How Groupon effects a small business

We all love a good deal. Groupon can be a good and bad thing for a local small business depending on how you look at it. It brings people into your business with the concept to either buy more of your goods or services and possible customer returns for future sales. But Groupon Heavily discounts your products or services that making a profit is hard to do. Some of the people are great. Where others are not, some stay most do not.  For our small business, it has been a mixed blessing. We have had people that we have gone above and beyond for only for them to leave. And others say “hey I want a better deal“. Then we have others that we gave them a free demo and, they were so thankful that it kept them as a customer.

Take the time to let the customer know the terms of the Groupon and what to expect. The seasoned Groupon person knows the in’s and out’s and will use that to their advantage. For example, calling directly and saying Groupon is giving them an additional discount of 20% off and if they buy directly thru you can they get that as well? I usually like to ask for proof as most times that discount expired some time ago. By all means, if it is not in the Groupon terms, let the customer know. In our case for Laser Lipo, it covers one area and, people want more than one area done Stomach and Legs means you have to move the pads from the stomach to the legs unless your machine has a lot of ads. If the area is right beside it like the flanks I’ll let them know it isn’t covered but, I am making an exception for them.

Not all Groupon people are bad. Weight the pros and cons at your business before deciding to use them as a tool. It isn’t Groupon that makes it bad it is how people take advantage of it. This is just my view and, everyone has a right to it.