Recycle gift cards, how to clear the previous customer

[CWQuakertown]

If a customer uses a gift card and it is now $0 balance, how can I recycle it to a new customer? It is tied to the previous customer in the system. If I load the 'old' card with the 'new' customer, the previous customer is receiving notice their card is active and reloaded. 

Also, how can I remove $0 gift cards associated with customers in their accounts? When I use the "Card on File" option to look up a gift card, sometimes many gift cards or e-gift cards are listed. Square only lists the last 4 digits of the card. It doesn't tell me if there is a balance. And, if the customer bought it as a gift for someone else, it is still listed under the purchaser. I don't want to charge the gifted card. Then the poor recipient would have a worthless card. I need a better way to tag or earmark the cards in the system and have the option to see the balance and unlink the $0 balance cards. 

[BernadetteA]

Apologies for the delayed response here, @CWQuakertown

I'm not super familiar with this feature, so I'm going to tag some sellers who are experts with Gift Cards! 😊

@cupzcoffeeaz

@saydad

@ryanwanner

@vinesandrushes

@RMConsultingLLC

@GourmetOnWheels

@Lovewell

Thanks in advance to anyone that can assist! 🙏🏼

[ryanwanner]

Thank you for the ping @BernadetteA !

@CWQuakertown, you have asked the questions we all have been asking for a while now.

Gift card and loyalty have never played well with each other unfortunately, but I have some hopeful suggestions:

To clear a linked card from a customer, the easiest way is to head to your transactions section of the Dashboard. Where it says All Payment Methods, click that and choose Gift Card to make your searching easier. Pull up one of the transactions, remember the gift card number listed in the payment section of the details panel. If a customer name is listed in the top section on that same screen, click it. On the new page, scroll down to the Card on File section. eGift and linked physical Gift Cards will be listed here. Click on the "X" to remove the cleared cards. If a customer name isn't listed on the transaction, that card isn't linked to any customer and can be reloaded without any issues.

Other than that it's a shot in the dark unfortunately. I can say that verifying the cards aren't linked to customers from this transactions screen seems to be the best way of making sure there is no confusion.

[Stacelyn24]

We use Square gift cards...and reuse them all the time lol.  When a client's balance gets to zero we simple take the card back and put it back into rotation.  We place our gift cards in gift card sleeves or boxes so they are in great condition when returned.  You can reset a gift card also.

I'll leave a link below where you can see some of the features for Square Gift Cards as well as directions on how to use and set them up 🙂

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5432-use-your-square-gift-cards

[RMConsultingLLC · Accepted solution]

You would remove the gift card from the customers profile in the “card on file” section and then it would be open for reuse. 

if you or the customer did not add it to their profile then once it has a zero balance it can be reused.

although a trick I teach my clients is to have a reload offer when their gift card hits a zero balance.

i also train my spa professionals to use gift cards for all packages to simplify tracking and ensure proper reporting.

so when the client gets low you could offer them 15-25% to reload as a one time offer (depending on your margins). This helps increase loyalty as well.