4 Reasons to Sell Gift Cards by Price, Not Service

It’s officially the holiday seasons, which means it’s gift card season for many of you. I’ve talked about all kinds of things concerning gift cards sales before, but one thing I think is really important and I want to discuss individually; selling gift cards by price, not by service. 

While I know selling by service may seem nice from the giver’s standpoint; they’re buying a specific service for someone, for the recipient of that gift card and for you, it’s way better to sell by price.

So here’s 4 reasons to do it this way…

#1 This allows the recipient to change what they’re getting when booking if the service chosen by the giver wasn’t exactly what they wanted. This can also lend itself to upgrading their service to a higher priced one so there’s additional revenue for you. So let’s say a guy comes in buying a gift card for his wife and he picks some super luxurious spa package for her. So nice, right? But maybe she doesn’t like one of the services – like she gives herself body scrubs on a regular basis and thinks the scrub is a waste so she’d rather do the fancier body wrap, or she just doesn’t like facials, whatever. If it’s a strict package, it can often kinda jumble up things for the client and for you to try to coordinate. So you may very well want to upsell certain packages or services to the gift card buyer, specifically saying that with this certain amount on the gift card they could get x, y, or z services or packages; also mention the flexibility for the recipient. This subtly encourages them to go for the higher price point to be sure the recipient can pick and choose what they want out of the available options, which is going to make them happier.

#2 If your prices increase and a gift certificate has been out for a while, there’s no loss on your part to fulfill a service at a previous price point to honor your gift card agreement or shock the recipient when you tell them they’re responsible for the difference. Granted, part of your gift card agreement should include a clause about price increases regardless, but if the gift card says a 1-hour massage and the buyer paid $70 for it 2 years ago and you’re now up to $100/hr, then you’re either stuck losing out on $30 or there’s going to be a bit of a shock when you tell that recipient it only pays for part of the 1-hour massage and they’re responsible for paying the $30 difference. Not a good scenario either way.

#3 This potential for change also applies to services you may no longer offer in the future or employees who are no longer with you (even if you think they’re solid now). I’ve seen spas who lost their esthetician and still had gift cards out for facials but no one to perform them; things like that can cause a big headache.

#4 It’s just easier for everyone, honestly. It’s more straightforward in your tracking, and the client can simply look at your menu of services and determine what they can get.

So while gift cards should be part of your sales and marketing year round, now’s the time to really push them even more because the holiday season’s sale of gift cards can, not only give you a big boost in initial revenue, but also fill up your books for that often slow period in January and February.