packages. With Shortip a package opens only when you confirm the customer has paid, and it counts down.
• You have more than one branch, and a manager for each branch.
• You do not have a free evening to set it up and train people yourself.

How to test a free tool in one week

You do not need to decide based on a marketing page. You can test a free tool at the business itself, in a normal week, before inviting real customers.

1. Join yourself, from your own phone, like a customer. Count how many screens you went through until the card was in the wallet.
2. Ask a staff member to add a visit for you at a busy hour. Notice how long it took, and whether they needed help.
3. Try to cancel a visit recorded by mistake. Check whether you can see afterwards what happened and who did it.
4. Turn off the internet on the staff member's phone and try again. What happened to the visit?
5. Look for where you download the customer list as a file. If you cannot find it in five minutes, that is a sign.
6. Delete your own card, like a customer who wants to leave. Check that it is really possible, and that it is simple.

If all the steps went smoothly, the free tool may be enough for you. If you got stuck on two of them, imagine the same moment with a line of five people.

How much Shortip costs

Shortip is not free, and we say so up front. The subscription includes a scanner for every staff member, data about your customers, and a customer list that stays yours. Setup is done at your business, in Haifa and northern Israel. This is the price:

Frequently asked questions