By: Rob

As a small business owner you really need to work through your figures properly before committing to a deal. I’ve been doing deals with Groupon and other major coupon companies for almost a year and yes i do clean carpets. When i started i jumped in head first and it was difficult. I didnt expect repeat custom from most of the new customers even though we did an excellent job  – as mentioned above these are people that wouldnt usually pay full price for this service and to make matters worse, as they dont usually get their carpets cleaned regularly, a large number of the jobs were very difficult and time consuming (which further reduces our daily income). So why am i still doing coupons? The answer is simple. I took the coupon model and made it work. I offer a deal which when purchased gives the voucher holder an additional discount on any extra work they want done at the same time. I also offer them other products and services too – at very attractive rates. In short i’ve turned a loss leader into a profit maker as all the add-on services are profit – i dont pay the coupon company any commission on the extra business i drum up. It’s all about upselling and if you dont do it then you could lose thousands. Dont ask the customer if they want anything else after you have serviced them…. ask before you service them. This month i’m lauching my own spot remover on a national level in the UK. I’m also incorporating it into a local deal for the city i clean carpets in – something i would not have done without the coupon deals. It’s been a hard slog getting here but i think i have finally got it right and we are now getting referral work and requests for a follow up in 12 months which is great. We’ve tried Adwords and other forms of advertising and if you want to put a lot of customers in front of you, coupons is the quickest and probably cheapest way to do it. But it’s then up to you not the coupon company as to whether you capitalise on an oportunity or just provide a service. I say jump on the customer, show them you can do a great job, offer them a service they will remember, educate them in a practical way that will improve their lives (we provide some great advise) and give them a good reason to knock on your door next year and tell all their friends about how great you are (we send thank you emails with discounts for their friends to use). Sure it’s hard work but hey there is a recession out there and its better than no work which is what a lot of cleaning companies have – especially with the amount of competition out there.