At first blush, the two-year-old online start-up Groupon seems a bit audacious.
For starters, there's the news that the deal-of-the-day website turned down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google last month.
Even sales tax can be complicated: if a customer pays $20 to eat food that costs $35 at a restaurant's menu prices, should the customer pay sales tax on $20 or $35? (In Massachusetts, the Department of Revenue has confirmed the former—though in my experience, few restaurants follow that rule.)
[This article was provided with permission from Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.]
I think this provides a good platform to attract new customers and definitely holds a good promise of helping increase the customer base. Nevertheless there are a few key points to be pondered over, to reap the actual benefits: 1. It should be announced that the privilege is a limited time offer focussed on demonstrating the capability. There should not be any hidden/unannounced quality difference in the product/services being provided. 2. If the objective is to invite the new customer only once at the discounted rate, it should be clearly defined. There are instances where the services are offered for more than once, but the quality is intentionally compromised, to meet the profitability. Let's not forget that the intention is to market my product/services, exhibit my capability in the given arena. So, let's uphold the quality and win the customer trust..!! I am pretty sure this is a powerful tool to draw in new customers. And out of which there is a good percentage that would like to try out at a discounted rate and given the product/services qualifies their standards/expectations of the product/services, wouldn't mind paying the actual price.
on Mar 30, 2015