Punchh Blog

The new android app that everybody has been asking for is finally here. Download it from Android market - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.punchh

The latest version is version 2.1.1 and has a number of improvements:

1. Support for email based login (in addition to facebook)
2. Support for all the latest Android devices
3. Better UI and layout with better support for different screen sizes
4. Fast – We are now using a more optimized communication protocol between app and server
5. Upgrade ready

So what are you waiting for? Upgrade today!!!!

And let us know what you think. (BTW, thanks everyone who waited while we got this major update released).

Check out some of the screen shots of the new app below:

A lot of you have been asking us for the capability to send campaign notifications to your customers. Well, the wait is over!!!

Following is how it works:

1. This is your old familiar campaign list. Create a new campaign here to get things going.

2. Enter the info about the campaign and click on the notifications controls option

3. You get a nice default message but you can modify the message to meet your need.  The text in all caps “CAMPAIGN_NAME” or “FIRST_NAME” are called dynamic fields. They can be used to add personal information about the users like their name etc. – personal touch is always good.

4. Below is the list of all the dynamic fields that are available to you (you can click on the dynamic fields link to expand the list):

5. Once the campaign is setup, you should test it out by sending a test notification. All you have to do is to put in your email.  Just make sure you use an email that has been used to punchh a card at your business.  This sends out the test notification via push notifications to iPhone and via email. It also shows you a preview of the message that is being sent. Make sure everything is delivered correctly and looks great.

6. You should see the following email message and push notification as a result of the test notification.

7. If all looks good, go ahead and send out the notification to all of your campaign by going back to the list, activating the campaign and clicking on “Send Notifications”. Just remember, “Send Notifications” button only shows up when you have setup the notifications for a campaign.

That’s it…You now have the power to talk with you customers but with awesome power comes awesome responsibility. So please use this channel judiciously as you don’t want to spam your loyal customers because they drive referrals and repeat visits (We will also be enforcing some limits soon).

Whew! Another day, another great new feature for our customers…

Today, we officially released our “Campaign” functionality – a tool to further increase customer visits and engagement. It shows up on your Punchh portal as a new tab called, appropriately, “Campaigns”.

What can you do with these campaigns? Well, have you ever had a down-period or slow time at your business that you’ve wished you could fill up? You can now set up a custom campaign to reward your customers with extra punchhs if they show up during that down period. Maybe you’d just like to promote a new menu item or happy hour; maybe you just simply want to award your loyal customers extra punchhs or maybe you want to entice those of your customers you haven’t seen in a while to come back – you can now set up custom campaigns to address each of these (and any other) situations by awarding your guests extra punchhs.

Punchh email

Push notification

Remember our post about the Gift Punchh and the free gift punchh to new users (click here to view)? Well, we’ve converted that into a campaign – in fact, it’s 1 of 4 pre-populated campaigns that every business gets. The other 3 campaigns that come pre-populated include a “Happy Hour Friday” campaign, a “Double Punchh Tuesdays” campaign and a “We Miss You” campaign. Click on “Activate” to activate any of these campaigns for your business.

Campaign View on the Punchh Portal

The Gift New Users Campaign

Let’s look at the Gift Punchh campaign as our first example: as an added incentive to increase participation, you decide to award new customers an extra Punchh when they join your program (why we recommend this). Click on “Gift New Users” and this is what you’ll see:

Gift New Users Campaign - Default View

If you click on “Edit Campaign”, you’ll be able to see the parameters that were set up for the campaign and how to set another similar campaign up yourself.

Gift New Users Campaign - Detailed View

• You can setup your campaign name – in this case: Gift New Users
• You can set your reward – in this case: 1 extra punchh
• You can set the time-frame – in this case: a start-date of Jan 17, 2012 and since the end-date is blank, a program that runs forever.
• You can choose your audience – in this case: for all your guests. We also allow you to choose your ‘stalled’ guests – stalled guests are guests who haven’t visited your restaurant/bar in a while – say in the past 30/60/90 days (you can customize that time-period.)
• You can also select exact days of the week & times in the day for the promotion – in this case: every day and during all hours.

