3 ms·

I think there were a bunch of stories implying that it was because of pressure and misleading reassurances from the Groupon sales people signing them up combine

I think there were a bunch of stories implying that it was because of pressure and misleading reassurances from the Groupon sales people signing them up combined with poor business sense from the small-time owners, in most cases.

georgemcbay 11y ago
I've heard the same, but the company treating Groupon customers badly is still irrational behavior. The money being lost on the Groupon is a sunk cost, so you've got: Option A: Lose money on the customer, treat them like second class citizens, probably lose the customer forever, possibly have the customer tell all of his or her friends how bad they think the business is. Option B: Lose money on the customer, still treat them just as well as any other customer or even better and try to convert them into a repeat customer and/or organic spokesperson for your business, recoup the lost groupon money over time through repeat business. I can't speak for everyone but I know that if I'm an option B customer, I'm going to be an enthusiastic spokesperson for the business. Getting a great deal and good service early on is a good way to convert me to be a customer of yours for life (early impressions really stick with you, sort of the reasoning behind buying the first round of drinks, you probably don't need to buy another drink all night because you're the cool guy who bought the first round). So all-in-all, I don't think all the blame of having Groupon customers treated badly (if this even exists as a real thing and isn't a perceived occurrence that isn't statistically a real thing) can be placed with Groupon. I suspect at least part of it is likely just the fact that a lot of businesses have terrible customer service these days (probably due to a number of factors including low wages, races to the bottom on margins, etc) and as a customer you would have been treated pretty poorly anyway but the groupon thing gives you something to latch onto as far as reasoning it out.
- chavesn 11y ago
  This is great advice. The thing many businesses probably fail to realize is that, generally speaking, where [A] is the baseline customer base, the audience with Groupon is not "[A] with some subset of [A] paying cheaper prices" but instead, "[A] + [B], where [B] is an audience they never would have found." To increase your audience, you almost always have to pay. In contrast to big business, America especially likes to celebrate and idealize the small business owner as the one who truly knows the value of treating the customer right. But if these stories are frequent, it probably just exposes the sad truth that it's not as common, even in small business, as we like to believe or hope.
  - SilasX 11y ago
    Bingo. I saw pre-internet confusion on this point from small businesses too. I remember being little and my mom got a coupon at the car wash for a pizza at some nearby place. When we went to use it, the manager turned us down saying, "nah, this is dine-in only, yeah, otherwise we don't make any money off it". Even at that age, I was like, "wha? But, isn't that the purpose of a promotion? So someone tries your stuff and might come back?" It wasn't like a coupon in the back of a magazine, but something the car wash guy actively promoted.

georgemcbay 11y ago

I've heard the same, but the company treating Groupon customers badly is still irrational behavior. The money being lost on the Groupon is a sunk cost, so you've got: Option A: Lose money on the customer, treat them like second class citizens, probably lose the customer forever, possibly have the customer tell all of his or her friends how bad they think the business is. Option B: Lose money on the customer, still treat them just as well as any other customer or even better and try to convert them into a repeat customer and/or organic spokesperson for your business, recoup the lost groupon money over time through repeat business. I can't speak for everyone but I know that if I'm an option B customer, I'm going to be an enthusiastic spokesperson for the business. Getting a great deal and good service early on is a good way to convert me to be a customer of yours for life (early impressions really stick with you, sort of the reasoning behind buying the first round of drinks, you probably don't need to buy another drink all night because you're the cool guy who bought the first round). So all-in-all, I don't think all the blame of having Groupon customers treated badly (if this even exists as a real thing and isn't a perceived occurrence that isn't statistically a real thing) can be placed with Groupon. I suspect at least part of it is likely just the fact that a lot of businesses have terrible customer service these days (probably due to a number of factors including low wages, races to the bottom on margins, etc) and as a customer you would have been treated pretty poorly anyway but the groupon thing gives you something to latch onto as far as reasoning it out.

chavesn 11y ago
This is great advice. The thing many businesses probably fail to realize is that, generally speaking, where [A] is the baseline customer base, the audience with Groupon is not "[A] with some subset of [A] paying cheaper prices" but instead, "[A] + [B], where [B] is an audience they never would have found." To increase your audience, you almost always have to pay. In contrast to big business, America especially likes to celebrate and idealize the small business owner as the one who truly knows the value of treating the customer right. But if these stories are frequent, it probably just exposes the sad truth that it's not as common, even in small business, as we like to believe or hope.
- SilasX 11y ago
  Bingo. I saw pre-internet confusion on this point from small businesses too. I remember being little and my mom got a coupon at the car wash for a pizza at some nearby place. When we went to use it, the manager turned us down saying, "nah, this is dine-in only, yeah, otherwise we don't make any money off it". Even at that age, I was like, "wha? But, isn't that the purpose of a promotion? So someone tries your stuff and might come back?" It wasn't like a coupon in the back of a magazine, but something the car wash guy actively promoted.