A Cure for Deal Fatigue?
This week I cam down with a major case of daily deal fatigue. I don’t just mean as a business model concept, but as a real world user. Most people I know got sick of these websites long ago or never got started because of the three major drawbacks:
1. Sketchy businesses with poor customer service.
2. Trying to use the coupon right before it expires and the business is slammed with all the other last minute redeemers.
3. Forgetting to use the coupon, altogether.
But I was always a big evangelist and would emphatically explain my tips and tricks to using them successfully without getting burned. Using my methods, I have:
1. Not payed full price for a haircut in over a year!
2. Tried numerous tasting menus at great restaurants for half off!
3. Learned the arts of flower arranging, cake decorating, jewelry making, sewing, and many more!
The one day it struck me just how much time and effort I was spending on getting these “great deals”. It didn’t seem like that much, but when you look at it in total you get:
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| This is an actual screenshot |
1. Go through all the emails each day (I was subscribed to 6 or 7).
2. Reading reviews to make sure the business has satisfied customers.
3. Checking the fine print to see restrictions.
4. Finding time to schedule.
5. Adding reminders to my to-do list.
Holy crap. I’m not actually “saving” at all considering all the time I was investing! So this week, I unsubscribed to Groupon, LivingSocial, AmazonLocal and a few other services. Then, everywhere I looked I saw articles proclaiming the demise of Groupon. The timing was uncanny.
Now, what could these companies have done to have kept such an enthusiastic and loyal customer on board? Is there a cure for the dreaded fatigue? The key element needed to keep this model from dying out entirely is better selection. “Better” can be achieved through two main ways:
1. Allow the user more finely tuned selection over the of businesses they see based on type of service and/or location. Bloomspot is doing a pretty good job of this, so has escaped the axe (for now).
2. Stricter curation process that ensures only businesses that meet certain standards are allowed to participate. To that end, I have kept my subscription to Gilt City.
How about you? Are you still caught up in the coupon craze or did you give it a pass from the get go?