A friend of ours recently ran a Groupon offer for his growing lawn care business in the Pacific Northwest. His business provides great services and has a solid online reputation, including plenty of 5 star Yelp reviews, as well as a Google + presence. His campaign sold over 200 lawn care packages that were an amazing deal for Groupon and the customers, but wasn’t the best deal for him.

Selling some deals was exactly what he hoped for, right?? Yes – his daily deal campaign delivered great exposure and some cash, which is always good. However, he was expecting a larger percentage of these sales to turn into repeat customers, which never happened because he didn’t make much of an attempt to convert these one-time transactions to repeat customers. What can we learn from this?

Here are a few simple ways you can entice your daily deal recipients to become repeat customers.

• Before providing services> Ask for email address – Have your customer complete a customer card or online form with basic information before they receive goods or services. Ask for permission to send any email newsletters or offers.

• Immediately after providing services> Upsell on the spot – Just after providing goods or services, simply offer your customer a similar deal as the one they came in for (e.g., Get $250 of lawn care for only $100). Chances are, if the offer was good enough the first time they were presented it, they may just purchase it again directly from you, eliminating the daily deal middleman.

If they decline your offer, they may still return later. Stay top of mind by emailing your offers directly. Include an expiration date to instill a sense of urgency.

• A couple weeks after providing services> Follow Up – A few weeks after you’ve completed the service, send a quick “thank you for your business” message and ask them to rate your business, including how likely they are to purchase again.
You can also ask them to refer your biz to their friends and family and provide a referral incentive by offering a discount for their next service.

Running a daily deal campaign can work to your advantage by helping you get new customers, but it’s up to you to keep ’em coming back for more.

Have you run a daily deal campaign with Groupon, Living Social, Bloomspot or Google Offers? What did you learn?  Share away in the comments.

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