Patient Punch Cards can enhance loyalty and reduce “no-shows.”
The punch cards have ten spots on them to punch out and when completed can be redeemed for a gift card.

Patients from the same family (mom, dad and Billy) can combine their punch cards to reach the ten required punches. Of course, it seems to make the most sense to give the punch card to the adult.

Scenario: Current patient mom comes in for her appointment. At the end, she is given a family punch card and today’s completed appointment is punched in. She is told that for every appointment that her family members have, they will get another punch. Two weeks later, dad comes in. But of course, he has forgotten the punch card because he’s a man.

He is given another card with a punch for today’s appointment. A month later, Billy is brought in by mom who remembers the punch card because??? that’s right, because she’s a woman. Her card is punched for Billy’s appointment.

Once the entire family has reached nine punches, they bring in their combined punch cards on the next family member’s appointment and they receive a gift card as their tenth punch. The staff member hands them a gift card with a big smile.

Suggestion: When a family redeems their punch cards for the gift card, ask them if they would like to give a gift to a friend. Hand them another punch card with two punches out of it. On the back, write, “Referred by Their Name.” Tell them that they can give this card to anyone. The writing on the back prevents them from combining it with their family cards.

Remember: This is not meant to be an administrative headache. If a family loses their punch cards, you will not go back and reconstruct a new punch card for them. Of course, if someone on your staff knows that they were one punch away from a gift card, you can make exceptions. Remember that each punch on a $25 gift card equals $2.50 in rewards, so while the patient will see them as valuable, you and your staff need to keep it in perspective. And, since only about half of all punches will be redeemed, we’re really talking actual cost per punch of about $1.25.

By the way, If it were me, I would raise the price of all my procedures by $5.00 when I implement this.