With the steady rise in prices why not reward your clients with a VIP card solution or reward card solution. Rewarding your clients gives the client a feel of being appreciated, when they purchase something at your store you give them points that ends up rewarding them with a discount, merchandise or credit. Having this system also helps you keep track of your clients, gives you an idea of who comes into your store and helps you pay more attention to the clients that do come in frequently. Here is a list of some of the benefits of rewarding your clients:

• Gives the client a sense of appreciation
• Allows you to track the client’s spending
• Gives the clients rewards from their spending
• The card can be used as a in-store credit

Many leading companies are starting to apply these plastic loyalty card solutions and plastic reward card solutions for their clients and have been working to help increase return sales on the long run. With the economy in question this would be a great solution to add for your company.

Plastek Cards announces a new RFID card product we now carry for the Smart Card Industry and the Plastic Card Industry. A new type of the M1(S50) Generic RFID card which is comparable but more stabe than the Philips brand. There is a minimal amount of difference between the two cards, but a substantial difference in price. The generic brand in comparison is a better card and most cost effective. Below you will see the difference in the two RFID cards.

PHILIPS M1(S50)

· Memory size: 8 Kbits
· Operating frequency: 13.56MHz
· Fast data transfer: 106 Kbits/s
· Operating distance: 5cm
· Operating time: 1~2ms
· Operating temperature: -10??50?
· Minimum erasing times: 100,000
· Data retention time: > 10 years
· Dimension: 85.5×54x0.9mm

GENERIC FM1(S50) RFID(much more stable)

· Memory size: 8 Kbits

· Operating frequency: 13.56MHz

· Fast data transfer: 106 Kbits/s

· Operating distance: 6cm

· Operating time: 1~2ms

· Operating temperature: -10??50?

· Minimum erasing times: 100,000

· Data retention time: > 10 years

· Dimension: 85.5×54x0.9mm

A smart card is a device that has an embedded integrated circuit chip or better known as an ICC chip. The chip can be either a secure microcontroller, internal memory or a memory chip alone.

Contact cars or contactless cards are the two general categories for smart card technology. With a contact smart card the card is visible and must be able to make a direct contact with the smart card reader. Once contact is made, that is when the data or commands are transmitted.

For contactless smart cards there is no direct contact with the card and reader. Both card and reader will have an antennae and contact is made through radio frequencies. The range is usually one-half to 3 inches for a non battery operated card.

We are pleased to offer plastic card displays as a convenience to one stop shopping when you order plastic cards to be printed here at Plastek Cards. They are acrylic stands. Most of them are clear and we can also print out and design a display to slide into your plastic card displays. Please contact us to see the different styles we offer.

UV light detection is an added security that can be featured on your plastic cards. With the growing numbers in fraudulent activity, UV light detection can help in making it harder if not impossible for your plastic cards to be duplicated. UV light detection is not visible to the human eye; however when put under a black light you will be able to see the UV ink that will glow on the plastic card. This would be a great feature for club owners with VIP cards or membership card programs.

Many modern-day businesses are making the switch from using standard metal keys to manage access in and out of their buildings and switching over to plastic key cards. Making the transition to key cards is a smart move for business owners, as it allows them to not only protect their bottom line through greater security, but also to reduce expenses through the advantages of the plastic card and the magnetic stripe on it. If your business hasn’t made the switch to plastic key cards, here are a few good reasons to consider doing it as soon as you can.

Plastic Key Cards Add Security To Your Business

• If theft occurs at your office after hours, standard metal keys will offer you no help in discovering who the culprit is. Plastic key cards, on the other hand, are encoded with the identifying information of the employee, so you won’t be left guessing.
• Traditional metal keys can be easily copied, taking access to your building out of your control. Plastic key cards, on the other hand, are not easy to duplicate, and the fact that they are linked personally to an employee would discourage one from attempting to.
• If an employee becomes hostile to your business or other employees, his key would give him easy access to your facility. Even if he is terminated, if he refuses to return the key you are faced with a significant security risk.< With plastic key cards, however, access can be disabled immediately for the employee, protecting your company and the people who work for it.

Plastic Key Cards Help Keep Expenses Down

• If an employee of your business loses a metal key, your building is no longer secure. Changing locks can be an expensive and time consuming task – and the frequency of lost keys increases as your business grows and hires new people. When you make the switch to plastic key cards, on the other hand, you can simply disable access for the lost key card and create a new one for your employee, saving time and money.
• Theft and vandalism is a very real threat to your company’s bottom line. Keys offer your employees anonymity and give you no protection against after-hours events. However, employees who know that their building entry time can be tracked via their key card will be much less likely to steal from or do damage to your company.
• The printable plastic surface of your key card is the perfect place to put important contact information such as office numbers, website addresses, emergency contact information and other details that employees might need to refer to again and again. By printing this information there, you can cut down calls to the main desk and help employees get the information you need themselves, rather than taking up some other person’s time.

Traditional metal keys have been the standard for hundreds of years, but in today’s world they are quickly becoming a relic of the past. For the security of your business, as well as the bottom line, discover how to use plastic key cards to your advantage.

