You may or may not know that Chick-fil-a trains people to give free food cards out quite frequently. Why? Because they really really work.

They work for two critical reasons:

1. The Endowment Effect - Things we possess are ascribed higher value (12x more) because we've earned, won or found them AND we now possess them. It's innate for us to not lose things we have so that we can survive. The card becomes valuable to us by simply possessing it and it being worth free food.

2. Habit Loops - Trigger > Action > Reward > Investment. As Nir Eyal writes in "Hooked" these are the devices that create a habit loop. In Chick-fil-a's case:

- Trigger: card is handed to someone and now they possess it.
- Action: person wants to visit and use the card (they usually expire. urgency. loss avoidance.)
- Reward: free food is achieved and a "win" is perceived
- Investment: in the same motion of arrival and redemption the meal is filled out with paid drinks and sides. “The more users invest time and effort into a product or service, the more they value it. In fact, there is ample evidence to suggest that our labor leads to love.”

Excerpt From
Hooked by Nir Eyal & Ryan Hoover