Several Park City businesses are excited about the new Local Card by Slant Media Group.
Tom Richardson, owner of Beadniks in Redstone, said he’s already seen an uptick in business from people taking advantage of deals he’s offering through the program.
The concept is by Slant’s Glenn Cogan who found himself looking for more deals to save money at local businesses. The concept of a local’s card is nothing new, but each place does it a little differently.
For the Park City card, businesses pay a few hundred dollars to register as participants. They are then allowed to create an account where they can post deals, sales or discounts accessible to all card holders. If authorized, they can even email those offerings to card holders.
Business owner Paula Wild of NYPD Pizzeria said she loves using the program because texting frequent customers is expensive, mailers kill trees, but emails are free and easy.
Most card users welcome the emails, said Slant’s business relations director Sabrina Lodrick.
Initial response to the idea of a local’s card last September was overwhelming, she said. So the first week of January, about 15,000 cards were mailed out to Park City residents and almost 5,000 have been registered so far, she said.
Card receivers are encouraged to go to www.pclocalcard.com to activate the card. Getting emails from local businesses is optional, and the website has the discounts posted; users simply click on the type of vendor they’re looking for.
Richardson said he’s excited about the card because they’ve worked great in other communities he’d had businesses in. The city he’s in half the year allows businesses to participate for free and requires residents to pay for the card.
The fact that the Park City card is so user-friendly bodes well for its success, he said.
Registering the card takes about 30 seconds, Lodrick said. It asks for the card number, a PIN and a little bit of personal information.
Plans for the future are to personalize the card with the holder’s name, like a credit card, and a magnetic strip for a reward’s program. Whenever a user purchases anything through normal means, they can have the business swipe the Local Card as well racking up points to be redeemed for bigger discounts, she said.
Slant Media Group is also offering a blog at the Local Card site for user feedback. Because it’s still new, there are kinks being worked out. Lodrick said they welcome feedback of any kind, positive or negative, so the glitches can be smoothed out.
Wild admitted she was skeptical of the program at first, but fell in love with the card’s database. It’s hard for a small business to keep track of potential customers to market to, she said. Now she can do it through the Local Card cheaply, sustainably and instantly.
“It’s free for users; all they have to do is save,” she said.
Contact Slant Media Group or go to the Local Card website to obtain a card. A few businesses, like Beadniks, have volunteered to offer the cards at their locations.