I recently got interviewed for an article that appeared on Newswire.net, about a term the concept of "the Groupon Sting," by which I mean of course that painful, business-crushing experience that many have had when dealing with a deal site.
Now of course, this phenomenon isn't limited to Groupon, they're just the biggest, and thus the largest source of complaints.
I am a HUGE advocate for these kinds of sites in general, as they represent a unique marketing phenomenon that poses a win for all parties involved: the business, the deal site, and the customer.
The problem that wrecks this winning triumvirate of marketing has come from businesses not understanding how to structure a deal on a site like Groupon, and then it comes back to bite them in the butt: they lose money on each deal sold because they didn't understand the price split wit the site; they get overwhelmed by far more customers than they can handle; the customers become irate because they're not being handled well, and wind up wrecking the businesses reputation on-line.
Business owners simply don't know what to do, or how to do it. And that's natural. You might be a rocket scientist, but that doesn't mean you can change a carburetor. Or, if you can change a carburetor, you probably don't know how to fix a cavity. The point is, your expertise is in your own area of specialization, and it's hard (though certainly not impossible) to cross bridge the knowledge gap.
Fortunately, of course, having a Deal Site Marketing Agency represent you can minimize the harm. 🙂
