Groupon - fighting for it's life

[hippy-chick]

This is too true for a salon near me, they are doing at least 2 a month, should be £40 Groupon for £10, even makes me wonder.... Are they over pricing to be able to Groupon for less and get people to think they are getting a good deal?
Iv considered Groupon, setting something stupidly high, such as a conditioning treatment with a blowdry at £80 allowing Groupon to reduce it and make a huge profit compared to if I done the service full price at the price I have it as now xoxo

you can't do that, they do their research and they know your prices.

 

[vgml]

you can't do that, they do their research and they know your prices.

Yes, but they do it. They change their website prices up..

 

[Lauz012]

See I dont really see anything wrong with it there is people on here where it has done wonders for there business and it's just a marketing tool getting people through the door not nessacey making a profit as long as you cover costs and everyone's business I'm sure was slow to start with

 

[Tomme]

you can't do that, they do their research and they know your prices.

But if the higher price is charged for at least 28 days its perfectly legal, I could put a blowdry at £100 for a month then do a 75% off deal and charge £25 and have no backlash from the law xoxo

 

[Lynne Baker]

What it actually does, even to the salons who refuse to take part in the schemes, is suggest to the prospective client that there will always be a new offer somewhere else. Of course lots of clients will stick loyally to their chosen therapist, but for those who might want something extra they're encouraged to look at the offers. Hell, I've even had my most long standing loyal clients say they've had a spa day/pedicure/insert treatment here/ courtesy of Groupon etc because, well, how bad can it be for £25, when a Shellac Spa pedicure with me is over £40. True, they wouldn't go again because, well, it was ok for an offer, but I've lost out on that sale, haven't I?
And of course, the other place now has their details and will start marketing to them.

In my opinion it is a poisonous, myopic business model which will have made Groupon et al a lot of money, put some less astute business people out of business, and fostered an unsustainable, unreasonable expectation from the buying public.

 

[angelina221]

Also a lot of beauty therapists that have put packages together have been rather misleading.
They will put an offer on of something like a facial, manicure, pedicure and massage and sell lots. Then when you go for the treatment you are in and out in an hour with a substandard treatment.
These people then won't want to book in with you for your packages as they think they will be the same.
It just devalues what we do.
I, for one, will be glad to see the back of it.
I will be charitable though-I wouldn't want it to be a long drawn out death, I'd rather it be a quick demise!

 

[nicolaluise]

Angelina, I once bought a groupon offer ... A half day pamper concluding of a full body exfoliation, facial, full body massage and a luxury pedicure ... And all in 2 hours! Now I may not be a therapist but I've worked in enough salons to know that a luxury pedi alone takes at least an hour, during the facial I was left for 20 mins with a "mask" on freezing without sufficient heating in the room or a blanket, well at least I didn't have to listen to the therapist slag her staff off for that 20mins ... Good riddens groupon or and no I never did go back to that salon or recommend to anyo e x

 

[Rinn]

Angelina, I once bought a groupon offer ... A half day pamper concluding of a full body exfoliation, facial, full body massage and a luxury pedicure ... And all in 2 hours! Now I may not be a therapist but I've worked in enough salons to know that a luxury pedi alone takes at least an hour, during the facial I was left for 20 mins with a "mask" on freezing without sufficient heating in the room or a blanket, well at least I didn't have to listen to the therapist slag her staff off for that 20mins ... Good riddens groupon or and no I never did go back to that salon or recommend to anyo e x

i have no experience of groupon but would have the same opinion as fozzyo, lynne and angelina having read about it on here.

but maybe they have done us a bit of a favour....i bet there are loads of clients who were treated like nicolluise and hopefully now appreciate the saying 'buy cheap, expect cheap.....and are now happy to frequent a nice salon and pay a fair price for a treatment carried out in a professional way.

and also groupon was the straw that broke the back of salons like the one described above ...is that not good?

 

[Lauz012]

I think your comment of people would rather go to a nice salon with reasonable prices is not correct cause there are nice salons out there that do groupon they arnt all dumps like what everyone seems to think they are goin to be

 

[Tomme]

I think your comment of people would rather go to a nice salon with reasonable prices is not correct cause there are nice salons out there that do groupon they arnt all dumps like what everyone seems to think they are goin to be

Lol you sound like a Groupon employee to me.
I think in the long run, if things like Groupon didn't exist, the customer wouldn't see so many salons as being too expensive and would also help slow price wars and offer wars with local salons trying to out beat a salon that has a Groupon running.

Personally I wouldn't use them, I would contact to fid out what they would charge etc... As I said above, but then run a beat the Groupon promotion that was less than Groupon would charge but 100% of the offer price is mine.
A much better way to make money although the marketing isn't there xoxo

 

[Rinn]

i'm sure there are and it's not a fair assumption but i was referring to the way nicolaluis was treated by the salon she went to.
obviously the main objective in doing a groupon is to drum up business.
that being the case , the client should be treated properly which from what i read , she wasn't.

 

[Lauz012]

I'm not a groupon employee I have done a groupon deal and it worked out for me really well and I Dont agree with people sayin that there not nice salons I did it to get people through the door to show them what I could do and they were very happy with te service I provided cause you have the people who are only out for a bargain but you get that in every industry

 

[nicolaluise]

i have no experience of groupon but would have the same opinion as fozzyo, lynne and angelina having read about it on here.

but maybe they have done us a bit of a favour....i bet there are loads of clients who were treated like nicolluise and hopefully now appreciate the saying 'buy cheap, expect cheap.....and are now happy to frequent a nice salon and pay a fair price for a treatment carried out in a professional way.

and also groupon was the straw that broke the back of salons like the one described above ...is that not good?

