EZCheck Gift and Loyalty Cards

EZCheck’s Gift and Loyalty Card programs can improve customer loyalty and increase a business’s profits.

Gift Card Programs

Consumer surveys show that more than half of all gift cardholders will make two or more trips to a business to use up the cash value on their gift cards. More than one in ten customers will not use up the entire value of their gift card. Many customers will use up the value on their card and spend additional money at the business during the same visit.

Merchant Benefits for Gift Cards

• Keeps consumers shopping in their establishment
• Gift card programs are easily managed and improve cash flow
• Accurate and secure eliminating fraud, abuse and forgery
• Has no value until activated by an authorized employee
• Easy to promote allowing for suggestive selling and spur of the moment purchases
• Funds received on gift cards can be placed in interest bearing accounts
• Greatly reduces accounting and administrative headaches of manual paper systems
• Acts as a “mini billboard” in your customer’s wallet
• Can be used in conjunction with loyalty or rewards programs

Consumer Benefits for Gift Cards

• Great as gifts for co-workers, teachers, children or service personnel
• High-tech, upscale form of payment
• Convenient and no manual handling of paper
• Cab be combined with a loyalty program to allows specific benefits

Loyalty Card Programs

Loyalty card programs can improve customer loyalty and increase profits. Business surveys confirm it is much more cost-effective to market to current customers than to reach out to new ones.  A customized loyalty program can help a business not only retain its customers, but increase spending and frequency of visits as well. 
 
Merchant Benefits for Loyalty Cards

• Consumer spending is 46% higher with businesses that offer loyalty card programs
• Businesses can increase revenues by almost 50% by retaining 5% of their customers
• Encourages existing customers to return more often and spend more money
• Loyalty card programs entice first time customers to come back
• Consumers feel appreciated when rewarded for spending money at places they already visit
• Studies indicate 60% of consumers say a loyalty card program is important in their shopping decisions
• Consumers are more likely to recommend the business to their friends
• Provides merchants with demographic information on their customers
• Acts as a “mini billboard” in their customers wallet
• Can be used in conjunction with a gift card program

How It Works

EZCheck’s Gift and Loyalty Card programs allow businesses to set up and manage their own system that includes features such as:

• Single or Multiple-Locations systems
• Community, Association, and Group systems available
• Real-time processing and balance inquiries
• Available on payment terminals, POS Systems, and Web
• SMS Text and E-mail Messaging for customer target marketing.

Gift Card Programs

EZCheck’s program allows a business to customize a program with standard denominations for every card or varying amounts. Cards hold no cash value until activated at a register, virtually eliminating the threat of theft. This allows cashiers to emphasize a gift card program with cards on hand in front of registers.

When a customer makes purchases using a gift card, the cash value will decrease until they have spent the amount of the card value. EZCheck can further customize the gift card program by making gift cards reusable and rechargeable in-store or online.

Loyalty Card Programs

EZCheck’s program allows the business the means to create and implement an easily managed loyalty program.  Customer data can be added to a loyalty card number at the point of sale terminal, or on the web.  Businesses are able to market to their customers in a variety of ways, including customizable receipt messages to encourage return visits. In addition, businesses can send out messages via SMS text and e-mail, helping to increase revenue on slow days or market to specific consumers for special events and promotions.

Customer loyalty programs generally fall into one of three categories:

• Instant Reward - A reward is automatically given to cardholders when they reach a certain number of points, purchases, or visits.
• Graduated Reward - A reward program that lets cardholders save points until they want to cash in.  Receipts can be printed with usage to show the cardholder the number of points accrued.
• Rebate Program - Rebate programs offer customers a cash rebate. The rebate can be a fixed percentage, or the percentage can based on time of day or day of week.

With EZCheck’s expertise in loyalty and reward card programs, we will be able to assist a business every step-of-the way to create a program that is both profitable for the business and valuable to their customers. 

Technology

EZCheck’s Gift and Loyalty Card program is secure and reliable thanks to our advanced processing network. Great pains have been taken to ensure that the program is always up and running, from our geographically diverse redundant data-centers, to our Tier-I facilities with power back-ups to operate even during the longest blackouts.

Real Time Transaction Reporting

EZCheck provides a merchant administration portal to view gift and loyalty card transactions in real-time. Detailed transaction reports provide a wide variety of customer information and habits. With FMS, customer behavior and usage data can be tracked to determine the effectiveness of the gift card and loyalty programs. 

Consumers can check their card balance at getyourbalance.com at no charge. By encouraging customers to register their card, businesses can start building a customer database and developing targeted marketing lists.

Program Freedom 

• System tools can be used to create loyalty, frequency, shared reward, community reward, and charity donation programs
• Programs can be associated with multiple merchants

Promo Messages

• Custom ranges for receipt messages (e.g. After spending $10, message appears, “Spend $5 more and receive a 10% discount on your next purchase”)

Card Holder Demographics

• Add customer data to a card number at point of sale or on the web
• Store standard customer data like name, address, and contact information plus up to 10 custom fields
• Run reports based on stored data

 Pre-Activation 

• Activate a group of cards at once – great for direct mail
• Activate cards with predetermined or zero value

Auto Rewards/Points to Cash 

• Reward triggers automatically add value to a card when certain thresholds are crossed (e.g. 100 points = $10, 250 points = $30)
• Percentage of cash back from a sale converts after a set time period (e.g. cash is put on card seven days after purchase)
• Percentage of cash back from a sale to convert when a certain level is hit (e.g.  cash is put on card in $10 increments)

Card Sets

• Create separate sets for reporting or marketing campaigns
• Ability to split card sets
• Can generate random or sequential numbers
• Auto-generating number tool is fast and avoids any mistake of duplication

Marketing

• Send messages to customers in certain card sets or campaigns via SMS text or email
• Export data to use for direct mail and email campaigns

Location/Employee Restrictions

• Restrict certain transaction types by location ( e. g. adding points, voids, etc)
• Show or hide reports from the web administration by location and/or employee

Balance Inquiries

• Merchants can check card balances from Point-of-Sale or online merchant portal
• Cardholders can check their own card balances online
• Managers can run a report to see total amount of all cards with balances

Importing Legacy Programs

• Use cards from an existing program
• Import balances and transaction history from an existing program
• Once imported, older program information appears on our system as if it was there from day one

Card Management

• Merchants are able to deactivate, or “freeze” a card if lost or stolen
• Cards can be reactivated once found or after expiration

Expiration

• Choose expiration by activation, inactivity, fixed, or fixed recurring date
• Cards can be renewed after expiration, or restricted so renewal is not allowed
• Changes made to expiration affect all cards in field
• Auto-renewal on a credit

Reporting

Transaction Activity

• Display transactions by day, week, month, last 30 days, etc, or any custom date range
• Drill down transactions by store, employee number, terminal, and card
• Full transaction history available in real-time via merchant portal

Multi-Merchant Settlement

• Centralized reporting for organizations that pool funds into one account
• De-centralized reporting for organizations that keep money in separate accounts owned by separate merchant (e.g. separately owned franchise stores)
• Per-merchant report privileges allow report access to any or all locations

Quick Glance

• Dashboard displayed on merchant portal
• Year-over-year graph for transaction volume comparison
• Easily viewed status, total balance, and unused cards on-hand

Exportable Reports

• Comma-separated exports available for most reports
• Allows for exporting data to other systems for accounting, marketing, and statistical use

Dormancy/Liability

• Liability report allows controllers and accountants to easily maintain books
• View cards dormant for a given period of time within a specified date range, by transaction type.

EZCheck Gift/Loyalty Card Certified Devices and Software