| The Toys R Us Holiday Badge Earned For Checking in during the Holidays |
Facebook Deals, Groupon, Foursquare – with the sudden popularity of social, location based advertising, small business owners and large corporation alike have many options to chose from when they are looking for ways to promote their business through social media. As for the extremely flexible and patient people who are working in retail in the midst of this type of “check-in madness”, I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it must be to keep up with what promotions are going on at any particular moment.
Many people, myself included, love using services like Groupon and Foursquare to score great deals and those “check-ins” incentives are proving to be a great way to get traffic and encourage repeat visits by customers. Typically, when a customer checks-in at a location, the business can offer them a loyalty reward or a special coupon. However, there are times when this sort of marketing can go very wrong. When technology and social media are utilized in a way that confuses customers or makes them feel cheated, this marketing strategy can have the exact opposite result.
Recently, I went out shopping with my son. We were going to purchase a video game that he had been wanting for some time. The shopping center we visited had a Target and a Toys R Us almost next door to each other. Before I got out of the car, I pulled out my trusty iPhone and looked at the Foursquare offers in the area. Toys R Us had a small ad informing me that if I checked in there, I would receive a coupon. Both stores' websites said that they had the game in stock, but the one at Target was being sold about $5 less. Even though I had originally planned to buy the game from Target, I decided to check in first with the one that was offering a discount.
When I checked in at Toys R Us, a coupon came across my screen offering “Buy one video game, get one at 50% off”. I was so excited and thought that we had gotten lucky because, coincidentally, we were there to buy video games. I shared the coupon with my son and told him that seeing how I had this coupon, we could get the game at Toys R Us and he could pick out another game as well.
When we were finished shopping and went to check out, I gave the associate my cell phone with the coupon. That was when they told me that the coupon had expired, and I wouldn't be able to use it on my purchase and I was asked if I still wanted both games. Of course I did, because this was supposed to be a special reward for my son, and he already had the games picked out and was excited about his “super awesome video game deal”. After I left the register, I went to speak with the store manager who confirmed that the offer was expired, and she even pointed out that the offers expiration date was listed as being two years ago.
I was confused. Why would Toys R Us send me a reward offer for checking in today, if it had expired years ago? I just couldn't get over the idea that it just isn't fair to lure customers into your store with a phony discount. When I left the store, I was still upset, so I called the 800 number for Toys R Us. After speaking with several people who said that they had no idea what Foursquare was, I finally was able to talk to someone who was a little bit familiar with my situation. I was told that the offer was expired, the customer reward was old and I should have checked the terms and conditions before trying to use the offer to avoid any misunderstandings. So, in short, they were no help at all.
In order to get the most out of any marketing campaign using social media, you have to educate your staff about the different programs and try to build employee excitement around the promotions. When customers attempt to redeem these promotions, if they have to explain social media to the sales associate, it will make them less likely to use the service at that location again. Instead, they will take their business to the stores that make them feel good about participating in the campaign.
The end goal is to have the customer leave feeling so excited about their shopping experience that they share their experience on Facebook and Twitter by using the publishing options they have at their fingertips. If companies mess this up, customers will leave notes for others who check-in at the same location later telling them not to waste their time shopping there. All it takes is a few bad reviews to turn-off the growing population of shoppers with smart phones.
There are many was to use social media and location based promotions to market a business and increase sales. Offering expired reward coupons and alienating customers isn't one of them.
Have you ever used location based coupon sites like Groupon or Foursquare? What have your experiences been? Please let me know in the comments.
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By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for RetailGigsBlog. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
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