Everyone Eats Right? Why Restaurants Should Take the Plunge and Offer Gift Cards!

Buying gifts for birthdays, holidays and other special occasions is more stressful for some people than the actual holiday itself. Trying to guess what the person wants… will they hate it… will they return it… so much guesswork that is has become very commonplace to purchase a gift card instead of an a actual gift. Many retail stores, and almost all chains, offer them now.  And why not?  It doesn’t really matter what you buy…they just want you to come in and shop. This is why a gift card is perfect: 

• They get you in the door to purchase the gift card.
• You may buy other things while you are there to purchase your gift card.
• You will turn around and give your gift card to the recipient giving them another customer.
• The recipient will come in and use their card and either spends more than the card value…or they may even spend less. 

No matter how you look at it, the store has made money…and potentially even more depending on the customer’s behavior in the store.  This should be the easiest way to gain more business. Sooooo….where do restaurants fit in?

Restaurants really have a special advantage.  Everyone eats and most really enjoy it.  If you have great food and service, people want to share that experience.  And lucky for restaurants, people eat out a lot and not just on special occasions or holidays; however, according to the National Restaurant Association 6 in 10 Americans want a restaurant gift card as a holiday gift. So what better way to increase business than encouraging your patrons to buy gift cards from their favorite restaurant.  And it is easy to do. Many establishments offer incentives either by purchasing so much in cards to get a free card for themselves.  Some restaurants even offer free appetizers, drinks and dessert as well.  For some customers who planned on purchasing a gift card anyway, this incentive sweetens the deal. 

If cost is a concern, as it always should be, start small and see what happens.  Many point of sale (POS) systems already have the ability to load cards by barcode or magnetic stripe and many business owners aren’t even aware of the feature. Contact your provider…it may be as simple as turning it on, or just some additional training. Purchasing the actual plastic gift cards is actually pretty easy too.  Many POS providers will tell you that you can only purchase from them, which is not the case. A good plastic card provider can take a sample card and tell you what magnetic strip or barcode to order with your cards, and can guide you through every step of the process.  You can even have the company design your card, or if you are lucky, they offer gift card online design capabilities where you can do it on your own.  The process need not be stressful, but actually exciting; especially when you see your tables full and more profits coming through the door!

Plastic Gift Cards Could Be The Missing Piece to your Puzzle

Are sales exactly where you want them to be? Do you feel like you are doing everything you need to do in the marketing arena, but nothing is bringing in the results you want?  Well, a plastic gift card program may be exactly what your business needs to rejuvenate customers and sales.

What exactly do gift cards do that miraculously seems to help sales? If you think about when you get a gift card, most often than not, it seems to be a ticket to over shop.  The mentality is “I can afford to buy those $200 pair of shoes because I have a gift card for $100.” It seems silly, but many feel that way. But on the flip side, you also have the opposite where customers will purchase $28.00 worth of merchandise on a $30.00 gift card and never use the remaining $2.00 for a variety of reasons; most often it is just forgotten.  What does that mean for your business…MONEY! It doesn’t really matter if customers spend more or less than what is on their gift card; your company still wins!

There is also two big perks, as well, to offering gift cards to your customers. First, getting NEW customers! When you purchase a gift card for someone, they may, or may not, be a current customer. If they weren’t, then you now have the opportunity to keep them coming back.  And second, most people want to either give or receive a gift card because it is incredibly easy. According to the National Retail Federation, November 2015, 75% of consumers surveyed planned on purchasing at least one gift card. And out of that 75%, 82% will purchase more than one.  It’s that “more than one” alone that should peak your interest.

From restaurants to spas, everyone is taking advantage of what gift cards can do to help grow their business. There are very few industries that can’t find some benefit to offering plastic gift cards to their customers.