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How to create gift cards, promos, badges inside your restaurant

Instead of paying a third-party company to create your restaurant’s gift cards, why not save money and have complete control by investing in an in-house card printer.

September 21, 2015

Instead of paying a third-party company to create your restaurant’s gift cards, why not save money and have complete control by investing in an in-house card printer? Card printers are available with magnetic stripe encoding modules, which allow you to easily print and encode gift cards compatible with your existing system.  Making your own gift cards instead of ordering preprinted cards delivers multiple benefits to your restaurant, all summarized below: 

Save money and time

Printing gift cards in-house can save your restaurant money. With your own ID card printer, you can make full-color gift cards as low as 39 cents apiece including all supply costs. Compare that to the cost of ordering preprinted cards, which can be significantly more expensive. If you think you’ll be selling at least a handful of gift cards per month or more, an in house card printer is the most cost-effective solution.  

Designing and printing your own restaurant gift cards gives you complete control over the process from start to finish.  This enables you as the business owner to print out gift cards on-demand. Waiting for a batch of new cards to arrive can be a huge inconvenience especially if you’re running low or have sold out of them.  

Offer numerous designs to increase sales

Offering occasion-specific designs for birthdays, graduations, or other holidays will make you gift cards more attractive to guests.  User-friendly card design software is included with any complete card system which takes you through a step-by-step process of designing your own gift cards. Design options are endless, ranging from text, photos, and logos to graphics and more, and you can design and print as many templates as you want for different card denominations, holidays, or promotions.

Create employee badges, time cards  and promotional display cards

Card printers can be used for so much more than gift cards, making them a worthwhile investment.  Many restaurants have used card printers to produce restaurant loyalty cards or “coupon cards,” which are similar to a gift card in thickness and size. Coupon cards can also come in the form of a key tag.  These are often handed out to customers after making a certain number of purchases or given to first-time customers to encourage repeat business.

You can also use your ID card printer to produce employee badges.  Create professional, easy-to-read name badges that can be attached by clips or magnets.  With your own card printer, you can print out badges on demand for new employees or to replace damaged or lost badges in just seconds.

If your restaurant uses time clock cards to keep track of staff hours, you can encode and print your own custom time cards with a card printer. Magnetic stripe cards & barcode cards are the most common type of time & attendance cards, and can be easily created with a card printer and integrated with existing systems or software.

An ID card printer can be used to make promotional display tags.  This use is specifically applicable to small boutique-style eateries that offer pastries or fresh sandwiches.  Instead of using sticker tags or hand-written tags with the item’s price, plastic display tags are easy to clean and are an aesthetic alternative.  The sales tag should include the price as well as a description of the food itself. 

Remember, you’re not limited to the number of ways you can use your ID card printer — take advantage by creating cards the way you want them done.  By opting for an in-house ID card system instead of relying on a third-party company, your restaurant can catapult its gift card program into a profitable, long-term marketing strategy.