Gift Cards are more than just convenient presents; they are gateways to fostering new customer relationships and enhancing the loyalty of your existing guests. By offering Gift Cards, your business can not only excite and engage your customers, but also motivate your team with an important monthly sales goal and reward.

Coach Kristi Valenzuela with Summit Salon Business Center orchestrated an online course, “Gift Cards Strategies that Work,” that is helping salon owners across the country boost their sales. After watching the course, Chad Butler, one of the owner partners of Shannon Aleksandr’s in Evansville, says that so far this year the salon has increased his gift card sales by 44% over last year’s sales.

“We always had gift cards available, but we weren’t doing anything in particular to market them,” he says. “Now, we have a different promotion every month—for example, one month, for every gift card over $100 purchased the guest is entered in a contest to win an additional $100 gift card. For Mother’s Day, the raffled prize was a skincare basket with $250 in products.”

Year-Round Engagement

To keep Gift Cards at the forefront of your guests' minds, creativity is key, says Valenzuela. Implement engaging, fun promotions throughout the year, not limiting the excitement to just a few holidays. This constant presence in your marketing calendar ensures Gift Cards remain a top-of-mind choice for gifting.

“We always had gift cards available, but we weren’t doing anything in particular to market them,” he says. “Now, we have a different promotion every month—for example, one month, for every gift card over $100 purchased the guest is entered in a contest to win an additional $100 gift card. For Mother’s Day, the raffled prize was a skincare basket with $250 in products.”

By arranging the products in a basket with crinkle paper and shrink-wrapping it and strategically placing it at the front desk, the team’s receptionists have something new to talk about with guests and something they can indicate to.

Butler also bought sleek, black picture frames to serve as station talkers, and every month he updates them with the monthly promotion, plus announces the winner of the previous month’s contest. It’s a subtle message to guests that the salon truly is awarding the prizes, and creates a sense of community.

Sales Goals and Team Incentives

Setting monthly sales goals for Gift Cards is crucial, says Valenzuela. These goals serve as motivational benchmarks for your front desk team, aligning them with your business objectives. Achieving these targets should be celebrated and rewarded, fostering a culture of achievement and teamwork within your organization.

Butler says gift card sales also are part of the bonus program for the front desk team at Shannon Aleksandr’s, along with retail to service goals, prebooking goals and add-on service goals. Each guest services team member receives a $25 bonus for every monthly goal reached, and an extra $25 if they reach all four.

Benchmark Assessment

To gauge where your business is on the scale of gift card sales, Valenzuela challenges owners and managers to take this quick assessment:

This best describes my gift card sales planning....

• I have a 12-month plan with last year's sales (same month), # units sold, and growth goal.  

• I only create a sales projection for gift cards during the holiday months.

• I just think of a dollar amount for the month, and we do the best we can to hit it

• I've never figured out monthly sales plan for gift card sales, but it seems like a really good idea!

This best describes how I build gift card sales promotions...

• I just do the same one every year because our guests seem to love it.

• I’d love to have different gift card promotions throughout the year, but I don't know where to start.

• I really don't build gift card promotions throughout the year because it seems as though our existing clients just buy the gift card for themselves to get the deal.

I currently sell gift cards because...

• It helps us meet new guests.

• It allows my existing guests to purchase gift card promotions as a fun way to participate in salon promotions and deals.

• Having a gift card sales goal is a way to engage, motivate and reward the front desk team when they help the salon achieve the goal.

• I offer gift cards because my competitors offer them.

Currently, our signage is...

• Beautifully branded, using a style guide of fonts, photos, color that perfectly fits our brand.

• We've been doing the best we can, but we could use a bit of focus.

• We have good intentions, but sometimes our signs don't get made or put up.

• We have signage, but I don't think we have it posted in enough places to really make a marketing statement.

• We have signage, but depending on who does them, they look different all the time.

Check List: Gift Card Best Practices:

To amp up your gift card strategy and sales, Coach Valenzuela offers the following tips: 

STAY INSPIRED – LOOK, LEARN, RECREATE

• Admire the creativity of how other businesses offer gift cards.

• Take a pictures of gift card promotions, keep a folder in your phone photo album.

• Start thinking about how to recreate a strategy similar for your brand.

• Analyze how they are marketing to their customers – signage, team training, social media, etc.

CREATE A SALES PLAN – BENCHMARKS AND GOALS

• Pull your last 12 months of gift card sales – (each month separately)

• Create a monthly goal 20% greater than the same month the year prior.

• Analyze past promotions – what worked? What didn’t work.

• Create promotions throughout the year.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL DIGITAL – GET IN THE GAME

• Create a navigation button on your website “GIFT CARDS” – describe opportunities.

• Plan to post weekly or bi-weekly announcements about your gift card offerings.

• Create an online shopping option for gift cards.

• Generate signage with QR Codes to take customer directly to Gift Card page.

2-WEEKS PRIOR TO GIFT CARD PROMOTION LAUNCH

• Create Signage and Send to Printer

• Write and print scripts for front desk.

• Talk through the promotion at team meeting.

• Post the promotion, signage example, and scripts in back room.

DAY-1 OF GIFT CARD PROMOTION LAUNCH

• Talk about the promotion each time a guest checks in.

• Remind to our team on your private FB page, or Group APP, or breakroom.

• Place signage everywhere in the salon.

THROUGHOUT THE MONTH – NOURISH THE SALES

• Social Media Post - 1 x week

• Post weekly $ results in the break room 

AFTER THE GIFT CARD PROMOTION

• Quantify the total sales results and compare it to the $ goal.

• Celebrate the achievements of the team - announcement, thank you note in back room, announcement at team meeting.

• Reward your front desk team members according to their individual monthly GC sales goal, or team GC sales goal.