Gift Certificates

[gslam88]

Wondering if anyone sells gift certificates?

I was listen to some ad and they them... and wondered about using them....
that way the service is prepaid and money upfront....

Pete

[Chuck Smith]

What did you just say Fred? ;)

~Chuck

[gslam88]

Ok,

Let me restart it....

Does anyone sell gift certificates... or even like the idea .

Keeping it simple then....


Pete

[Chuck Smith]

I tried promoting it for landscaping, right before father's day. I used the "give dad a break" pitch. No takers.

Back in 1995 I was set up to accept Discover, Visa and Mastercard. Paid $12 a month for the terminal, and $44 each for two portable credit card machines (the carbon receipt type). Paid the terminal fee for a year..... no takers. Had the Visa etc. logos on the trucks.

If you think about it, accepting Visa is a bold move, as a picky customer could easily charge it back through Visa....

That was one long agreement I had to sign to get set up. They took 2% of sales (not that I had any).

Not sure how gift certificates would work. Some ideas seem like great ideas..... :beatsme

~Chuck

[Robh]

Gift certificates, simply its a bad idea. Something like this will commit you to do a job that you may not want to do. And who knows where this drive will end up being. Are you prepared to do some driving in a blizzard. Its nothing but headaches in my opinion...Rob

[gslam88]

Guys,

I was thinking more like a dollar amount gift certifacate.. $25 or say $50...

Thinking more of any time of year... mulch, deliveries, plowing, whatever....

No loss of profit to MA \VC or any other credit card... pay me $xx and get gift cert worth $XX

And how often do people give them and they still in a draw or where ever till someone remembers to use them...

I do not think it would be a hugh hit.. but maybe just another way to pull some extra cash in....

Pete

[CPSS]

Yea but what if they give it to their grandmother that lives 20 miles away and she calls you during a big storm when you are already busy with other accounts?

[gslam88]

Guys,

Like I said... just because they have a $50 gift cert.. does not mean it is the price for the whole job... it only how they pay for it... now what the total cost to the customer will be...

Something like that MAY be a $100 plow job for a short small quick job...

Pete

[pbeering]

We do gift certificates for the car detailing side of the business which are cross marketed to the snow list. We put a flyer in the packet when we mark the obstructions in the fall and again when we fix yard damage in the spring. Snow clients get a 20% discount.

Mention them again in the e-mail we send out updating the client distribution list (about to go out for those 11th hour Santas)

We don't do gift certificates for snow, but do plow a couple of drives where a parent or brother pays for son/daughter's drive via credit card. (The friends and family plan...)

The neighborhoods and large commercial accounts pay by check, everyone else via credit card. (Master/Visa/AMEX). We have found that people are much more comfortable paying with plastic these days.