UK Timely HITT: Share the love with gift vouchers
From the mother in-law who has everything to the best friend who needs a break...everyone loves a gift voucher! Not only can your clients treat their friends and family with a gift voucher; it’s a great way to share new services and product bundles with existing clients, gain new clients, increase your revenue, and boost your cash flow!
If you’re anything like us, gift shopping might just be the last thing on your list of things to do that’s already as long as the Thames. Don’t you worry…Gift vouchers to the rescue! They’re especially great for anyone frantically searching for that last-minute gift, and with Timely, you can easily create vouchers to sell to your customers, both online and in-store.
Gift voucher laws differ from country to country and sometimes even state to state so best to double-check what applies to you.
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You have the power 💪
You have complete control over the gift voucher process, from creation to redemption. This means you can decide if your vouchers can be purchased online, voided for whatever reason, and if they have an expiry date. You can also decide what the gift voucher terms and conditions are, and customise what information is included on the printed voucher. The gift voucher world is your oyster my friend!
The two types of gift vouchers
Both types of vouchers allow for a personalised message and can be emailed to the recipient or the sender:
- Fixed amount: Think of these as a template voucher for a specified amount that you want to sell to your clients – these are great for specific services and treatments.
- Custom amount: These gift vouchers have their value set at the time of purchase, which is super handy for clients who want to buy a voucher for a specific amount.
Help guide: How to create gift vouchers
Set it up in Timely: Create your gift vouchers
Selling gift vouchers online 🤑
A great way to bring money into your business without having to work for it is to sell gift vouchers online. You’re going to be super busy over the next few months now that you’ve reopened, so this is an easy win.
To be able to sell gift voucher sales online, you need to have a payment gateway set up. But fear not! Our very own TimelyPay is easy as pie to set up, and then you’ve got all the other amazing benefits too. Learn more about TimelyPay.
After you’ve set up Timely Pay and are ready to sell gift vouchers online, you can choose whether to add a gift voucher button or widget to your website, sell via the mini website, or add a direct link to your social media bios or posts.
Let your clients know you’re selling gift vouchers on your social media platforms, and put it in your newsletter if you have one! All your clients need to do is choose which voucher they’d like to buy, enter their own details and the details of the lucky recipient, and pay! The voucher is emailed to either the gift giver or the gift receiver – whichever the client prefers.
Well look at that…you’ve gained some extra cash and a new client for your business, and you didn’t have to do a thing!
Top tip: we recommend using Linktree to add a link to your social media pages – it means you can add multiple links to your bio, making it super easy for your clients to buy vouchers online!
Set it up in Timely:
Setup > Gift vouchers
Setup > Booking buttons
Help Guide: Gift vouchers Help Guides
Selling gift vouchers in store 🛍️
There’s also the old traditional way to sell gift vouchers…in person! Ask your clients when they come for their December appointments if they need any vouchers, or pop a poster on your reception desk letting them know they can buy them with you.
Best of all, you don’t need to set up any extra payment details to do this – you can simply add this to the sale when they’re paying in store. You can send the voucher to them by email, but some people like to have a nice wee voucher to hand over. In that case you can copy the details, including the Timely voucher code, onto the physical voucher.
As with your online vouchers, make sure you let your clients know they can buy gift vouchers with you in store!
Set it up in Timely:
Setup > Gift vouchers
Setup > Booking buttons
Help Guide: Gift vouchers Help Guides
Everyone loves a special offer 😍
There are a couple of ways you can use Timely gift vouchers for special offers, but these work better in the salon rather than online. If you do decide to offer them online, read on to work out which is best for your offer.
Tip: Don’t forget to hide the price of the vouchers if you’re using them for special offers!
Vouchers for specific services at a discounted price
As an example, you can set up a voucher to allow customers to buy a Gel Polish Manicure for £20 (when it would normally be £30) by setting the amount and changing the name to match the treatment it’s for!
Then when the client comes in and purchases the £30 service with the voucher, you can discount the service down to £20 at checkout, and redeem their voucher against this. It’s a good idea to set up a special discount for this so you can keep track of the amount you’ve given away.
Tip: Use the Generic discount type so you can choose how much to discount on the day if you have more than one offer.
Offer a monetary voucher at a discounted price (E.g. A £100 voucher for £70)
To do this we recommend adding vouchers to the system that have the full value in the name, e.g. a £100 Gift Voucher, but you would set the price of the voucher at £70 (the discounted amount).
However, to make sure the client has £100 available and not just the £70, you need to add the additional £30 value as credit to the client record. You’ll need to apply a payment for the credit; to keep track of this you can set up a custom payment type.
Your client will then have the voucher (£70) they have been gifted and the credit (£30) on file to use for their booking!
