Use this link to share with your colleagues:
All About Gift Cards / Gift Certificates (STS): https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1074489
Looking for a gift card solution? Look no further!
We've partnered with a leading gift card company, Smart Transaction Systems (STS), to provide a great gift card management system you can use with PatronManager's ticketing system. Patrons can purchase gift cards (physical cards or virtual/digital ones) and easily send those cards to their friends. They can then redeem their gift cards when buying tickets at the box office, by phone, or online.
Ready to see what you can do with STS gift cards in PatronManager?
- How do my patrons purchase gift cards?
- How do my patrons redeem their gift cards?
- Can I refund to an STS gift card?
- What reports does STS offer?
- What's the cost for this program?
- How do I get started?
- I'm already using STS; where do I go for help?
If you don't see what you're looking for, check out our additional Frequently Asked Questions.
How do my patrons purchase gift cards?
Patrons can purchase physical, electronic, or mobile gift cards
Your organization can choose to offer any or all of these options. For the lowest-cost solution, you can choose to only sell "e-gifts" (emailed cards) and/or "m-gifts" (mobile/text cards).
Please note that if you'd like to sell physical gift cards, you will need to purchase these from STS and sell them to your patrons via your box office (or on the Public Ticketing Site).
You cannot sell physical gift cards via your STS online sales portal.
When purchasing an e-gift, the patron can choose to have it delivered on a specific date up to three months in advance. Great for birthdays and holiday shopping!
If they're buying with a credit card, they'll purchase online
STS provides you with a customized, patron-facing site, and you can embed this site directly in your organization's own website. With it, your patrons will:
- Buy new gift cards
- Add more value to existing cards with a "recharge' option
- Check the balance of their gift cards
All in one place!
If they're buying with cash/check, you can sell them the gift card via PatronManager and activate/load the gift card using WebTerminal
We'll set this portal up for you; with it, you'll:
- Activate new gift cards
- Manually add to, or remove value from, gift cards
- Check gift card balances
- Run simple reports
Want to know more about selling STS gift cards? Check out our instructions on how to sell STS gift cards.
For a more in-depth look into WebTerminal and the LocalGiftCards site, check out our Tour of LocalGiftCards and WebTerminal for STS Gift Cards article.
How do my patrons redeem their gift cards?
Online
That's right! On the Public Ticketing Site, you'll enable online gift card redemption in PatronManager. Your patrons will be using gift cards on your PTS all by themselves!
Over the phone and in person via Patron Manager Box Office
When processing a Ticket Order in PatronManager, you can charge a patron's STS gift card, whether you:
- Enter the gift card number manually,
- Swipe the gift card using a MagTek swiper, or
- Select a pre-existing gift card your patron already has on file
Check out our article about how to redeem an STS gift card for phone and walk-up sales to learn more.
Can I refund to an STS gift card?
Absolutely! You'll refund a Ticket Order to an STS card (either an existing card that the patron already has on file, or by creating a new e-gift card), which stores that value in STS and PatronManager for future use.
You guessed it - we have an article about how to refund a ticket order to an STS gift card, too!
What reports does STS offer?
You'll receive an email when each gift card is purchased, and STS can send additional reports via email on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis (for the previous day, week, or month).
The main reports STS provides are:
- The Merchant Chain Statement: Transaction-level view of all gift card sales and redemptions.
- The Gift Card Liability Summary: Overview of all active cards in your STS account.
- The Gift Card Position Report: In-depth summary of the status of every gift card in your STS account.
Want to receive recurring reports, or reports that span a time frame longer than one day? Call or email STS with your reporting needs, and a representative will get those reports scheduled for you.
What are the costs for this program?
Contract costs for the program are handled directly through STS. You can take a look at the cost table in our article about starting this project here.
This sounds awesome! How do I get started?
If you'd like to get started with STS, head over to our Add-On Project: Smart Transaction Solutions (STS) Gift Cards article for full implementation details.
I'm already using STS. Where do I go for help?
For issues within PatronManager, or the integration between PatronManager and STS, submit a case through the Community. We're happy to help!
Likewise, the PatronManager Help tab contains a suite of help documentation specifically for STS and PatronManager. Take a look right over here.
For questions about the STS WebTerminal, the LocalGiftCards online gift card site, or things like purchasing more plastic cards, reach out to STS directly. Here's their contact info:
-
Email: info@smarttransactions.com
- They respond quickly via email
-
Phone: 1-888-494-9760 and press option 5
- Call this number and press option 5; you'll be able to leave message for the help desk, and they'll call you back.
- Note: STS opens at 7:00am MST
More Frequently Asked Questions
Haven't found what you were looking for yet? Keep reading below:
Getting up and running with STS gift cards typically takes 2-3 weeks but can go faster -- and the ball is often in your court. You'll work with STS to fill out the paperwork and provide things like your logo, and then approve your online gift card site.
You'll also need to sign up for a Stripe account; it's not complicated, but it may involve approval from multiple departments on your end.
The physical gift cards, if you offer them, typically take the longest, but you can definitely "go live" with just e-gifts (emailed cards) and/or m-gifts (mobile/text cards) while you're waiting for the plastic cards. Once you approve the card design, it takes ~10 business days to print the gift cards, plus a few more days to receive them in the mail.
That's up to you! You can order branded plastic gift cards with bulk-based pricing from STS. The price goes down as the quantity goes up, so you can save money by ordering larger quantities -- as long as you expect to sell them while you're happy with the design you choose.
Not currently, no. Some organizations choose to intentionally double-enter gift card sales that happen via STS in PatronManager, for reporting purposes, but we generally don't recommend that as it opens up more room for user error.
When redeeming a gift card for a ticket purchase in PatronManager, it will appear as a payment option if it was used in PatronManager previously; otherwise you will need to swipe the card into a magnetic card reader or enter the card number manually.
You'll refund the patron's credit card via your Stripe dashboard, and then remove the value from the corresponding gift card via the STS WebTerminal.
The balance of a gift card can be found either in STS WebTerminal or, if the patron's already used the gift card, from the STS gift card's Payment Method from the patron's Contact record.
1. From the Contact, click Payment Methods
Don't see the Payment Methods related list link? Learn how to add it here.
2. Click into the STS Gift Cards Payment Method you want to check
Depending on the patron, they may have one gift card or many.
3. Click Synchronize
Clicking Synchronize will get you the most up-to-date balance.
4. Check the Balance
This will show you how much money is on the gift card.
During your setup with STS, you'll have the option to import existing gift cards with their balances and IDs to the STS system. Check out this article for more information.
When you sell an STS gift card, you get the revenue from that sale upfront. In other words, you won't have to wait until the gift card holder uses the card to get those funds!