We chat with Colin Munro, Managing Director of Miconex about their win at the IA2020, Best Use of Prepaid in a Programme.
Is there anyone you would like to single out for recognition for their contribution to the award?
I think it would have to be Marc Blake who looks after new clients, it’s been a very busy time for us over the past few months as towns and cities look to see what they can do to support their business communities. Marc works with every new program to get them set up and help them to onboard their businesses. There are now 5000+ businesses connected to the different programs so he has been a very busy man!
How did the client contribute to the winning of this award?
We very much see ourselves as helping towns and cities to lock in money for their business communities and drive additional spend, we only succeed if they succeed.
We are working with some great towns and cities and everyone is learning together how to sell more and more gift cards. Our clients are always coming up with innovative new ways to promote their programs and it’s our role is to help them by sharing best practice, celebrating success and promoting the program at a national level.
What was the key element that made your programme successful?
I would have to say that it’s the choice that they provide to the gift card recipient. On average there are over 100 businesses connected to each of our town & city gift card programs and they represent all business sectors. So the gift recipient gets to choose whether they want to go for a night out, a spot of shopping or maybe treat themselves to some pampering. In order to achieve this we use a Mastercard private label program and there are no additional fees for participating businesses, this means that it is free and easy for businesses to accept the cards.
What is the biggest lesson you learned through running your programme?
Listen to your customers. Our clients want a successful gift card program which drives local spend. In order to help them achieve this we have developed a fully managed service, taking care of all the administration and fulfilment of online orders, this enables them to concentrate on promoting the program at a local level. In addition to this we are investing in a new client success program, national PR and developing additional sales channels like the recently launched Town & City Gift Cards website – https://townandcitygiftcards.com/.