John Turnham
John founded Wallet Inc. and builds the platform it runs on. He writes here about the thing he spends his time on: how a business keeps the customers it already has, and why so much of that work fails at the last step, when nobody can reach anyone.
25 articles
- How to put a pass in Apple and Google Wallet, no app required
How to add your store credit, points, and vouchers to Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, with no app, working on both iPhone and Android out of the box.
- Do you need an app? What a wallet does instead
Building an app is expensive and most customers never download it. Here is what a no-app wallet does instead: the app-like experience without the app.
- Add your event to a customer's calendar with one tap, no app
Let customers add your event, class, or appointment to their phone calendar in a tap, straight from a wallet, with no app to download.
- Turn your phone number and address into one-tap actions
A wallet turns your contact details into actions: tap to call, tap for directions, and save your business straight to the customer's address book.
- No password, just a texted code: how customer sign-in should work
Passwordless login lets customers into their wallet with a texted one-time code instead of a password, so there is nothing to forget, reset, or steal.
- How to redeem an offer with a QR code, kept private until it's tapped
How redemption QR codes work in a wallet: the business scans the customer's code to redeem, and tap-to-reveal keeps the code hidden until the moment of use.
- What a mobile wallet does that a website can't: it stays
A website is a place customers visit and then close. A mobile wallet is something they keep: your contact, your event, your pass, left behind in their phone.
- What is a digital wallet for business (and what actually goes in it)
A digital wallet for business is a branded pass your customers keep on their phone, holding your offers, loyalty, and contact, with no app to download.
- Digital vouchers vs coupons: what is the difference?
The difference between a digital voucher and a coupon, when to use each, and why a single-use, trackable voucher gives you clean attribution a code cannot.
- Timed offers: how urgency drives a visit this week
What a timed offer is, why urgency drives a visit now instead of someday, the main shapes it takes, and how to run one from a no-app wallet on the customer's phone.
- How to turn subscribers into paying customers
You have a list of subscribers. Here is how to turn them into paying customers, with the timing, relevance, and offers that move a follower to a first and repeat visit.
- What are digital offers? (And how they turn followers into customers.)
What digital offers are, the main types (standard, timed, vouchers, store credit), how customers redeem them with no app, and how they turn a follower into a paying customer.
- Digital business cards: what they are, how they work, and how to make one
Digital business cards explained: what they are, the three ways to share one, how to make one that updates itself, and how a business turns a shared contact into a customer.
- What is a casino loyalty program? (And where the best ones now live.)
What a casino loyalty program is, how a player's club works, and why the best ones now live as a no-app membership in the guest's phone wallet.
- How to collect customer phone numbers (without a clipboard or an app)
How to collect customer phone numbers without a clipboard or an app, using a one-tap, compliant QR or keyword flow that builds an opt-in list from the phone.
- Put your loyalty card in Apple and Google Wallet, no app required
How to add a loyalty card to Apple Wallet and Google Wallet without an app, and why the card in the wallet is the one customers actually keep.
- Run a real loyalty program this week, without buying software or building an app
How to run a loyalty program without buying software or building an app, using a no-app virtual card that lives in your customer's phone wallet.
- Marketing attribution for the rest of us: know what drove the visit
Marketing attribution made simple for small businesses: use one trackable branded link per campaign to know what drove each visit, no data team required.
- How to use QR codes for small-business marketing (and actually track them)
How to use QR codes for small-business marketing and actually track them, with branded, trackable, editable codes that point at a no-app wallet link.
- Turn one-time customers into regulars, with a loyalty program that lives in their wallet
How a wallet-based loyalty program turns one-time customers into regulars, with a no-app pass that lives in the phone wallet they already carry.
- What does 'link in bio' mean? (And how to make yours do more.)
What 'link in bio' means and how to make yours do more, turning the one link on your profile into a no-app wallet that remembers every visitor who taps it.
- Progressive web apps, explained: an installable app without the app store
Progressive web apps explained: an installable, offline-capable app without the app store, and how a branded wallet PWA reaches customers with no download.
- What is a white-label app, and when does your business want one?
What a white-label app is and when your business wants one, plus how a no-app branded wallet puts your brand in customers' hands without building software.
- What is customer lifecycle management? A plain guide to the four stages
A plain guide to customer lifecycle management and its four stages, showing how to meet each customer where they are, from a no-app wallet on their phone.
- SMS marketing, explained: what it is, what it costs, and whether it works
SMS marketing explained: what it is, what it costs, and whether it works, plus how opt-in texting runs from the no-app wallet on your customer's phone.