Absolutely bang on the money here! I would never buy a groupon deal again or one from any of the other companies, nor would I use them for my business, in fact it actually made me value my own practices and worth!

 

[megan7775]

Hmmm I'm on the fence with this one, I think in theory, if your offer is well thought out, it is a great way to get people into your salon. I've seen offers for a full head of foils cut & blow dry for £19- how does that make good business sense? When you price up the colour, peroxide & overheads it will cost YOU to run this promotion. On the other hand, if you offer a £20 waxing voucher for £9 that your client doesn't have to use in 1 appointment, chances are shell have her brows done- she may as well have her eyelash/brow tint at same time - kerching- your making money from it. If she just comes and uses the waxing service- she's in and out at minimal cost to you & you haven't lost out.

 

[MrsHBeauty]

I ran a deal with groupon and have nothing but a positive experience.

I got paid 7 days after the client visits and if you take all the details you can even claim before they visit so you'll get the money quicker.

I have 100% to all my treatments lots have re-booked we've gained a few loyal clients.

And I would do it again based on that experience

I found a way to make more money from the deal aswell.

We only had 1 no-show out of 89 deals we had through the door.

I see everyone's valid point about de-valuing the service and the industry as a whole.

Not everyone can afford I pay top bucks for a treatment and the only way they can afford it is to buy areal.

Aslong as you know how to play the groupon deal I think it is worth a hot.

 

[MrsHBeauty]

And I don't work for groupon either ;-)

 

[angelina221]

Hmmm I'm on the fence with this one, I think in theory, if your offer is well thought out, it is a great way to get people into your salon. I've seen offers for a full head of foils cut & blow dry for £19- how does that make good business sense? When you price up the colour, peroxide & overheads it will cost YOU to run this promotion. On the other hand, if you offer a £20 waxing voucher for £9 that your client doesn't have to use in 1 appointment, chances are shell have her brows done- she may as well have her eyelash/brow tint at same time - kerching- your making money from it. If she just comes and uses the waxing service- she's in and out at minimal cost to you & you haven't lost out.

If you offer a £20 waxing voucher for £9, you don't get £9.
Groupon take 50% of the £9. They then take vat off the offer price so that's another £1.80 deducted. That leaves you with £2.70. Take your product costs off and your overheads and time and you're making a loss.
You would have to have about an 85% margin just to break even!

 

[MrsHBeauty]

They take the VAT off of the figure they are giving to you as far as I'm aware and definitely in my case. So off if £4.50 it is 90p so it leaves £3.60.

If you are paying staff to do nothing you might aswell pay them to recover your product costs by providing a groupon client.

Not everyone's business has full columns constantly. I'd rather my therapists working than sat around. I have to pay them whether they do treatments or cleaning or nothing.

Overheads also have to be paid even if the salon is empty. Don't book in groupon clients all day figure out how full your column is usually, and work out how many groupon clients you could do per day to fill those gaps, make sure you leave a bit of time free for extra walk ins etc, don't be tempted to over book yourself just say no.

Set limits, "fine print" don't include your busiest days, add a Saturday surcharge, up sell, retail, offer a discount for extra treatments taken in the day. Only take bookings via email.

Don't do more than a couple a day.

There are ways to make it work, it's just most salons don't k ow how to make them work.

Ill be glad when groupon an the such like are gone, but I do think there is a gap for daily deals sites.

 

[Petit Basque]

I have never run a Groupon or Groupon type deal and never would. Nor have I ever been remotely tempted to buy one for myself either. I am always highly suspicious of cheap deals and think that in the end you usually get what you pay for.

As a hard-working and highly qualified/skilled therapist it breaks my heart to see companies like these devalue and cheapen the services we offer. Like many others on this site I have trained long and hard and invested a not inconsiderable amount of money in my business. Yes we all know that generally speaking the actual treatment/product costs are not that high but these sort of companies focus clients attention on this one factor and totally disregard the skill and time and training expertise that we give the client.

I did some work in a salon who ran a Groupon deal for a microdermabrasion course. The therapist had to fit in 200 treatments in a 6 week window. Needless to say the salon were offering a really cut down version of the usual treatment (which then doesn't correctly promote the treatment) and you would not believe the distances some people were prepared to travel. Needless to say there were few if any repeat clients. It seemed a pointless and exhausting exercise which resulted in no profit and no new clients.

I would be delighted to see the back of Groupon along with other such companies who encourage greedy bargain hunters who are not prepared to pay a fair price for a good service thus increasing the likelihood of that company or salon or therapist going bust.

PB
x

 

[Haylo_Therapies]

Whenever I see business' on groupon offering peanuts for their services, in my honest opinion, it comes across a bit desperate. I am not saying this is the case, but this is how it comes across to me. I would never want to put my business on their and de value myself. My treatments are worth more than a £9 facial! There are other ways to effectively get clients through the door. (You just need to look on Lynne's thread) ;-)

Also, when you see all the stories on here of clients doing/saying some horrible things to therapists, I always imagine this would be some of the type of client Groupon would attract!

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