Testimonials - Gift Cards

Robert

I am writing to thank you for resolving one of our most difficult and longest running challenges, our trade program. But first let me give you a little history of our business. We opened in 1992 as a small mom and pop used book store. Our main source of income, as you would expect are used books but also videos, dvds, etc. We typically price our merchandise at one half of the original manufactures list price. Our inventory is obtained by buying directly from our customers, closeout stores, wholesalers, etc., but the biggest bulk of inventory is obtained directly from our customers in the form of trade. They bring in a certain number of books, etc and we issue them a trade credit based on the resale value of that merchandise. This credit can then be applied to items they are purchasing in the store. Now, some customers use all of their credit at once but the majority does not. This is where the difficulty comes in.

In 1992, we used a rolodex and 3 x 5 cards, which was the norm at that time, to track customers’ names and trade amounts. As our business grew, we quickly realized that this was not going to be as efficient as we had hoped. We searched for a computer program and discovered a DOS based system that worked well for several years but with the introduction of windows and the quick advancement of computer hardware and software, the dos program couldn’t keep up. Modern computers had difficultly in recognizing the old dos program and it had several hick-up’s over the years. By the late 1990s we had over 10,000 trade accounts, so if you can imagine a business where a large portion of your revenue is generated by those trade customers using an old dos program on modern day computers to store the data in a system that is prone to difficulty, you might just get a glimmer of the stress this would cause me.

In 2005, we opened our second location; this presented a whole new set of problems because the trade could not be accessed by either store. If a customer had an account at store #1 but was shopping in store #2, the clerks would have to call back and forth to edit trade amounts and accounts. This obviously causes the loss of time, man power and very important, money, not to mention, irritated customers waiting needlessly. For lack of a better system, we continued to operate in this manner for 2 more years.

Move forward to 2008 and store number three. We all realized that we would have to do something quick. We contacted several programmers and scoured the countryside for existing software packages but were faced with costs that were beyond our desire and our reach. We contacted our credit card company to inquiry about using gift cards to track the trade but they wanted a fee for each swipe. Well, when dealing with trade, there is no actual income, so incurring a cost on this was not something we could accept.. They also told us that if we ever canceled their service and switched to a new company for any reason that we would lose access to that data. This is when I discovered your system.

And, Oh what a relief it is. Your system incurs a very small cost and is easy and efficient to use. We ordered 10,000 trade/gift cards with barcodes and have issued over a thousand to new and existing customers. The employees have no trouble using the program and because I can set the default to keep them from editing settings and accounts without my or a managers approval, they can’t mess things up. Our customers love the new cards and the system, now that they don’t have to wait for one store to call the other. The cards we ordered are a bright red, the customer actually get three cards, one in a credit card size and two for their key chain. This, helps because they can give the extras to other family members if they want them to have access to their trade. But, one of the biggest unexpected pluses to these cards is MARKETING. They give the business a very professional image and every customer has one of these in their wallet or on their key chain, so every time they look at their keys or open their wallet, their I am, always reminding them, that I am still here and they have trade at one of my stores. Imagine, being right next to the Blockbuster card. Another, added bonus is that with the report segment of your program, I can track the amount of trade each individual store does on a daily or monthly basis. Although, I don’t have a problem with this currently, it helps me prevent and monitor employee theft. Trade is an easy way for an employee to steal. i.e. instead of a cash sale, all he or she has to do is enter in a trade sale, the customer wouldn’t know and neither would I. But with the cards, I check each day to make sure the amount of trade issued and redeemed matches with the cash register end of day report. (we enter the whole sale into the register and then back out the trade with the refund key) so the refunds have to equal the amount of trade redeemed on the NetGcs program.

And last but not least, I love the backup utility program you provided. With this program, I can download all of my data to my desktop and maintain a local storage copy, although you seem to have the backup situation well in hand, it gives me a certain level of comfort knowing I also have a copy of it.

Again

Thank you and if any of your customers would like to call me personally, I would be glad to give you a raving review. My personal cell phone number is 316-390-6207.

David Lovett, President
Book-A-Holic Inc
924 So Oliver
Wichita, KS 67218

To Robert,

It has been a great benefit to our restaurant and to the employees ever since Thai Chili Restaurant switched to Aqweeva Gift Cards from gift certificates. The program is very professional and easy to use. We highly recommend all businesses to try it and they will see a significant increase in their business.

Thank you for all your support and service. We really appreciate your hard work. Your customer service has been excellent. Any time we had a question it was answered immediately. We will be a customer and a supporter for years to come.

Again, thank you so much.

Sincerely,

Nina & Kevin
Thai Chili Restaurant
www.mythaichili.com
120 Washington Ave N
Kent, WA 98032
Tel.253-850-5887

Dear Aqweeva,

I am the manager of Xiu Xian Tea, I just want to say, thank you so very much for offering the wonderful AGCS Affordable Gift Card System.

Since we started using AGCS it has been incredibly beneficial to our business. About 90% of our customers have our rewards card and 100% of the 90% are very happy with the custom reward system we offer.

Our rewards system was very easily implemented using AGCS. Who ever comes to our tea shop it has become our pleasure to offer them a rewards card.

AGCS has helped us to keep almost all our customers coming back again and again. Thanks to AGCS and the support of affordablegiftcards.com our store is persistantly experiencing more and more growth.

Thank you very much!

Sincerely,

Mako
Xiu Xian Tea
www.xiuxiantea.com
1-800-304-1845

Dear Affordable Gift Cards.Com
Attn: Troy Butler

Nails By Design Salon and Spa joined your "affordable gift cards" program in June of this year. We wanted to take a few moments to let you know how it's been going so far.

We have seen a resurgance of enthusiasm for our retail sales and services since instituting our client loyalty cards. Clients of our salon earn points for purchasing gift cards, receiving new services, referrals and retail sales. It has been one of the most well received new programs we have ever started. We believe that this kind of program separates us from the pack of "nail salons" and puts us in the league of other high-end businesses that have re- usable and re-loadable cards.

Gift card purchases increased 25% over purchases of the "old certificate" style, and retail sales have increased by 10%
We would recommend the loyalty and gift card program through your company very highly. It is easy to use sofware and it took no time at all for our staff to become comfortable and proficient with it.

Sincerely,

TERRI AND KELLY

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