YubiKeyIdeas/Customer Loyalty Program
From Yubico
Contents |
The Setup
I have a favorite coffee shop that uses custom debit cards as a customer loyalty program. They prefer it over credit cards because of the fees associated with CC transactions. This debit card program still costs money, but it's so much cheaper than credit cards that they add an extra dollar for every ten you provide. For example, forking over $50 to put on your cafe debit card yields you a balance of $55. Unfortunately, their debit card machine fails about 50% of the time. On that point, I am not kidding. Fifty percent. Five-zero. But it's an independent shop with no other franchises and a fairly small revenue stream. Rather than getting a new machine, they just deal with it.
The Pitch
Instead of a card, I propose giving a Yubikey to each customer. There's obviously a coolness factor, plus a do-it-yourself mentality: instead of handing over a card to be swiped, the customer inserts their YubiKey and presses the button. Transaction complete. Even better, with a small screen, the remaining balance (which would be kept somewhere... either in the cafe's computer or at Customer Loyalty Program Inc's server) would be quickly displayed. The cost of all of those YubiKeys would be recouped very quickly based on credit card transaction fees.
The Clincher
Wow, that was pretty neat, huh? How about this: if the cafe has a sufficiently advanced website - or more likely subscribes to Customer Loyalty Program Inc's service - customers can log into their account from home and add money at will. Try doing that with a swipeable card.
And Now, To Blow Your Mind
Let's keep going with this: how about an online menu. From the comfort of your home or office, log into the cafe's website (which may or may not be hosted by Customer Loyalty Program Inc), and order a few items for pickup. You show up, insert your YubiKey, and the person behind the counter hands over the take-out order. Mind not blown? Think about it: this whole concept need not be constrained to coffeeshops. Pizza places, bagel shops, Chinese take-out, etc can use this technology. Still not mind-blown? If all of these companies are hosted through Customer Loyalty Program Inc, customers only ever need one YubiKey. I figure there's a market of about 1 billion YubiKeys for this idea, give or take.
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