Anyone Tried Groupon?

[Joe Marconi]

Has anyone tried Groupon? I have talked to a few businesses and there a lot of mixed reviews. Through Groupon, you offer a discount which is purchased by the conusmer and Groupon takes a portion of the profit upfront. Groupon sends the offer through a email blast of thier member base. From what I gather, you may get many people into your shop, but they are coming for that cheap discount. The other side is, you get a chance to maybe find new customers.

 

I would like to hear from other shops owners who have done Groupon or have opinions on this.

 

Groupon link:

 

http://www.groupon.com

[xrac]

Has anyone tried Groupon? I have talked to a few businesses and there a lot of mixed reviews. Through Groupon, you offer a discount which is purchased by the conusmer and Groupon takes a portion of the profit upfront. Groupon sends the offer through a email blast of thier member base. From what I gather, you may get many people into your shop, but they are coming for that cheap discount. The other side is, you get a chance to maybe find new customers.

 

I would like to hear from other shops owners who have done Groupon or have opinions on this.

 

Groupon link:

 

http://www.groupon.com

 

What you would do is offer some service at 50% off. Say a oil change and tire rotation a possible $50 value for $25. Groupon gets $12.50 and you get $12.50. You basically lose money on your offering to get customers in the door. It is a way to drive business fast but not something that I think I want to do.

[FROGFINDER]

I focus on referrals from my sales force (customers and anyone i come in contact with) I look for any excuse to give the customer that is at my shop a 10% discount up to $50.00 off. I pass out donuts to local businesses ,flowers to the ladies and $20.00 off coupons to anyone.

[Kevin S]

Groupon is just ok in my opinion. True you can get some good business, but you need to make sure that you are in an industry where customers plan on coming back instead of just a one stop shop. Thank goodness for the industry that we are in, customers need to keep coming back to maintain their vehicles. Even though I have that working for me, I need to make sure that I have good relationships with every customer. It doesn't matter if they are new or not. Like Joe had mentioned in another post "build relationships, not customers".