How do membership discount cards work?

April 15, 2010 5:10 PM

Looking at options to create a membership card for discounts at businesses, similar to a KCRW Fringe Benefits card. I haven't done this before so I'm not sure about which membership card manufacturers would be good to order from or about how the card technology itself works. Right now, getting the businesses and customers to cooperate is the easy part for me... I need to figure out how to make the card work and to be sure I can keep track of all member activity. Educate me please, if you can! Thank you! :)
posted by anonymous to Work & Money (2 answers total)

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition membership comes with a card that has your name and the expiry date of your membership on it. It's basically a business card with the date on a sticker. Local businesses simply look at the card and make sure it's you and that your membership is still valid. They don't track usage.
posted by kdar at 6:00 PM on April 15, 2010

Yep, I have a similar card with my radio station membership (KEXP), just printed on heavy paper. It has my name and expiration date printed on it, I can go to the station website to see which businesses have membership deals and what they are, and then when I use it at local businesses, they just check the expiration date and check the name against my driver's license (if they even bother with that). I like the system and it works fine for me as a customer.

Sometimes I notice that the salesperson is entering something in the computer when I use my card, so if there's any tracking going on, it's happening at that level, not anything to do with my card itself (which, frankly, I kind of appreciate).
posted by adiabat at 6:20 PM on April 15, 2010