The Happy Hours Friday campaign

Let’s look at the Happy Hours Friday campaign as our second example: as an added incentive for your customers to visit your restaurant during the Happy Hour period between 4 PM and 6 PM every Friday, you decide to award them an extra Punchh if they should visit and Punchh during that time. Click on “Happy Hours of Friday” and this is what you’ll see:

Happy Hours Campaign - Default View

If you click on “Edit Campaign”, you’ll be able to see the parameters that were set up for the campaign and how to set another similar campaign up yourself.

Happy Hour Campaign - Detailed View

• You can setup your campaign name – in this case: Happy Hours of Friday
• You can set your reward – in this case: 1 extra punchh
• You can set the time-frame – in this case: a start-date of Jan 17, 2012 and since the end-date is blank, a program that runs forever.
• You can choose your audience – in this case: for all your guests. We also allow you to choose your ‘stalled’ guests – stalled guests are guests who haven’t visited your restaurant/bar in a while – say in the past 30/60/90 days (you can customize that time-period.)
• You can also select exact days of the week & times in the day for the promotion – in this case: every Friday between the hours of 4 PM and 6 PM.

Double Punchh Tuesdays

Let’s look at the Double Punchh Tuesdays campaign as our third example: let’s suppose Tuesdays are a traditionally weak day for you – fewer visitors and slower business. As an added incentive for your customers to visit your restaurant on Tuesdays, you decide to award them an extra Punchh if they should visit your business then. Click on “Double Punchh Tuesdays” and this is what you’ll see:

Double Punchh Tuesdays Campaign - Default View

If you click on “Edit Campaign”, you’ll be able to see the parameters that were set up for the campaign and how to set another similar campaign up yourself.

Double Punchh Tuesdays Campaign - Detailed View

• You can setup your campaign name – in this case: Double Punchh Tuesdays
• You can set your reward – in this case: 1 extra punchh
• You can set the time-frame – in this case: a start-date of Jan 17, 2012 and since the end-date is blank, a program that runs forever.
• You can choose your audience – in this case: for all your guests. We also allow you to choose your ‘stalled’ guests – stalled guests are guests who haven’t visited your restaurant/bar in a while – say in the past 30/60/90 days (you can customize that time-period.)
• You can also select exact days of the week & times in the day for the promotion – in this case: every Tuesday – starting at midnight and going to 11 PM.

We Miss You!

Let’s look at the We Miss You campaign as our final example: It’s also important to try to entice those of your customers you haven’t seen in a while to come back to your business. Let’s say you want to run this promotion for a week – where you’d like to award an extra Punchh to those of your customers that haven’t frequented your business in the past 90 days. Click on “We Miss You” and this is what you’ll see:

We Miss You Campaign - Default View

If you click on “Edit Campaign”, you’ll be able to see the parameters that were set up for the campaign and how to set another similar campaign up yourself.

We Miss You Campaign - Detailed View

• You can setup your campaign name – in this case: We Miss You
• You can set your reward – in this case: 1 extra punchh
• You can set the time-frame – in this case: a start-date of Jan 17, 2012 and an end date of Jan 24, 2012.
• You can choose your audience – in this case: for your stalled guests. You can customize to customers who haven’t visited your business in the past 90 days (or any other number you like.)
• You can also select exact days of the week & times in the day for the promotion – in this case: every day of the week at all hours.

Notification

So how do your customers get notified? We’re adding different announcement mechanisms including e-mail but here’s an example of our new ‘Push Notification’ announcement (stay tuned for more information on this!)…

Now your customers can get a pop-up message from Punchh even when they are outside the app notifying them of a campaign update – like a free punchh! What a great way to engage them and remind them of your business!

Bottom line, our customers have been asking us for this campaign capability and we’re glad to announce that Punchh now supports campaigns! So set up your campaign today and increase customer engagement and participation!