Groupon crazy

socalkol said:
A semi local company here is doing a GROUPON for 90$ for 1800 Sq. Foot house wash......... So even if they haggled good with groupon and are taking 75% cut thats still under 70$ a house pre expenses. Don't know how they are profitable on this..... They have sold over 500 though so I suppose its atleast keeping their crews busy during the winter months.
Click to expand...

I think I'd do them for $70 each if I could sell 500.

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Groupon Portland doesn't currently have a promotion, but LivingSocial does.

This is copied off the LS website.

description
Increase the longevity of your home's roof with help from these pros:


• $99 ($250 value) for inspection + blow off, roof treatment & gutter cleaning up to 2,500 sq ft.
• $125 ($250 value) for power washing of home, driveway, pathways + decks up to 2,500 sq. ft.
• Serves residences within 25-mile radius of Portland's city center


Sloan's Home Solutions's Website


fine print
Limit 1 per customer, up to 1 additional as a gift • Limit 1 redemption per household • Appointments required and subject to availability • Merchant cancellation/re-scheduling policy of 48 hours applies; voucher subject to forfeiture • Distance restrictions apply; service area includes 25-mile radius of Portland city center • Additional fees may apply for excessive roof pitch, inaccessible decks, and homes 3 stories or higher • Not valid on cedar roof or cedar shake siding homes • Option B: additional fees may apply for driveways longer than 100 yards • All services must be redeemed during a single visit by same household
Other conditions apply
Except where noted in the fine print:
• Cannot be combined with any other offer or promotion
• Tax and gratuity are not included
• LivingSocial Terms and Conditions - https://www.livingsocial.com/terms
 
I wonder what they consider a "roof treatment"?

Rapid HotClean said:
Groupon Portland doesn't currently have a promotion, but LivingSocial does.

This is copied off the LS website.

description
Increase the longevity of your home's roof with help from these pros:


• $99 ($250 value) for inspection + blow off, roof treatment & gutter cleaning up to 2,500 sq ft.
• $125 ($250 value) for power washing of home, driveway, pathways + decks up to 2,500 sq. ft.
• Serves residences within 25-mile radius of Portland's city center


Sloan's Home Solutions's Website


fine print
Limit 1 per customer, up to 1 additional as a gift • Limit 1 redemption per household • Appointments required and subject to availability • Merchant cancellation/re-scheduling policy of 48 hours applies; voucher subject to forfeiture • Distance restrictions apply; service area includes 25-mile radius of Portland city center • Additional fees may apply for excessive roof pitch, inaccessible decks, and homes 3 stories or higher • Not valid on cedar roof or cedar shake siding homes • Option B: additional fees may apply for driveways longer than 100 yards • All services must be redeemed during a single visit by same household
Other conditions apply
Except where noted in the fine print:
• Cannot be combined with any other offer or promotion
• Tax and gratuity are not included
• LivingSocial Terms and Conditions - https://www.livingsocial.com/terms
Click to expand...
 
socalkol said:
I wonder what they consider a "roof treatment"?
Click to expand...

Don't know. The house wash is with a pressure washer.

The offer is good within a 25 mile radius of downtown Portland. The guy lives about that many miles north of the city, so he's going about 50 miles to some jobs. Buzzt
 
Rapid HotClean said:
Groupon Portland doesn't currently have a promotion, but LivingSocial does.

This is copied off the LS website.

description
Increase the longevity of your home's roof with help from these pros:


• $99 ($250 value) for inspection + blow off, roof treatment & gutter cleaning up to 2,500 sq ft.
• $125 ($250 value) for power washing of home, driveway, pathways + decks up to 2,500 sq. ft.
• Serves residences within 25-mile radius of Portland's city center


Sloan's Home Solutions's Website


fine print
Limit 1 per customer, up to 1 additional as a gift • Limit 1 redemption per household • Appointments required and subject to availability • Merchant cancellation/re-scheduling policy of 48 hours applies; voucher subject to forfeiture • Distance restrictions apply; service area includes 25-mile radius of Portland city center • Additional fees may apply for excessive roof pitch, inaccessible decks, and homes 3 stories or higher • Not valid on cedar roof or cedar shake siding homes • Option B: additional fees may apply for driveways longer than 100 yards • All services must be redeemed during a single visit by same household
Other conditions apply
Except where noted in the fine print:
• Cannot be combined with any other offer or promotion
• Tax and gratuity are not included
• LivingSocial Terms and Conditions - https://www.livingsocial.com/terms
Click to expand...

