(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...Dear Bob, This past Tuesday, my husband and I took our car in to a dealer near Mission Viejo for a routine oil change, a front headlight replacement and to check the brakes. We’ve gone to this dealer for the past 6 years, but they’d recently changed ownership. We always had good experiences in the past, so we were hoping for a good experience this time.
Turns out we did need brakes and a brake fluid change, so that brought our original estimate of $94 to the final total of $608.
Just two days after that service, I received coupons in my email from the dealer. I could have saved $40 with those coupons! I called the dealership and after the phone continued to ring unanswered, my husband and I decided to go in and ask them to credit the $40.We spotted the service guy who normally helps us and told him what we wanted.
He said, ‘I can’t do anything about it.’ Hubby says, ‘We want to see the service manager.’
Service guy says, ‘Just talk to so and so since he wrote it up. There isn’t any need to talk to the manager.’
So and so says, ‘I can’t do anything about that’ (Oh, that just escalated my boiling point right there.) I said, ‘Then call the manager. This is ridiculous.’
He went to talk to the manager, came back and said, ‘$20 credit on future servicing is all he’ll do. You can only use one coupon. With the new management, we’re following all the rules.’
I replied, ‘You are telling me, as a 6 year LOYAL customer, that I am not worth saving for an additional $20? Forget it. We’re done. We won’t be coming back and we SURE won’t purchase another car here.’ And with that, we left.
Within 2 hours, we received a call saying that we would get a $40 credit towards a future servicing. However, I don’t feel warm and fuzzy about the dealership.
Just goes to show that you can really damage a good thing over something that, in the scheme of things, was very little. I’m sure you hear this all the time. If only these companies would get a clue.” – Dian
My Take
What struck me first about this story was that she was talking about 6% of the total order being refunded. You can bet their cost of acquiring a new customer is probably five or more fold.
As longtime readers of my blog know, I am not a fan of couponing. I think it often causes problems – usually in regards to loyal customers.
BUT if you’re going to offer them, if you made the decision to give away money to people who will use them, then darnit, don’t pull back from honoring your coupons! You aren’t losing anything!
Jeez, from Dian’s story you’d think she was asking them to give the store away when in actuality, it was less than the tax on the total bill.
Secondly, if you have a CYA culture that is disempowered you will get customers railing against you on Yelp, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube – even blogs.
Couple that with Analytical personalities who only see black and white and you have a recipe for disappointing many customers as they follow the letter of the law. (See my post last week about the Analytical manager who stood in my way of a refund.)
What’s particularly ridiculous is their offer of $40 in future service. Heck, they should have refunded the $40 and given ‘em the $40 towards future service in a personal phone call from the manager or new owner. A bonus would have been a gas card to pay for their trouble to come in in the first place because no on answered the phone.
Instead Dian has told me and I’ve told thousands of you her story.
What say you coupon givers? Was Dian being unreasonable? Should coupons be absolutely verboten on previous purchases? And how does that compare to your local Macy’s, Nordstrom or Best Buy?
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by BobPhibbs,RetailDoc, Christopher Krohn. Christopher Krohn said: Solid #Retail advice, as usual, this time on #coupon #promotion RT @TheRetailDoctor If You Offer Coupons, Don't Hold Back http://ow.ly/1U4AD [...]
Bob
I completely agree. We always tell our staff that coupons are supposed to make customers happy NOT make them mad. That defeats the whole purpose. We find that those customers (like the example you gave) who stretch the rules (expired deals, want different products, etc are a very smally percentage (< 5%) so we do not create a whole set of rules to deal with them. In fact, we only offer coupons or specials when there can be very few rules or restrictions. If it is too complicated then we do not do it.
Great line Bret – they are supposed to make customers HAPPY! Both you and Phil get it – wish we had more owners understand exceptions are not where you want to be. Yes, there will always be a pushy person but no coupon should break the bank.
Bob, I’m also not a fan of coupons, but am using one to drive some traffic while construction surrounds our store. I echo your sentiment exactly (here’s my post on it http://philstoyforum.blogspot.com/2010/05/give-em-what-they-want.html)
The customers who ask what Dian asked are loyal customers – she already made a purchase – of course you honor them. And the other customers who might try to take advantage of your generosity are such a small percentage that you honor them, too, and don’t worry about it.
Kill ‘em with kindness!
It’s pretty much a no brainer. But if that business wanted to do that to themselves, it’s their prerogative. Their senseless loss will be some other garage owners gain. Who might decide to value loyal customers.
That’s the general rule of thumb … Acquiring a new customer is supposed to come to 5-7 times the cost of keeping an existing one.