Gift Certificates can be a great revenue producer during the entire year, but your purchases will really increase around Birthdays and Holidays especially prior to Christmas. It is a great idea to feature this gift certificate sale right after Thanksgiving.

December can be the busiest month of the year if you effectively handle gift certificates. Let me tell you about a good promotion.

If you purchase a minimum increment of a $100.00 in gift certificates between Thanksgiving and the first of the year, you will receive a $20.00 Bonus Guest Certificate FREE. This twenty dollar bonus is a great way to boost your December sales. Some restrictions apply to the Bonus Guest Certificates. The Bonus Guest Certificates are only good from January 1st until March 31st and cannot be redeemed for cash. This is designed to drive your business on the first three months of the year which are traditionally three slow months. This promotion brings business in during this slow time and it encourages and drives the sales of gift certificates during December and a minimum of $100.00 increases the transaction size. Those Customers who used to spend $50.00 or $75.00 on gift certificates now spend $100.00 and then get $120.00 / $20.00 of which must be spent after the first of the year and before March 31st.

You may think that this is a big discount, giving a $20.00 ADDED Bonus Guest Certificate. But, you need to understand that ultimately 50% of the Guest Certificates do not get redeemed. The 16.66% discount amounts to only about 8% because not all of these Guest Certificates get used. The sales results will be very impressive.

You can promote the sale of gift certificates through your newsletter and through posters tastefully done in the Restaurant and on your website. If you have 10,000 customers and only 1% participated in the purchase of gift certificates at the minimum purchase of $100.00, this would be $12,000 in purchases. If you could enjoy a 10% return, it would be $120,000.

Putting a dedicated table in the entryway of the Restaurant would make it an easy way for your Guests to purchase the gift certificates and take the job away from an already busy staff. The sole responsibility of this Employee would be to sell the gift certificates. This would be a great temptation for your Guests to purchase while they are visiting your Restaurant. You would put the gift certificates in a nice gift envelope for the Customers, according to the dominations they want (i.e. $20.00).

The key to increasing and pushing the sales of Gift Certificates is through outstanding dining experiences.

If the Guest feels good about their dining experience and they see a table display sign like the one below, sales of gift certificates will soar during December.

One Restaurant location, after putting in the dedicated table, increased their Gift Certificate business by 37% for the first year and then an additional 6% the very next year. This has been a big boost to gift certificate sales. This has also dramatically increased the sales for the first quarter of the next year through the Guest Certificate.

The redemption on the bonus Guest certificates was only about 50% which puts your discount of 16.66% to 8.33%. If the Gift Certificates were given in $20.00 amounts it means that you would bring in five parties from the $100.00 sale.

Bonus Discount - The Bonus Guest Certificate only has a three month life. This is a very simple promotion and it works. By and large, the people who buy the gift certificates are loyal Customers and it gives you the opportunity to reward their patronage. The Bonus Guest Gift Certificate is a different size and color than the regular Gift Certificate. Regular Gift Certificates can be $20/$25/$50/$75 or $100.00 amounts. If the Guest did not have a preference, I would give them 5 - $20.00 Gift Certificates for $100.00 and 1 - $20.00 Guest Certificate . Any denominations can be combined to make the $100.00 special and then receive $120.00 worth of value. The redemption rate on regular gift certificates are about 80%, therefore 20% are not redeemed, while only 50% of the Guest Certificates are redeemed and they must be redeemed before 31st March the next year.

Gift certificates are the perfect solution for any special occasion. From celebrating birthdays, graduations and weddings to inspiring higher business performance, gift certificates are always a delight to receive. If you are unsure what to get for a person but you know what restaurant they like then Gift Certificates is the way to go.