A barcode is a series of wide and narrow bars that can be scanned.  There are many different types of barcodes you can put on your plastic cards; the most common one seen is the Universal Product Code or UPC code that you see on items that you purchase at stores. You can scan the barcode with your barcode scanner and it will then bring up the information that is stored in your system from the barcode. A number can also be printed that is associated with the barcode as a human readable number on your plastic cards. So if your barcode did not scan you can also manually type in the barcode number in which it would bring up the same information that is stored. The type of barcode you will need will be dependent on the type of system you have. This information would be found through your product provider. There are many different types of barcodes that are used today so all we would need to know is the type of barcode you will need and the number sequence that you would like to use on your plastic cards.

UV finished will generally make the plastic cards come out nice in color quality, more vibrant, but if the plastic cards are being used a lot there would be no protection. UV finish is recommended for cards that have bright color in nature, cards that will not be handled often or maybe a one-time use reward card or some kind of discount card.

Overlay makes the color less vibrant but it lasts longer if the cards are being used more often. There is more protection with this option. We recommend using overlay with membership cards, loyalty cards, rewards cards, any type of cards that will be used frequently.

The cost of acquiring new customers is one of the most expensive things that businesses have to deal with. Getting the word out and sealing the deal on that first sale can cut into profit margins, so savvy businesses focus on compelling strategies to turn customers into repeat buyers. While there are many tools you can use both online and offline to encourage these multiple purchases, there is one tactic that can easily keep your brand in front of customers every day of the year: Those small plastic cards that attach to a customer’s keychain.

These little marketing tools pack a big punch when it comes to reinforcing your brand and your offers.Let’s take a look at a few tips to use these little plastic cards to the advantage of your business.

• Use color wisely. While you don’t want to use a garish color that discourages your customers from putting it on their keychain, you do want to use one that gets their attention frequently. Odds are high that your customers already have multiple key cards on their keychain from supermarkets, video rental stores, etc., so make yours eye-catching.Colors like green, blue, and yellow command attention. Avoid harsher colors like orange and red, unless these are specific to your brand.
• Give customers a truly compelling reason to keep your card with them at all times, by tying a useful benefit to having the card on-hand. You could consider using your key card as a miniature version of a loyalty card, membership card, or fundraising card. Many grocery stores use this model successfully, giving die-cut plastic cards to their customers that consist of one wallet-sized card with one or two small key cards included. By using identical barcodes on both sizes, you can link the two to the same customer account.
• Put an unconventional spin on an existing product. When customers purchase prepaid phone cards or gift cards, don’t give them the typical plastic card they might be expecting. Instead, give them plastic key cards that they can take with them and look at conveniently whenever the need arises. Make sure your cards have useful information on them as phone numbers, business hours and even a website address where they can recharge their cards when they have used up the balance on them. Give them an incentive to continue using the card, such as a 10% bonus when adding credit to their key card online.

Plastic key cards can be an effective and inexpensive part of your company’s overall marketing strategy, bringing in repeat sales from customers who are continually exposed to your message every time they reach for their keys. By keeping your brand in front of the customer, you reinforce the message it carries on an ongoing basis, keeping your business fresh in mind all year round. Consider the many affordable options for plastic card printing today and discover how this tiny tool can yield big results for your bottom line.

No matter what business you’re in, you know that the key to increasing sales is staying visible to customers and getting their attention as often as possible. By keeping your message in front of your customers over and over again throughout the course of the year, it becomes that much easier to boost your revenue through people who think of you first when they need the types of products and services that you offer. One simple and effective way to ensure your company gets the attention that it deserves is by ordering wallet-size plastic cards with a yearly calendar printed on them. Here are a few tips to help you design calendar cards that customers want to keep year-round.

• When you lay out your calendar, be sure to leave a little bit of room at the bottom for you to put a personal message. While you could put your company logo here, this will not necessarily give your customer an incentive to do more business with you. Instead, give them a prompt to think about your company for a moment and to consider what they might need to purchase from it. Having a phrase such as “Flip over this card to see 5 special offers” gives them a perfect incentive to think about buying from you again.
• On the back of your calendar card, list a few truly compelling special offers or discounts that your customer will be sure to appreciate. You could offer specific discounts, or use the card itself as a coupon by printing scannable bar codes on the back. One other option is to print plastic cards that have scratch-off squares on the back that reveal extra discounts or offers. You have a lot of possibilities when it comes to plastic card printing, so spend some time thinking about creative ways to market using your calendar cards.
• Finally, ensure that the calendar is more functional to the customer by adding little touches that make it easier to read. Shade the weekends so that the work week stands out. Add a bit of color to typical holidays or special days throughout the year. Or, better yet, link the offers on the back of the card to specific days, and then mark those days on the calendar by shading or changing the text color to something unique. This will give your customers one additional push to return to you again and again.

Many companies use a plastic card printing service to create calendar cards for them, but fail to scratch the surface of what can be done with them. By doing little more than printing a calendar along with a clever logo or business name, they do not create something the customer will keep and refer to year round. But by using the three tips above, and designing your card so that it has a strong call to action and an attractive calendar, you could bring in repeat customers and increase your income all year long.