Gift certificates have become an important part of modern business, walk into any major store and you will find them available for sale. Very often small business owners are unsure on what type of information to include on a gift certificate. In this article we will explain exactly what information should be included on a purchasable gift certificate.
Company, business or organization name: The first piece of information that is essential to be included on a gift certificate is your business name. If you are going to use a template, make sure that there is an option to include this information. Your customers need to know for what company or place of business the certificate is used for.
To: Including a “To” or a “Recipient” field is a good way to personalize a gift certificate for a specific person. It also adds some security, by preventing gift certificates from being transferred or re-sold. Customers who want to purchase a certificate for a friend or a family member, want to have the option of a customized certificate with a person’s name on it. It simply shows a personal touch. If you have ability to customize gift certificates for individuals then it is recommend that you do so.
However in some cases, especially if demand is high you may not have the time to print and cut out each individual gift certificate for each customer. In that case you may wish to enter a more general term in the to field, such as “Valued Customer”. This allows you to pre-print gift certificates and sell them quicker, sometimes customers may not be willing to wait a few minutes for you to generate a custom certificate.
From: The “From” field or in some cases called “Sender” or “Sender’s Name”, is very similar to the “To” field except it normally includes the name of the person who purchased the gift certificate. If you plan to print each individual certificate for each customer, then having a customer’s name in the from field is a good idea. People who are buying your gift certificates, often want to have their name included to show that they purchased the certificate. If you can’t provide customized certificates for each customer, you can pre-print and include your company name in the from field. Since technically speaking the certificate is from your business to a customer.
Value or Amount: This is an essential field and must include some type of an amount or value, usually gift certificates start at $5 to $10 dollars on the low end, $25 and $50 on the mid range and $100 or over on the high end. You have ask yourself what product or service are you offering? If you are working as a hair dresser or a barber and a haircut costs $25 dollars than a $25 dollar certificate would be a great idea. But if you running a luxury massage or spa business and the typical prices are a few hundred dollars per a customer, then providing gift certificates in that range would make more sense. Of course you if you are making custom certificates for each customer, you can simply create a certificate in the amount that your customers require.
You can also include a service instead of an amount, for example “One Premium Haircut” in the case of a hair salon. If your business is a restaurant maybe your customer wants to offer their co-worker a gift certificate to try a specific specialty dish that you offer. In that case they can pre-pay for the meal and you offer them a custom gift certificate in exchange.
Continued in information to include on a gift certificate – Part 2
Gift template supports all entry fields discussed in both parts of this article, create your gift certificate today.