Using Groupon and Living Social: How It Can Help Your Business

Before using Groupon I feel that the merchant must really be ready to staff accordingly and engage with the customer in a friendly and unique way as a first time guest using a coupon. Making the customer feel welcomed instead of the look of, “Oh no, not another Groupon customer” will do wonders to get me back! But am I alone? We did a little digging to find some recent research on the subject and found the study noted below:

Research Study: ForeSee Groupon Satisfaction Study, March 2012

Data collected from thousands of local merchants who have worked with Groupon shows that these businesses see significant value and benefits, including increases to their customer bases, consumer loyalty and brand awareness.

Key findings from the reports include:

Groupon earns high marks in merchant satisfaction

• Groupon’s overall merchant satisfaction was a very strong 79 in March (source: ForeSee Groupon Satisfaction Study, March 2012)
• The average satisfaction score for a B2B company in ForeSee’s benchmark is 64, which means that Groupon’s merchant satisfaction score is 15 points higher than an average of its B2B peers, and even exceeds the Fortune 500 benchmark by 10 points (source: ForeSee Satisfaction Benchmark, March 2012)

Groupon brings business through the door and helps local merchants attract long-term, loyal customers

• Groupon brings customers in the door and 74% of merchants say that is the main reason they work with the company (source: ForeSee Groupon Satisfaction Study, March 2012)
• 91% of daily deal customers have already or plan to conduct business with the merchant again since buying the deal (source: Foresee Daily Deal Commentary, February 2012)

“We see that satisfaction with Groupon is consistently above average, for both merchants and customers alike, and our extensive research shows us that companies who score favorably with these two groups are well-positioned for success,” said Larry Freed, President and CEO of ForeSee. “All of the studies we’ve done about Groupon lead me to believe this is a company that clearly drives new and repeat business.”

“Our internal data regularly demonstrates high merchant satisfaction and strong results for local businesses running Groupon features,” said Eric Rasmussen, VP Market Research at Groupon. “The ForeSee Daily Deal Commentary report confirms the important role Groupon plays to help local businesses spark growth and entice new customers.”

To further improve a merchant’s ability to evaluate their performance with Groupon, the company recently launched a series of products designed to improve ease of use, increase ROI transparency and deepen merchant-to-customer relationships. These include the free online scheduling tool Groupon Scheduler (http://www.groupon.com/scheduler) as well as the company’s loyalty program for businesses, Groupon Rewards (http://www.groupon.com/rewards) and the revamped Merchant Center, a dashboard providing real-time customer feedback and performance across traditional Feature Deals and Groupon Now! Deals. Merchants can also use Groupon’s free iPhone and Android applications to redeem vouchers and track deal performance.

Sources:

ForeSee B2B Benchmark, March 2012 (Independent Study)

ForeSee Daily Deal Commentary, February 2012 (Independent Study)

ForeSee Groupon Satisfaction Study, March 2012 (Commissioned by Groupon)

 

What about you? Have you found a great place because of a Groupon or Living Social coupon?