3 GREAT Gift Card Ideas
Gift and prepaid cards can be one of the best ways to promote your coffee shop. Here are 3 GREAT gift and prepaid card ideas we have gathered from customers of our cafe, coffee & pizza point of sale solution.
1) Buy a card, get something free. The key to this is to really push this with customers that pay with a credit card or cash. Those are the customers of your coffee shop that don’t have a card already. If I don’t pay with a prepaid card, then you are missing out! This could be $30 and your drink is free or $50 and you get bread sticks free.
2) Offer a VIP discount for paying with the card. It’s simple really. If they use the card, they get sort of VIP bonus. Offer a free extra shot of espresso, a free flavor shot or topping on a pizza. This pushes the customer to always have money on their card in order to get the reward. 
3) Offer a cash back reward system. Instead of working with buy 10 get 1 free, use our percentage cash back system. This method of loyalty/rewards, allows you to push a percentage (think 5-10%) back to the customers gift card. The customer then always has a balance on their gift card! It is a great way to “train” customers to use their cards on a regular basis.
Want more ideas? Check out more of our blogs on gift cards.
Posted in Gift Cards, Marketing Tagged with: gift cards, loyalty, rewards
Rewards Methods That Make You Money
SP-1 has a very powerful gift and rewards program that is 100% free. I thought I’d be fun to cover the three different options we have for rewards in the system.
1) Buy 10 get 1 free. There are a number of variations on this but the basic premise is that a customer gets one free drink for every ten they buy.
Pros: The great thing about this is that it is simple and easy to explain. Your customers will feel that they are getting something free. The theory is that customers keep coming back as they have that next reward to look forward to.
Cons? It’s only really available in one category. Also, it encourages customers to buy cheap drinks and then ask for a more expensive drink as their free one. That can actually be a pro however. We have customers that encourage the free drink to be something the customer does not normally try.
2) Points. This is a variation on the above. Instead of earning rewards based on the quantity of drinks purchased, it is based on the dollar amount purchased. Usually one point equals one dollar. For example – 35 points is a $3.50 drink.
Pros: It stops the guys from buying $2.00 drip and then getting a $5.00 mocha. Also, you can have up to five levels of redemption. For example, 35 points is $3.50 off. $50 points is $3.50 drink and a muffin and so on. Finally, you can use this on more than one category. This is a more flexible version of the above.
Cons: It’s difficult to explain quickly to customers.
3) Percent Back. This is a completely different thought. Instead of points or punches, customers earn a percentage back on each purchase. Usually 5%-10%. This cash back goes on the customer gift card for their next purchase.
Pros: It’s free money to the customer. They can spend it whenever and however they like. This also keeps the customer thinking they have cash on their card. It’s pretty easy to explain as well. From a psychology standpoint, the customer is never getting a free drink. They are always purchasing it with their gift card money. This means you are rarely devaluing your product. Finally, you can easily change the percentage or end the reward at any time because the customer automatically has their money. With the other two methods it can be hard to end the program because the customers perceive that they are losing points or punches.
Cons: They are never really seeing the “free” aspect of the reward.
There you go! Give us a call and see it in action.
Posted in Gift Cards, POS Features Tagged with: buy 10 get 1 free, cash back, gift card, points, punches, rewards
Rewards & loyalty in SP-1
As you might know, SP-1 has the ability, built in, to handle a rewards program. Recently we have been getting more questions about the ways this can be used.
Typically the rewards program is used in conjunction with a plastic card that can be used as a gift or prepaid card as well. There are two different paths to setting up the rewards system in SP-1.
The first concept is a buy X get Y free. This is typically setup on a specific menu group (coffee, pizza etc) and works by adding one point (or punch) to the customers account per item purchased. So, in a buy 10 get 1 free scenario, the customer would buy 10 drinks and then get 1 free. Essentially, this should work out to a 10% discount to the customer.
The upside to a Buy 10 get 1 Free? It’s easy for your customers and employees to understand. Everyone “gets” it when they see the promotion. The downside? It only works well with one menu category so you are limiting exposure. Also, it’s tough to base it on the particular item the customer orders and that can result in people taking advantage of the system.
The second concept is using a point per dollar system. This is setup so that every dollar spent earns a set amount of points. For simplicity sake, $1.00 equals 1 point. Once the customer has earned enough points, they can trade that in on a discounted item, a free item or even for money added to their gift card.
The upside to this? It’s very flexible and it opens the entire menu up for earning points. You can also select up to five redemption rewards for the customer to earn. The downside? It can easily become too complicated for the average customer to quickly understand.
Common promotions that are used out there with these rewards programs include:
Buy 10 get 1 free.
Double point Tuesday.
Spend $1 get 1 point.
35 points for a free drink (up to $3.50).
50 points gets 50% off your next order (up to $5.00).
50 points gets you $5.00 on your gift card.
If you are a roaster or sell coffee / tea in bulk, then another way to treat the program is to offer to supply a certain amount of coffee or tea for home use after 10 drinks or a certain amount of points. It’s a great way to help convert customers into drinking your product at home.
These are just a few ways people use the rewards program in SP-1. Let us know what your ideas are!
Posted in Gift Cards, Order Entry, POS Features Tagged with: loyalty, rewards
Tips on Gift Cards
Do you take tips? Over the last couple years we have been asked by people that take tips to allow those tips to be placed on a gift card as well as a credit card.
Well, that ability became possible earlier this year! We added the ability to have a gift card function almost identical to a credit card. So, to walk through this. . .
Customer orders something and you go to the Ticket Completion Screen.
Select Gift Card and swipe the card.
SP-1 will now print a slip with a tip line and signature line right away. When the customer hands that back, hit the tip button and add the tip!
Remember – Gift cards are no fee and no swipe charge when used through either SP-1, the Multi-store gift and loyalty corporate package or through our Mercury Payment (credit card referral partner).
Contact us at:
Mike Spence
SelbySoft, Inc
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371
Posted in Gift Cards Tagged with: gift cards, loyalty, rewards