One of my competitors here did a groupon a few weeks ago offering $80 worth of window cleaning for $40. I dont think it sold that well less than 100. The fine print read each window was $4 to $8 per pane. So someone is only going to get about 10 or 12 windows washed with a couple sliders. There were several posts from clients wondering how many windows they were going to get cleaned did this include the inside screens were only brushed, which here means they are not getting clean. Just wondering what your thoughts were on this and has anyone had a successful groupon offering. I have read alot where people do not get the upsells they are hopeing for. The grouponites ONLY go with what the deal is and nothing more. So if they are getting 10 windows cleaned thats it thank you goodbye.
A buddy of mine did this for personal training with a local papers version. For $60 they got 4 hours of training. He only got $30 from this,
and sold 58 it was a pain but did get him more customers, some he upsold massage. He would never do it again, he tried to use it to fill his quite periods, and only did 1 or 2 per day. He also had people call direct so he gave them the same offer direct so no splitting with the paper.
Sorry not window related but is an insight
What’s up Doc? Ha, I saw that groupon ad too. As a matter of fact the day it came out I was doing a new client and they mentioned that they use groupon and saw that company’s ad. I just responded by focusing on the fact that I’m happy receiving all my work through referrals. My new client (which was indeed referred to me by another client of mine) just agreed that it probably wasn’t worth hiring someone that she wasn’t familiar with, or hadn’t been referred to her. Catastrophe averted and new client happily retained. I think groupon would work better for businesses selling products, like restaurants, than services. But to each his own.
I have seen that a few times here. I have had Groupon call a few times trying to get me to do a deal. I simply have no desire to be bundled in with cheap service or attract that type of client base.
I saw this Groupon mentioned several times here and never paid attention to it, still don’t know exactly how it works because I haven’t visited the website but any offer not created and calculated by me does not attract me.
I don’t like to drive around, I like to make good bucks on one job a day if possible, 2 small ones is fine too, but I don’t feel like driving around to 4-5 places to come home with 300 bucks.
Don’t know if you’re familiar with a site called slickdeals.net, they post deals, offers and coupons. I’ve got several good deals on products there, but from being part of that site I’ve learned that people looking for deals are not my kind of customer, I’m not my kind of customer to be honest 
Getting old and cranky doesn’t help either right ?
night’
This isnt from Groupon but from the local paper that offers the deal of the day .
Seems like alot of work for the 78 potential customers he got.
$95 for Full-Service Window Cleaning! - Deal of the Day: Freedom - The Orange County Register
Sampaio Services Company Deal of the Day | Groupon Boston
LOcal to me deal going on right now, Never heard of the Company, but if as it states you get 2 guys window cleaning for 2 or 4 hours, and they have sold 730 of them .Well do the math.
Gratuity not included, lol!
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His share of that is probably $2-3 per window! Ouch!
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my boss did groupon before christmas… got 465 customers !!! no bull !! and all at 5 € (9.99) not forgetting he gets half and groupon the other half… for cleaning 5 normal windows …
we have 4 or 5 window cleaners . i maybe do 4 groupon a week … not forgetting they ( customer ) have a 6 month time frame to work in clean at there place…
from my experience 3 out 4 are just cheap people … what you might find also is that people are a little ashamed of using you and will come out with all sorts of excuses why they have groupon like a… " its a gift off my daughter "
all in all if your starting off and your offer is wise then yes . but if you have work. i would say NO
Oh yeh ! most of the windows ive cleaned on groupon up till now have been caked in dirt…
Never, No way I am working for peanuts. I am not a Monkey.
4 hours!!! This guy has to be out of business!!He only made $139.00 a day before gas, payrol, lunch, materials,Insurance, taxes and that is if he did 2 a day. I hate to see that!!!
Doing 4 houses a day it would take 190 days to complete the work. for 30k. That’s the wage for the guys doing the work, not including taxes, ins, fuel, supplies and so on. They are working for free if they are lucky.
For our business of a labor service, the more one has a grasp of their business numbers and gross profit margins, the more one can see something needs to be created to outwit and outplay this groupon model. Kevin Dubrosky did that not too long ago, very clever guy.
But to just willy nilly lower ones price by half just to appeal to those who would have never had it done in the first place (ie: worst possible customer type to have in your database) is business suicide to me. Labor does not have an economy of scale like a pallet of product sitting in a wherehouse costing the owner inventory taxes does, that stuff needs to be moved at firesale prices and requires zero extra time to sell 1 or 100,000, unlike the man hours involved and operations cost to fulfill job work orders does.
+Groupons 50% commission!! They should have got a job for minimum wage, they would have at least taken home a paycheck.
I think it’s working for bananas if you were a monkey 
No way I am working for bananas. I am not an elephant.
criminy
seems their model is to go out of business themselves as they drive others out of business with them (I heard they filed chap 11)
It’s kind of like how Wal-mart grinds and grinds vendors to the bone, while they make the profit off their back, holding the carrot of volume in front of them (which can mean they’ll just go out of business faster with more volume)
those vendor relationships are a little more insidious and involved
Groupon is voluntary and anyone can sign up to go out of business if they want (following their model)
so a strategic counterattack is definitely necessary
although some have had good success and been satisfied with their experience,
in some ways it seems like preying on those desperate for work
and 50% is loanshark marketing services
[U][I]anyone know of any company whose marketing department has a budget of 50% of gross revenues???
[/I][/U]
[B]Outwit, Outplay, Outlast and Survive Strategy:[/B]
I say reprice all your services (ex: $100) by 400% higher ($400), then give 50% off in the coupon (=$200), then pay groupon’s 50% of that ($100) and you actually come out at what you regularly charge in the first place: $100
now we’re talking
lol
If every one took him up on the 4 hr deal and groupon gets half then he has 2 guys working 8hrs (on the job) for $139, Include driving time and misc, call it 18 man hrs for $139. Approx $7.75 an hour. I wonder how he pays insurance , taxes etc out of that, Like I said I have never heard of this company and maybe Ive just missed out on them, but Im guessing 4 guys at the most. He just sold over 760 of these. Averaging it out at 3 hours per job that ties up 4 guys for over 130 days
