Balance expiry, talk to me
It may sound dull, balance expiry, but we’re quite excited about it at Toggle. We know, we know. It’s a big feature we released in March 2019 that manifests itself in a small, modest configuration box when you set up your gift. We’ve already written an article about it here, but we thought this blog that talks through why it’s useful would be, well, useful. Even for not-yet-Togglers, we see you.
Creates expectation and intention for the customer
As much as you might strive for it, you probably won’t be the most important thing in your customers’ lives. Make it a bit more pressing with a balance expiry date. Right from the off, seeing an expiry date gives people that sense of ‘I really need to plan this in’ rather than a ‘I’ll get round to it’.
Helps you plan
When you sell an experience, it means you have to provide that experience (let’s hope that’s not news to you). Imagine you sell a Micro Brewery Tour experience. It flies off the virtual shelves so much so that a few years down the line your micro brewery grows into something, well, less micro. The Tour is no more.
You’ve delisted that experience ages ago, but someone comes along wanting to book their tour they had from a few years back. Sorry pal! We’ve no doubt your excellent customer service and charisma could sort it out, but it’s not a great customer experience.So basically, you can set expiry dates on gift and experiences that you know you’ll still be able to honour within that time frame if someone were to buy it now.
Increase redemption rate
Balance expiry may seem great for your accounts because unredeemed value hits your bottom line, all officially and stuff. However, what we really want is for people to turn up, gift in hand, and have a good time with you. The longer term value is much greater. Balance expiry dates help drive the redemption rate up. Why? Before the expiry date you can set up an automated and customised reminder email to go out, telling them about the date, and giving them (again) the details of the gift and how to redeem it.
Get recipient details
Add balance expiry emails to the reasons you want to get the recipient details logged with a card. Lose-proof their gift card number. Check. Make customer queries easier. Check. Market to your recipients (with consent). Check. And now, send them an expiry email. Check. Toggle won’t always know the recipient’s details (in this case Toggle sends these reminders to original delivery address), so the more you can encourage gift recipients to register their details with their card, the bigger the benefits of that automated expiry reminder email.
Short term promotions
What to run a promotion of some sort but just for a limited time? Use expiring balances to do something like this: ‘Buy this Cocktail Masterclass experience for just £35 (usual price £45). Available until end of April. Must be redeemed within 30 days of purchase.’
Campaigns
Ooo this one will get you marketeers excited. New menu launch? New venue opening? Use the expiring cards facility in conjunction with the ability to create a bunch Free of Charge (FOC) cards that you can distribute (physically or digitally) to people you want to encourage to come along. ‘Hey, we’re opening a new venue. Here’s a £10 gift card for you to come and check it out. This balance expires in 20 days.’
Keep accounts sweet
Yup, if all that fails to get them in and the balance expires, it’s no longer money floating around in the ether, it’s profit in your account. No more guessing or estimating when the oodles of gift cash will hit your P&L.There you have it. Generally, balance expiry is good. Or you can just be super chill and not use it. Up to you. Any questions, as ever, get in touch.
Check out our support article on creating gift cards withe expiry info, here: http://academy.usetoggle.com/en/articles/4131706-how-to-create-a-gift-card