Wow. That one I would not do. House, decks, and up to 100 yards of driveway for $125? $99 for roof cleaning AND gutters? Sounds like he's working for minimum wage.

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JDhomeservices said:
Wow. That one I would not do. House, decks, and up to 100 yards of driveway for $125? $99 for roof cleaning AND gutters? Sounds like he's working for minimum wage.

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Click to expand...

Probably not even that. Plus, given that he's offering an entire bundle, there's no opportunity for upsell.
 
I know a lot of people that use Groupon regularly and all of them are the type that chase deals and nothing else. One and done...that's it with not much loyalty. You could possibly make it work only with some kickass marketing to make it look like a great deal after actually marking it up. Otherwise you're cheapening yourself and there's no way I'd partcipate.

This cat doing a full-service wash for $129 needs to get off the pipe. We'll do a 1000 sq ft ranch for $150 but that's just the house and gutters with less than an hour there and then figuring a neighbor will see you and want theirs done on the spot. You can almost always upsell the driveway and just about every small ranch around here has a small driveway. These people have to stop making themselves look like hired labor.

A great day is when you venture out figuring you'll be home by 3 pm and then getting home after dark. Go out for one or two jobs but be prepared to do four or five.
 
Here's the problem with upselling - if the customer is getting a $250 house wash for $129 and wants to add driveway which is $100 worth of work, they'll expect it do be done for $50.
$150 deck? They'll expect a $60-$70 price tag for that too.
Since they know the house is discounted, they'll expect everything to be discounted.

Not saying it can't be done, but would be tough to do.
Maybe it could be worded in the add that all add-on services are full price.

*Also, you can send all the reminders you want. But what do you think they'll do next year when another guy runs another groupon special for the same rate or lower?*
Yep, you guessed it.
 
Johnson said:
*Also, you can send all the reminders you want. But what do you think they'll do next year when another guy runs another groupon special for the same rate or lower?*
Yep, you guessed it.
Click to expand...

You're right Chad. When it comes to restaurants Groupon (et al) is the modern day equivalent of the old Lets Dine Out coupon books. Most all restaurants hate Groupon because that customer demographic doesn't come back, he just goes on to the next deal.
 
I have used groupon in the past and will use it again. I may only get 50-100 jobs from the coupon, but everyone of them had upsell to them and 75% of the people using them knew about the 50/50 split that groupon takes so they would just pay me the "special" price and not go through groupon. I would not mention the split to any of the potential customers unless they brought it up.
One groupon customer last year reffered 10 new customers to me through out the year. So in my case in was a good idea to use the service.
 
Dan Dykstra said:
I have used groupon in the past and will use it again. I may only get 50-100 jobs from the coupon, but everyone of them had upsell to them and 75% of the people using them knew about the 50/50 split that groupon takes so they would just pay me the "special" price and not go through groupon. I would not mention the split to any of the potential customers unless they brought it up.
One groupon customer last year reffered 10 new customers to me through out the year. So in my case in was a good idea to use the service.
Click to expand...

What were some of the "Special" prices and how did they compare to market rates at the time?

Did you reward the referring customer with $?
 
I know of a window cleaners in my area who got lots of business. So much so he couldnt do any of the real honest good paying jobs that come along spring and fall when nobody can keep up. I believe it put him out of business. Certainly they got way behind and stopped calling people back or honoring appointments , this from dissatisfied customer who called me.

One of my customers used a Group on power washer guy (she didn't know we do power washing too) the company washed her house but also clean the deck without asking her and added that to the bill.Actually they did a pretty good deck clean and brighten spash and dash. She was not happy and could'nt get a return call either. She just paid it as a lesson learned but shes not going to be a repeat customer.

Another customer of mine owns a small bike shop and Group On has done wonders for there business. So service business I dont think its a good fit as most of our cost is labor, selling widgets probably.
 
Reminds me of when Comcast billed me for a service I didnt ask for. The woman on the phone told me, they probably thought you would like this better...Not sure why you would pay for something you didnt request.

I started filling out the groupon online "form/dealmaker" but didnt see where I could specify exactly what service it would be for. I wouldnt do a deal where I lose money unless I can upsell and just hope I can. But we are setup to clean a lot of concrete fast so if I can do a driveway deal Ill try it.
 
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