Considerations before you print your next run of gift vouchers

Following 30 March 2011 post on costs gift certificate setup could have on your salon, I was asked what should be included on the actual voucher to work with the system.

I’d personally look to incorporate a card reader to offer a salon branded card that will update both loyalty club and gift voucher credits each time it is used. Regardless of whether you adopt such technology used in many big brand stores or choose vouchers on paper media, you should still communicate your terms and conditions for their use both at the time of sale and before you finalise the bill for the person who redeems them.

What to consider including in your voucher design:

1.    Room for an expiry date?

Retailers are allowed to impose expiry dates on vouchers if they follow certain rules their legal advisors can help with as covered in;

• The Sale of Goods Act 1979


• Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982


• The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977


• The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts regulations 1999

You need to decide if imposing an expiry date to use a gift certificate strikes the right relationship balance between the salon and its clients? (It may not be popular for clients however, unredeemed vouchers remain a liability to business, so consider a 12 – 36 month time limit.)

Ensure your salon team know the rules at point of sale

Formerly the Consumers Association, says the contract with the consumer would be undermined if the retailer failed to spell out the expiry rules at point of sale.

The retailer must tell the customer what conditions apply to the vouchers and be prepared to answer questions about them. It is not good enough to simply include terms and conditions in the small print with the voucher.

Clients seeking to defend their consumer rights would need to show expiry was not a term included in the contract at the point of sale. If you ask yourself 'was there a time limit pointed out at the point of sale?' and the answer is 'no' then you have a reasonable argument to say the rules have been breached.

2.    Room for a tracking number?

Good salon Point Of Sale software systems generate a tracking number or allow you to record one for each gift certificate you sell if you order them with pre-printed sequential codes, so you know both who you sold it to and who used the voucher towards products and services when redeemed. This allows you to know the business liability at any point, in outstanding credit from the sale of these vouchers. If you don’t computerise your salon records it’s an important practise to keep a book for this purpose.

3.    Pre-printed face values or blank?

Many salons reproduce their own version of salon currency and pre-print a range of denominational values, like bank notes of 5, 10, 20, 50 or similar. These may look more professional than the alternative of handwriting the actual gift amount on a single blank cheque style voucher, but pre-printed vouchers raise many more issues to overcome;

• You need to design, purchase and stock many more than with the blank cheque style, even if you only choose to offer a single value, say £25, all gift purchases greater than this require additional slips which take time to process at reception when given and received.


• You need to track a voucher number for each denomination purchased. This opens up more opportunities for human error to occur, when writing, inserting or even scanning in your voucher codes.


• You need a policy for unused balances. With blank cheques you can reissue any credit left on vouchers by copying the tracking number and amount of change to a new slip, but with pre-printed face values you are obligated to either inform both when selling to the purchaser and before billing the redeemer that vouchers are not exchangeable for cash. i.e. The voucher can only be used towards purchases of equal or higher face value as no cash is given for unused balances. If you can give change (without leaving an unused outstanding amount against a tracked voucher) you are actually refunding a previous purchase against a later days takings.

Set up & salon training available

We offer training for setup of gift certification on your system and how team members are to sell and process redemptions at point of sale.