Nonetheless, I don’t expect you to listen to a glowing review without doing your research. Contact Treatful and let them explain to you their features.
For a few years, we have looking for a gift card service we could wholeheartedly recommend to our clients. Fortunately, we found Treatful, a company focused on restaurant gift certificates (an ever-growing marketing sector). It has been one of most satisfactory partnerships for us. Consequently, we are writing about them just because we like them.
Treatful is a service that provides restaurants the opportunity to sell gift certificates online. There are a lot of online companies that help businesses sell gift cards or certificates. Few fit the special needs of restaurants like Treatful by making it easy for customers and restaurant owners.
Nowadays, we buy so many gifts last minute. There are many different ways this can happen. In their video, Treatful mentions Facebook reminders of friends birthdays. Most of us find ourselves at one time or another having to get a gift for a friend when you get invited to the party and have no time to go gift hunting (and you have no idea what they want). Treatful is quick. It can send out a gift certificate immediately since it works by email. Customers make no real commitment of time, except perhaps if they spend a lot of time on their customized message.
Treatful has come at just the right time. The popularity of restaurant gift certificates has gone through the roof. Not only have gift cards become the norm in America, but customers have changed their focus. Customers are realizing how an experience like going to one’s favorite restaurant tops something that is stowed away in the closet. Also, as the economy has gone south, going out to a fancy restaurant has been more of a ‘treat.’
Treatful has been adopted by a growing number of restaurants. It is now in 4 cities. With Treatful, customers do not pay fees, which gets rid of any hesitation a customer may have relating to money. Instead, Treatful takes a percentage of the gift certificate amount from restaurants.
If customers see your Gift Cards button on your website (don’t bury it, put it on the tab), they may remember it for the friend who loves that restaurant or the one who must try it. By clicking on it, they will find a beautiful, easy-to-use layout that produces top notch gift certificates.
Treatful integrates with the restaurant’s website. The actual gift certificates that Treatful delivers and customers print out are quite handsome (they give customers 3 style options). Customers also can include a customized message. The person who receives the gift must only print the gift certificate out and bring it to the restaurant.
It normally is sent through email. For those that want to be there, the purchaser can print out the gift certificate and give it personally. Customers are able to send the gift certificate at future dates. Treatful accommodates major credit cards and Pay Pal (which makes non-US purchases possible). The system promises security, claiming that it uses 256-bit (rather than the much weaker 128-bit security that Citigroup used when the lost thousand of credit card numbers).
Immediately, the restaurant is notified of the gift certificate, so customers can use it right away. Everything is instantaneous.
OpenTable has acquired one of our favorite online start-ups for restaurants, Treat Technologies. The main service of Treat Technologies is Treatful, an online application that enables customers to buy gift cards over the internet and send the gift card to the recipient through email. Treatful significantly speeds up the turnaround time for customers and gives independent restaurants an automated online method for selling gift cards.