FREE, $$$$ OFF or %%%% off?

[RGH269]

When doing promos what has worked best for you?

I have tried percentage off and got virtually no response it was Val-Pak.
I've never been a big fan of theirs, to many offers jumbled together and to easy to get over looked. Plus I think people can be sceptical of % off they figure it's to easy for you to inflate the price to cover the discount.

I have used the free room aka JP and have always made money mailing to my customer list. It has not worked nearly as well sending to a cold list. I did a small one recently to my list and got a 25 to 1 return with a 7% response, but the percentage of respondents has never been as high as Joe says 20%.
My wife says she has always been suspicious of free offers because someone has to be paying for it at some level.

I have never done a dollar amount off but I want to try it. What has your results been and what works best for you?

Ken I checked out your website and saw a four rooms for $99 special isn't that pretty much your regular price and how does it do?

Of course if you are going to offer any type of discount your pricing has to be high enough for you to do that and still make a profit.
What do you guys say?

 

[Desk Jockey]

We do both, combine services we will give you a mufti-services discount (%). We also have discount cards that the estimator will hand out for dollars off that seem to make people move off the fence.

The free room or area has not worked well for us. I too, think people don't trust "Free", I don't.

 

[Jim Nelson]

I make them all pay full price. Then I give them what they paid for, every one is then happy.

 

[Ken Snow]

We not too long ago wwnt from 5 rooms to 4 rooms.

 

[The Great Oz]

Dollars off.

People are typically too lazy to do math. If they can do math, the bogus discounters that always have a percentage off sale just get people to think, "Percentage off of what?"

 

[Brian R]

Give the discount upfront....It's better than a free room but it gets the same effect.

Groupon, Living Social etc do this for you but they play on a much bigger playing field.

They may only get a 7% return as well...But their 7% is much larger than your 7% or my 7%.

You still get money for doing the 2 or 3 rooms for a super discounted price BUT it surely isn't enough to make you rich if you just do those rooms only.


The key is to offer more services...Whatever they may be. Sell in with the carpet cleaning..Sell out with everything else.


If you do a 3 room deal for $65 bucks...You'll still get $32.50 upfront after Groupon's cut. Sounds like crap...But the law of averages will weigh in your favor and you'll get more on most jobs AND if your customer services and customer retention is good, you'll get repeat customers...Maybe even some referrals.

Good luck.

 

[RGH269]

Dollars off.

People are typically too lazy to do math. If they can do math, the bogus discounters that always have a percentage off sale just get people to think, "Percentage off of what?"

I agree it's to easy to inflate the price to make up a discount in the customers mind. A dollar of takes all the guess work out of it for them.

Brian you may be right about Groupon and LS I am just gun shy about those things at this time.

 

[Brian R]

They are not producing like they used to anyway. I've gotten tons of quality customers out of them. But now even the lower prices don't bring as many.
It's still the same Priceshopper to Quality Custy ratio.

Who knows if they will last.