Getting TWO for the price of ONE – why Gift Vouchers can help in acquiring customers

We have talked about Gift Vouchers before but with Christmas coming this is a good time to expand on it. If you hit our blog you will see in the tags section that we have already done several entries on gift vouchers, so you might be wondering what else I could add to the subject. Gift Vouchers are amazing creatures. They are really great for your cash flow – you get paid now (cash in hand) but don’t have to pay out your cost of sales or deliver your service until a later date. But just as importantly, and as our headline suggests, you can actually acquire two customers for the price of one. How good is that?!

So why use gift vouchers?

According to First Data, an international company specialising in the programmable gift cards, using gift cards (or vouchers) has the following effect:

• The amount spent by the redeemer over the value of card averaged $23 US in 2008.
• 11% of cards used were by customers who had never or rarely visited the business’s location [in mall sites].
• Their surveys found that 31% of people asked are more likely to buy a full-price item rather than an item on sale when using a gift card.
• You’ve got the money in your bank account collecting interest until the card is redeemed.
• The voucher acts as advertising with the holder to keep your business in their mind, especially if there is an expiry date.
• According to the American National Retail Federation, 8.8% of holiday gifts will be returned every year. With a gift card recipients choose their own gifts, thereby reducing risk of items being returned.

The real reason why to use gift vouchers

The single most important fact though is that gift vouchers are a tool that gives you the chance to grab information on two potential long term clients. Gift vouchers are essentially a recommendation of your business from one person to another. This means that the purchaser of the voucher already likes what you do, or at least thinks it’s ‘the right fit’ for the person getting the voucher. This is positive view of your company means that it’s the right time to grab people’s details and add them to your customer database for future promotions. You could be even more tricky and give people vouchers for just spending money in your store. I’ve talked about this in my “Marketing Advice Grab Bag,” but another way of doing it is issuing a $10 voucher for every 100 dollars spent on a set range of products or services, to help drive sales in that area and get those all important customer details. Heck you could even go as far as issuing a bonus voucher for spending so much on gift vouchers, as these bonuses tend to be spent by the people buying the voucher in the first place.

How to get the details

It’s pretty simple. When someone buys the voucher, just ask for their details as part of the security process of selling the voucher. It adds a level of professionalism, because if they lose a voucher or it gets destroyed then you can just check your records, and issue a replacement simply and quickly. Meanwhile you have just added them to your database of clients. When the voucher is redeemed, go through the process again just so that you have records to make sure that its the right person redeeming it. Again it makes you look professional and in return you get a brand new set of details to add to the database.

So there’s the real reason why you want to be making use of the power of gift vouchers. Want have those vouchers ready for the holiday season then talk to us at Copy Express today and we’ll get it sorted for you.