Andrew (et. Al.)
The following are a few user stories around Gift Cards that may be of some interest.
As a patron of an organization using Tessitura I can get and use a gift card at all vendors associated with a venue (parking, food, book stores, cinemas, the theater or museum itself) whether or not the vendor has Tessitura as it’s point of sales system or not. This situation gives me a smooth gift card experience as soon as I walk into the venues doors. I don’t have to know that the food and bookstore are actually outsourced. I just experience the venue as one entity.
As a patron of an organization using Tessitura I can determine my gift card balance on the web, at the box office or at any vendor associated with a tessitura organization so I can plan my spending accordingly and feel that I have control of the value of my gift card.
As a patron of an organization using Tessitura I can add funds to my gift card balance so that I can easily conduct transaction with my favorite cultural organization.
As a patron of an organization that is a Tessitura Consortium I can use my gift card at one or more than one of the cultural organizations at the discretion of the cultural organizations. So, that I feel that I’m part of my cities Art / cultural scene.
As a comptroller for an organization using Tessitura we can issue and validate credit card sized gift cards from within the Tessitura and it’s directly connected components like the web without having to use separate technology and manual processes to keep track of the money on the cards.
As a comptroller I can have my organization issue credit card sized gift cards that can be deducted from by my organization and any organizations that I authorize as able to deduct funds from this card like my parking provider and my outsourced food services provider.
As a comptroller I can have my organization issue secure gift cards that provide gift card that are not easily duplicated, and use some form of electronic validations.
As a comptroller I can deduct value form aging gift cards in localities that allow me to conduct that type of business practice. Thus getting the liability of the gift cards off our books quicker.
As a Web Manager, I can use the same gift card that is used in our box office to sell tickets on the web. Thus increasing the likely that folks who get gift cards to my venue can use them on the web.
As a Web Manager or Ticketing Services manager I have a gift card system that is easy to use for partial payments and I can tell my gift card holders the current monetary value of the card. Making my customers and Staff happy to use gift cards as just another form of payment.
Just a few ideas about gift cards in the Next Generation Project.
--Tom
2 thumbs up for all of these stories!
Ah…gift cards (a.k.a. stored value cards in the industry lingo) , very dear to us at the Science Museum! The stories are very comprehensive, and to encompass them all Next Generation may need to be able to do two things differently from the current version, as I see it.
One is the ability to process a gift card (certificate) with a pre-coded number, rather than designating a number as it does now. The mag-stripe cards commonly in use are pre-numbered. This would allow the cards to be used within a given organization, or within a consortium on the same Tessitura system. It would also be the most economical to utilize, as it keeps all accounting internal and avoids third-party vendors
Second, more versatile and of more use in our situation at the museum, is to be able to process gift cards through the Next Generation credit card processing software. This does incur the cost of processor charges, but allows for use with non-Tessitura entities and between Tessitura organizations ,as long as they accept credit cards. So the contract parking or food service could redeem them on site, the commercial movie theater or restaurant across the street could be included. The processor keeps score for activations and redemptions (for a fee).
One last story: The Ms. Marketing Manager or Mr. Development Officer wants to sell a large number gift cards to a partner corporation at a discount, to be used as holiday gifts. Setting aside whether or not this is a good idea (it isn’t), can it be done?
From: Tessitura Next Generation Forum [mailto:forums-nextgeneration@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Beth Varro Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 10:57 AM To: rbernard@smm.org Subject: Re: [Tessitura Next Generation Forum] Gift Card User Stories for Tessitura Next Generation
Agreed - and I'll add a couple more: As a patron, I can use a gift card to purchase a membership or make a donation to a Tessitura organization. As a membership manager, I can see that Fred Rogers bought his membership using a gift card, if I drill into the payment type. I can also run a list based on that payment type and see any accounts that used a gift card to buy a membership during a given time frame. Or I could run a list to see which patrons purchased a gift card to give to someone else. And if you really want to make me do cartwheels: As a membership manager, I can run a report based on the unique ID of any gift card that will tell me the complete history of activity on that gift card. That means I can see who originally bought the gift card (turns out that Mr. McFeely bought that gift for Mr. Rogers), when and for what it was redeemed (Fred bought a membership and had some money left over for tickets), and all other details about the redemption (just as in any other order, I can see the reservation date, the channel, the source, etc. etc.) And of course, I could do this in any order . I could find out that The Purple Panda purchased a gift card in November, and then run the report to find out that King Friday redeemed it; I started with The Purple Panda's record, and now I know who he gave that gift to. I might use this information to send a letter or email to everyone who bought gift cards, on the anniversary of their purchase, encouraging them to give a similar gift this year. My Development department could learn that The Purple Panda is a friend of King Friday's. Marketing could send a friendly reminder to people who have an old balance on their gift card, saying, "Hey, don't forget, you have money you can spend with us!" and conveniently help them do so. Beth
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All,
I’ve also had the request to provide discounted gift cards.
Sort of like the NYC MTA that gives you a transit card usable for say $55.00 worth of service but I only paid $50.00 for the card.
From: Tessitura Next Generation Forum [mailto:forums-nextgeneration@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Ray Bernard Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 1:27 PM To: Thomas Brown Subject: RE: [Tessitura Next Generation Forum] Gift Card User Stories for Tessitura Next Generation
Anyone heard anything new about 3rd Party or Stored value gift cards and Tessitura?
Rather than using the "on account" gift certificates that Tessitura has provided for years?