Massage & Bodywork

JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2018

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A B M P m e m b e r s e a r n F R E E C E a t w w w. a b m p . c o m / c e b y r e a d i n g M a s s a g e & B o d y w o r k m a g a z i n e 81 • While your deal is active, you can adjust the monthly maximums at any time to speed up or slow down sales. • At some point, it will be time to pause your deal. This varies from business to business. Some indicators that it's time to pause are having to book people out more than two weeks, getting complaints or refund requests because customers can't get in, and simply needing a break from seeing so many Groupon clients. If you're starting to resent them, it's definitely time to contact your rep and pause your deal. • Should you decide to resume your deal, you can do so at any time by clicking a button in your merchant center. • If the deal you run just isn't performing well and you want to make changes, you may have to discontinue it and start from scratch. It's better to do that than to keep a lame deal going. LAST, BUT NOT LEAST There's nothing wrong with taking advantage of opportunities to make more money from your Groupon deal. In fact, it's just good business and will help you maintain a positive attitude. You may also encounter situations that are a bit awkward or that you weren't expecting. Consider these common scenarios: • If clients contact you to book a Groupon massage but haven't purchased it yet, offer them the convenience of paying you directly when they come in for their massage. That way, you get the full amount rather than the split. • You may have customers who buy two for themselves or ask if they can share the package. How you want to handle these issues is up to you. Know your fine print and practice what you want to say ahead of time so you're prepared should you need to have these conversations. • You may have late-notice cancellations or no shows. Treat these just as you would any other client (the fine print should have a disclaimer about standard cancellation policies applying). • Having online scheduling in place before your deal goes live will make your life much easier. It's hard to juggle more appointments with increased requests for bookings and provide a good customer experience. Depending on how you set it up, it can also lend itself to giving you more chances to upgrade to a longer service. Any additional expense will easily be covered by the earnings from your campaign. • What about other daily deal sites? Beware of those who say they're just like Groupon, get their customers from Groupon, or try to lure you with a larger split. In the end, you'll likely be disappointed with the results. Groupon is the most reputable, well-established daily deal site with the most users by far. Many of the "secrets" presented here can be applied to any marketing or business strategy to make it more effective. If Groupon isn't your thing, I get it. I've found it to be the most powerful tool for a fairly new practice or to provide an occasional boost. As instrumental as using Groupon has been in building my practice faster, I'm not using it right now simply because I don't have enough consistent openings available to accommodate more than a few sporadic new clients. Should that change, starting another Groupon campaign will be the first step I take to reignite my practice growth. Cath Cox has been a licensed massage therapist in Colorado since 1999 and is the creator of the Booked and Busy in 90 Days System. Her mission is to heal the world by inspiring independent massage therapists to build thriving practices of their own so they can work authentically for as long as they desire. She currently provides ashiatsu barefoot deep-tissue massage exclusively in her private practice. You can learn more about her and her journey at www.cathcox.com. Groupon Facts Since Groupon began, it has helped consumers put more than $7 billion into local businesses. More than 90 percent of Groupon's merchants in the United States have 20 or fewer employees. www.ppcorn.com/us/groupon-15-fast-facts-you-didnt-know

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