Seamless Digital Gift Card Integration for SHR Group and Savvy customers
CUSTOMER NAME:
PROJECT TYPE:
Programme migration
SAVVY EXPERTISE:
Gift Grd Processing and Analytics
This partnership with SHR Group has been a perfect example of how digital and physical gift cards can be seamlessly integrated into a unified system. By enabling secure real-time redemptions and providing central reporting, we’ve created a solution that enhances both customer experience and operational efficiency. We’re excited to continue building on this success with SHR Group and future clients.
Eoin Whyte- CRO, Savvy
About
SHR Group leads the way as the premier global specialist technology and service provider for the hotel sector, dedicated to ensuring that their clients remain always ahead in a fast-paced and competitive market. Allora is SHR’s flagship tool suite with over 2,000 hotels currently using the Allora comprehensive suite of products and services, all designed to help hotels and resorts optimize their revenue generation and boost their bottom line. Allora helps hotels stay always ahead as it leverages the power of AI, with a dynamic suite of hotel software tools that work together, to optimize each step of the guest journey to increase revenue, customer life-time value and profitability.
The challenge
Savvy and SHR Group had an increasing overlap in customers using Savvy for physical gift card solutions, and the Allora engine for digital voucher issuance. This meant the merchants were running two separate gift card programmes in effect with no interoperability. This imposed duplicate administrative workload on clients across reporting and liability management areas plus two separate voucher redemption protocols on premises at the hotels.
The Savvy Solution
Savvy proposed to SHR Group that they combine their two voucher engines into one single solution where their mutual clients could run physical and digital gift card issuance from the Savvy processing engine, and continue to use the modern Allora toolset for customer engagement, eGift voucher sales and delivery to the end users. In effect, the best of both worlds as it would streamline operations significantly for the clients, and create one single voucher redemption protocol for physical and digital vouchers alike.
To support this, SHR Group integrated their Allora platform to Savvy’s REST API which would underpin the delivery of this new solution to over 40 mutual clients, plus it would also underpin the expansion of services into a new world of merchants to Savvy from across the global SHR community of hospitality sector clients.
- API Integration for Digital Voucher Fulfillment: Savvy enabled SHR Group to integrate directly with its API. This allowed SHR Group to generate and fulfill digital voucher codes on demand from the multiple mutual SHR Group and Savvy customers.
- Real-Time Redemption: Digital vouchers could be securely redeemed in real-time at any payment terminal across the hotel properties. This approach mirrored the redemption process for physical gift cards, ensuring that both physical and digital gift cards were processed with the same level of security and efficiency.
- Enhanced Security and Fraud Reduction: By processing redemptions in real-time and directly through the hotel’s payment terminals, Savvy’s solution significantly reduced fraud risks. This added an additional layer of protection for both the hotel and its customers.
- Centralized Reporting with Connect Manager Portal: Savvy’s Connect Manager portal gave the hotels comprehensive visibility over their entire gift card program, both digital and physical. They are now able to to track sales and redemptions across the properties, enabling better program management, reporting, and reconciliation.
Benefits and Strategic Impact
Savvy’s solution provided several key benefits:
- Seamless Integration and Flexibility: By integrating to Savvy’s API, SHR Group could seamlessly issue digital gift cards for every client that could then be redeemed through the hotel’s existing acquirer terminals. This offered a flexible, scalable solution that could be easily extended to any mutual Savvy and SHR Group clients.
- Improved Operational Efficiency: The automated, real-time voucher redemption process eliminated the need for manual reconciliation, improving operational efficiency and reducing administrative burdens for the hotel.
- Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Guests at the hotel properties could now easily redeem digital vouchers across any part of the hotel, enhancing their overall experience and encouraging repeat business.
- Revenue Growth and Fraud Reduction: With the ability to track both physical and digital redemptions in real-time, the properties are better equipped to prevent fraud and optimise their gift card program to drive additional revenue.
Approach and Implementation
- Collaborative Integration and Development
Savvy worked closely with SHR Group to design and implement an API integration that allowed real-time redemption of digital gift cards via their acquirer terminals. Early in the integration process, it became clear that the solution could be adapted for future customers, so it was designed for scalability and reusability. - Real-Time Transaction Processing
The integration ensured that when customers presented their digital gift cards at any of the hotel’s locations, the vouchers were securely processed via the acquirer terminals. This provided real-time validation, improving security and minimizing the risk of fraud. - Comprehensive Reporting and Reconciliation
Using Savvy’s Connect Manager portal, the properties are able to generate detailed reports, providing complete visibility into gift card sales and redemptions. This allowed for efficient reconciliation and data-driven insights to optimize gift card strategy.
Results
The integration between Savvy and SHR Group has already some of Ireland’s leading hotel operators to successfully expand their Savvy gift card program to include digital vouchers, which could be redeemed seamlessly alongside physical cards.
