As a restaurateur looking at alternative ways to generate revenue, turning to gift cards is a lucrative option. In this blog post, we aim to guide restaurateurs into utilising an efficient gift card system. While helping to inspire what to write on a restaurant gift card.
When gifting a gift card it’s important to remember that the person receiving the gift has a blank slate to go from. This makes it incredibly important to have provided all the necessary information that the receiver will need to know.
Things that are important to include on your restaurant gift card:
The gift card should state clearly what it is so the receiver has no confusion over what the gift card is about.
The description of the gift card should not only match the restaurant branding but should also be clear and understandable about what exactly the receiver will be entitled to.
E.g. A restaurant may have a gift card such as:
“3 Course Dinner for Two with chef demonstration at the *Name of Restaurant*”
“This voucher entitles two people to enjoy an evening dinner demonstration with a three-course meal including a complimentary bottle of Champagne.”
The description should be concise but give all the relevant details a restaurant guest would need to know. There should be more details in the terms and conditions labelled somewhere clearly on the gift card itself.
The style of writing and wording must also match the branding of the restaurant.
For example, if the restaurant is a high-end, luxurious dining experience, then you should avoid using language such as “BOGOF” or “Big Savings!”. Think about the impact this would have on the receiver of the gift. The gift would not appear as luxurious or special if they were exposed to “sell-fast” language.
Instead, the language could be more descriptive and inviting such as:
“Exclusive Celebrity Chef Demonstration with a Private 3 course A La Carte Dinner for Two.”
It's so important to include the gift card validity period on the gift card itself. This way, if a guest tried to use the gift card well past the expiry date, they can’t claim ignorance to the expired date.
This works in your favour as the restaurateur as you’ll have still received the payment for the gift card but won’t need to pay out on the service costs of the gift card.
Studies have shown most people prefer to give and receive gifts with a personal touch, rather than generic items or large brands. Creating a space for your customers to write a personal message on their gift cards is a very important feature. It makes the experience of gift-giving feel more personalised and special.
So what to write on a restaurant gift card?
Our experience has shown that having a space that allows for up to 400 characters is ideal and covers the basis for most customers buying gift cards.
You want to leave room for the customer to address the person they are buying the gift for.
Give them a small personalised message (such as thank you, happy birthday or even Merry Christmas.
Then to finish with a ‘Love from’ and their name.
Each restaurant gift card should come with its own unique identifier code. This is so that there are no duplicates of each voucher, but more importantly, the gift card cannot be forged or used repeatedly for the same service.
It's a good idea to use a digital gift card system, this way a unique code can be generated for each individual gift card that can be searched for and redeemed simply and quickly.
The terms and conditions on a gift card should essentially be a protection for your restaurant against potential issues. The T’s& C’s should be tight with no wiggle room for customers to take advantage of.
We cover in detail what a great example of gift card terms and conditions should look like in our post: Gift Certificate wording template.
You should also include the booking process details so the guest can book the dinner reservation prior to arrival.
Of course, with every gift card, there should be a link to see the specific gift card online, with full details on what to expect, dress code, and other frequently asked questions available for the guest to find out. You could even put the restaurant contact number on the gift card for more information.
For more information on implementing a free gift card system for your restaurant, you should consider using Enjovia.
Here at Enjovia, we pride ourselves on providing a simple, easy-to-use and beautiful looking gift card service.
You can create a free gift card store with us in just a few minutes where you can create tailor-made gift cards for your restaurant.
Each gift card is generated with a unique code for easy tracking and redemption. Our gift card set-up is very simple, all you need to do is fill out the different sections of your gift card creation for a full and finished product. You can even upload your own images for the voucher design and choose your own font to match your branding.
Our gift card system makes the whole journey of creating, selling and redeeming gift cards seamless and simple.
We hope you found our post on what to write on a restaurant gift card useful. For more information on setting up a gift card store for your restaurant contact us here.
