Why gift certificates are better than handing out cash? Sometimes I ask myself am I really saying this.
See the article about my friends water store and his is referrals
I see so many Gift Certificates that one can buy for $20 dollars and redeem for $20 dollars. That has never made any real business sense to me. As a customer you are asking me to give you my money at no real advantage to me. Then by me giving you my money for your store credits that I can only redeem at your location you are locking me into being your potential customer still at no benefit to me. Then when I forget to bring my card with me to your store I am not turning back to go get it so, I give you more of my money and get locked into being your customer even longer. I also have the disadvantage of loosing your gift card or letting it expire. Oh I guess I was wrong I can see a real business sense to use them. How come this deal makes me feel like when my brother asks me to play Monopoly just so he can beat me again. Ok really I am the one that asks him to play so I can win, but I thought it would sound nicer if I was the victim.
I know I am not the only one who sees a flaw in this type of reasoning. One would think that business could sale more gift certificates if they only sold them like the Treasury sales money. "Here buy this bond, it will be worth more when you cash it in."
A great closing sales question I have been told to use is, "Why would you pay full price for something that you can get for half off or free?" I use that when I am selling up front discounts to people. Especially when they tell me, "Oh, I will go in and try it out first."
So as with my friends business, offer the customer some saving on buying a gift card. What do you have to loose? A little discount on a sale you might not have gotten if they didn't buy the card.
