Ribbon Gift Cards are guaranteed
There's been some buzz in the media about the drop of consumer confidence in gift cards due to retail store closings. Dilemma: Don't know if I want to give a gift card from a retailer who may or may not survive over the next few months.Obstacle: This consumer perception may become an objection when you're out there selling Ribbon Gift Collections this season.
Here's what you can say if a potential customer expresses concern about Ribbon Gift Cards as a gift:
Amway has been in business 50 years and has weathered some harsh economic downturns and survived them — in fact, they've grown stronger and sturdier through the ups and downs. Amway Global has been in the gift and incentive business for nearly 40 years. It all started with the Amagift Program, then became the Gift & Incentive Program — and in recent years was redesigned and rebranded as Ribbon.
Ribbon Gift and Incentive sales continue to climb. In fact, demand has increased 10% over the last year.
Ribbon Gift Collections are updated annually to meet the needs/desires/trends in the git and incentive industry. For example, last year Ribbon added a collection for kids. Recently, Ribbon added a seasonal online collection entitled Celebrate.
Ribbon Gift Cards do not reveal price/cost of card to recipient and many are actually perceived to be of a higher value by recipients.
Unlike brick-and-mortar retailers, Ribbon Gift & Incentive Program focuses exclusively on the gift and incentive business and gift card sales promoted primarily online and sold by a mighty sales force of Ribbon Retailers (IBOs) across North America.
Ribbon Gift Cards/Collections are backed by the Amway Global 180-day Satisfaction Guarantee. Aren't many gift cards that have a guarantee like Ribbon does!
Good luck retailing Ribbon this holiday season. And don't forget to give Ribbon to your family and friends, too.
Happy Holidays,
sjw
Good point! What do you think about bringing up this issue even is the customer does not? Thank you for this blog.
I wouldn’t lead with this, but yes, it could be something you mention to a prospective customer who doesn’t bring up the objection but may seem a bit hesitant to purchase Gift Cards. Best of luck!
How does someone acquire these gift cards if you are not an IBO person, we are part of the largest B2B Barter Organization, who have an interest in offering these to our member base, and increase sales for you.. Editor's note: Visit AmwayGlobal.com to purchase Ribbon Gift Cards. All you have to do is register as a customer!
Thanks Susan-that hits the spot from my previous post! It’s little tidbits of information like this that puts the IBOs in a better position. In case I don’t blog again, Happy Thanksgiving!
Not to mention, Amway is privately held, debt free, and has little if any ties to wall street! Can you say 7 billion dollars?Susan, not sure if you are the one to bring this up to..I also posted it at Lynn blog and probably will post at KIAs.Can you ask the folks in IT or corp to streamline the customer receipts? Especially for those customers that do not wish to be "registered". Currently the printer friendly view brings up the order for print, but includes both retail and IBO costs side by side. Something most of us would not want on a receipt. It should be a quick click to create it and perhaps some options to include or not include certain things.Thanks so much!Not sure if this comment was passed on but now that I am back at work, I will send it on. Thanks for your suggestion. sjw
This is somewhat off topic. Would it be possible to create a ordermygift.com site that is personalized for a company. For example bankname.ordermygift.com. The IBO would setup the customer and upload the company's logo. The gift redemption site would then Say "Ribbon The Gift Of Choice" From "bankname" (and bank logo). The company would then place a label with their personalized gift redemption site on the gift cards.There could be a fee to set up a company or they would need to purchase a minimum amount.Thank you, Editor's Note: I know the Ribbon team was looking into this at one time. I will check with them and get back to you. Thanks for the suggestion. sjw
Well, I just found another crinkle in the Ribbon System that hopefully can be worked out.About a year ago I sold some of the Ribbon "Arrival" Gift Cards to a company for their employees. Well, they just gave one of the ladies who was pregnant a little over a year ago the cards and now she cannot redeem them. The process to return the ribbon cards seem a bit antiquated. Some of the questions I have for the ribbon team are (1)If a card(s) have not been redeemed, why isn't it possible for the cardholder to simply call the corporation give their current redemption code, and the corp can track to see if it's outdated and issue out another redemption code over the phone? Right now the process is to bundle all the cards up and send them back to the coproration and wait 3 to 4 weeks -that's a long lag time where a customer may not decide to do business with an IBO in the futre. (2)There is no reimbursement for shipping of gift card exchanges, but there are for other items? (3)There is no way to track the process for a return of a gift card once it gets to Amway Global except for it actually getting there via certified mail which we or the customer would have to incur the cost of-it seems like there is via our virtual office but it's not pointed out anywhere. Just a few kinks in the system I noticed. I will also send an email to the ribbon team as well. One lessons learned I got from this experience for Ribbon IBOs out there when selling these particular cards, instead of allowing the client to buy them in bulk 8-9 months early, to have them purchase "arrival" cards closer to the due/delivery date so the cards will have a chance to be used well before the one year time frame.Once again, thanks Susan for giving us a voice out here!!!!CJThanks for the input, CJ. We need to hear from you so that we can make sure we're providing what you need for your customers. Sometimes we're too close to it to realize what's working and what's not. You're the ones out there selling and can tell us what's happening! sjw