App aims to warm shop’s welcome

B.good, a healthy-fast food chain with five Boston area stores, is among the first local businesses to use Stamp, an iPhone application customers can download for free. Once they enter information - such as their name and favorite menu item - they simply open the app upon entering a restaurant and the data show up on an iPod at the register. The system allows the server to offer a tiny dose of personalized service in an often impersonal service world.

“It’s something that’s missing nowadays,’’ said Ramchandani, 27, who downloaded Stamp after seeing promotional signs in the restaurant. “A lot of the time you go to a store and people just don’t know who you are.’’

Stamp also functions as a digital rewards card, replacing the typical “buy 10, get one free’’ paper promotions used by many restaurants. When an order is placed, the server taps the customer’s profile on the store’s iPod, and that person is credited with a visit. After a specified number of times, the customer earns a free sandwich, drink, ice cream, or some other reward.

The app was created by a pair of Cambridge entrepreneurs, Nick Tommarello and Matt Salzberg, to be a technologically savvy, yet inexpensive tool for businesses such as restaurants, coffee shops, or bookstores. Although it’s now available for use only on Apple Inc.’s iPhone, a version for other smart phones is on the way. The start-up fee for a business is $240, with monthly subscription fees rang ing between $50 and $200, depending on use.

“Stores ask me to join their loyalty rewards program, but I don’t want to carry their plastic card in my wallet. I don’t have enough space,’’ said Tommarello. “This is technology that makes your life easier. You don’t have to carry anything extra.’’

Salzberg, 26, a Harvard Business School student, said the paperless feature is just one of Stamp’s benefits.

“Because it’s on the phone, there’s so much more you can do with it’’ than with a paper loyalty card, he said. “If you notice a guy hasn’t visited your store in a while, you can reach out to him with a message and give him a free burger and say, ’Hey, we’d love to have you back here.’ ’’

In addition, businesses can create profiles within the application to advertise to Stamp users who are not yet customers. Jon Olinto, cofounder of b.good, built one that includes a rap video touting the restaurant. And when it comes to customer loyalty rewards, he plans on some surprises.

“If I know you love b.good and you come every day, well, maybe I’m going to give you like 100 burgers. Here’s 100 burgers - go out and give them to your 100 buddies,’’ Olinto said. “I want to identify the people who care about us the most and I want to be able to reward them like crazy. That’s where I see the real value in this.’’

IPod-carrying customers at the restaurant during the launch of Stamp Oct. 22 also liked the concept.

“I use this all the time already,’’ said Enrique Diaz, 33, of Boston, wiping some catsup off his iPhone.

But Amy Webb, head of Webbmedia Group, a Baltimore digital strategy consulting firm that evaluates mobile devices and applications, isn’t convinced Stamp will sell.

“This seems it’s really geared to younger people, and I don’t think that’s something that’s important to them - that the clerk knows their name,’’ Webb said. “If you go to the same place over and over again, they’re going to know you, anyway.’’

She cited Starbucks’s new iPhone app - which can be used like a credit card to purchase food via a digital bar code scanned at the register - as more promising.

Peter Szende, an assistant professor at Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration, said addressing a customer by name is not always a plus.

“Name usage only makes sense when it is an honest and sincere effort to build a long-term relationship with a customer,’’ Szende said. “Name usage is unnecessary when it simply replaces a number and only serves to speed up the process. ‘Peter, your burger is ready!’ Is that really going to enhance the experience? Also, using names can be a double-edged sword. You have to be extremely careful that you pronounce the names properly.’’

But Tommarello and Salzberg stand by Stamp’s main selling points - convenience and personal control. Stamp doesn’t require an e-mail address, which means no in-box spam, they said, and it works only if a customer chooses to launch it.

At b.good, Olinto expects hundreds more customers will give Stamp a try.

“There’s too much value there not to give it a shot,’’ he said. “To be able to identify who cares the most about your business, that’s what everybody wants.’’

Peter DeMarco can be reached at demarco@globe.com.