franchise.co.nz – PUTTING PEOPLE IN BUSINESS
15
The statistics tell us that 2026 is proving to be another challenging year
for New Zealand’s business community. For business owners the past few
months have been a reminder that customer engagement and retention is
increasingly the key to sustained profitability.
The basis of a smart customer retention strategy, no matter how the nation’s
economy is performing, must be about ensuring that your customers, once
connected, remain loyal for the long term. Customers should keep returning
for more and, just as importantly, it’s vital that these customers then help
generate added business through their own connections.
John Norrie, CEO of Tranxactor New Zealand, who recently became Gold Plus
Partners in support of the Franchise Association of New Zealand, believes
that a gift card programme is an underestimated and useful tool for achieving
this outcome.
Increase your sales
“A satisfied customer will almost always recommend a business to their
friends or family – therefore a well-planned, well-executed gift card
programme is a powerful and effective means to increase sales,”
explains John.
“Someone buys a gift card, then gives it to someone else. The business has
not only received the money for that card, but they now also have a loyal
customer who is engaging with another potential customer – perhaps a new
one – to purchase from that same business. You can’t get much more loyal
than that,” he says.
“Remember, when a gift card is sold, the business receives that money in
their bank account immediately. It’s a committed sale.”
John says the business owner may benefit further if the gift card recipient
spends less than the card’s original dollar value and returns later to
potentially end up spending much more than the card’s value.
“Typically, a gift card is used more than once – if someone has a $50 gift card
they’ll often spend, say, $30 and then call back in again at a later date. The
remaining $20 will then often be topped up with additional spend to buy that
next item. In a business world where customer loyalty never comes cheap,
gift cards will always stand out as a successful strategy for growing sales.”
It’s all in the detail
John says that the franchise sector’s focus on detailed reporting and
monitoring KPI’s across networks is a perfect fit with Tranxactor’s own
emphasis on data collection as the key to understanding customers better.
“With digital cards, the purchaser and the recipient details are captured
as part of the initial transaction,” John says, “and that’s a big step towards
developing a proper gift card loyalty programme.
“We deliver all sorts of information which many retailers and service
providers would normally not have a clue about. We can provide data on a
daily basis about the status of any issued gift cards, including information on
aspects such as average redemption values, or whether customers are using
cards in different geographical areas.
“And if, for example, a customer buys another gift card, then you’ll know that
they are regular gift card buyers and you can actively encourage them to
help grow your customer database further.”
Prepare for the digital transformation
John says there will be some exciting developments taking place in the
world of gift cards over the next two or three years with the ongoing shift to
digitalisation – and Tranxactor is spearheading the transition.
“As the infrastructure technology changes, digital will certainly overtake
physical plastic cards in New Zealand. That’s why we’re encouraging
businesses to get set up for digital now.”
“Notwithstanding the technical challenges of acceptance, eGift cards are
brilliant because there’s zero inventory cost. There’s no plastic card to print
and no postage involved. Your business benefits from another frictionless
commerce technology.
“We are a leader in customer engagement technology. It’s a highly
competitive market sector, but being a 100% New Zealand company with
all our technical development and support team based locally, we fully
understand the needs of the local market.
“You don’t have to go overseas to access world-class technology. With us it’s
right on your doorstep,” explains John.
Gift cards vs full-scale loyalty programme
A full-scale loyalty programme might be much too complex to implement
for smaller franchise networks. John says that a simple gift card programme
provides an excellent starting point without the complexity.
“A full loyalty program by default requires systems integration, web and app
development, as well as management and marketing resources. That’s a
marathon,” he says, “while a gift card programme is a sprint. In its simplest
form it will run perfectly on existing EFTPOS terminals and infrastructure that
retailers and service providers are already using to collect payments from
customers, whether in store or mobile.
The magic of gift cards
From both business owner and customer perspectives, gift cards are a highly
attractive proposition. They are particularly relevant in today’s challenging
economic times, with customers closely watching their spend and genuinely
excited when a gift card gives them a little more flexibility in their spending.
For a franchisee, whether you are running a coffee shop, a hairdresser, a gym,
delivering childcare services, or mowing lawns, a smart gift card programme
provides you with a future revenue
guarantee. And for a franchisor, it’s a
fast and uncomplicated way to deliver
value to an entire franchise network.
“Contact us today to find out more,”
suggests John, “you may be surprised
to learn how efficient and effective gift
cards will be as a core part of your
customer engagement strategy.”
Tranxactor explains how to make gift
cards an important part of a well-managed
customer engagement strategy
CARDS
THAT
Franchise Management
Tranxactor
www.tranxactor.com
Contact
John Norrie
09 369 5832
John.norrie@tranxactor.com
Advertiser Info
KEEP ON
GIVING