Electronic Gift Cards For Small Businesses Launched by myrewardcard.ie

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myrewardcard.ie, a leading provider of hosted Loyalty Card services to Irelands SME sector today announced the addition of Gift Cards, Saving Clubs and Virtual Wallets to its platform. This addition will bring the benefits of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to the gift and saving programs of independent businesses, helping them retain customers, cut costs and generate revenue.

CORK, IRELAND - Paper is the most popular medium for Gift Vouchers in Ireland today. Paper vouchers are chosen by the majority of businesses because they are cheap and easy to use. But they have their limitations including;

* They are easily forged.
* The customer loses the value if the voucher is lost.
* The businesses don’t know who gets the card.
* They provide no transactional information such as time taken from receipt to use or percentage of recipients who become repeat customers.

A new service from Cork company myrewardcard.ie solves these problem while also bringing the advantages of automatically updated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to independent businesses. The new service leverages the myrewardcard.ie hosted Loyalty Card platform that is already used by businesses and towns across Ireland.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
Ireland is a tougher retail environment than ever before and it is critical for a business to know their customer. Tom Traynor, the Chief Executive of the Marketing Institute has said that gaining a new customer is “five to eight times more expensive than retaining an existing one”. Figures like these are why the Small Firms Association says that it’s crucial for smaller firms to take a more sophisticated approach to customer relations.

According to a recent Microsoft report 40 percent of businesses who have implemented a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system said their biggest challenge was the difficulty in getting employees to update customer details. In that report Avine McNally of the Small Firms Association was quoted as saying that ‘‘if you’re serious about your customers, you have to be serious about CRM too.” The myrewardcard.ie platform combines a card managment system with CRM software that automatically captures and verifies the key Customer Relationship data required by a small business.

When asked why businesses would want to replace paper with electronic cards it was this Customer Relationship aspect that Brian O’Connell, the Chief Executive of myrewardcard.ie highlighted, “Our clients have seen that the information electronic Loyalty Cards provide can help them to control their costs and increase their business. They can now use the same platform to build a picture of their gift card recipients and see, for instance, who receives the cards and how often, how long it takes a person receiving a card to spend it and which areas of town receive the most cards. By combining this with email addresses and phone numbers they now have a chance to build an ongoing relationship with people who might otherwise come to the store only to spend their gift. ”

REMOVING IT COMPLEXITY
The myrewardcard.ie platform was developed specifically for Irish small businesses. It does not require any expensive or specialised equipment and can be run completely through an internet browser. As a result all the IT functions such as software updates and database management are done for the business, leaving them free to focus on their own business. This, according to Brian O’Connell is key to its success, “Small businesses don’t have IT departments and they can’t afford the time or expertise to manage that area. By taking that responsibility we allow them to focus on their business and their relationship with their customers.”

The hosted nature of the platform allows myrewardcard.ie to spread costs amongst clients keeping the costs low for each. This low cost and ease-of-use makes the platform accessible to all businesses while the information it provides can reduce cost and increase sales.

The new Cash Cards are available now on the myrewardcard.ie platform. For just €45 per month with no long term contract businesses can take advantage of the service to build relationships with occasional and one-time customers.

ABOUT MYREWARDCARD.IE
myrewardcard.ie is a Guaranteed Irish company based in Cork. It developed and operates an advanced Loyalty Card platform for multiple small Irish business and towns. This platform is accessed through the browser removing the need for specialised equipment in the client business and removing the need for them to manage software and databases.
myrewardcard.ie launched their Reward Card platform for individual businesses in 2009 and continue to develop the services available on it. The platform also powers two town-wide loyalty cards under the localrewards.ie banner.

Website: www.myrewardcard.ie

Twitter: www.twitter.com/myrewardcardie

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/myrewardcardie/119898154705664