This post chronicles yet another issue w/ the not fully grocked world of online -> offline group buying.
I recently purchased a LivingSocial deal (x2) for one of my favorite mid-ride coffee & pastery destinations, The Bovine Bakery. For those not aware, The Bovine Bakery is a small establishment situated in the center of downtown Point Reyes Station about 40 miles north-west of San Francisco. It’s location makes it a perfect mid-ride stop for a coffee and Morning Bun/Bear Claw/Scone/Bread Pudding, usually still warm from the oven. When I saw this tiny little bakery in sleepy West Marin had stepped into the world of group buying, it certainly piqued my interest enough to click on the email.
The deal was nothing special on the outside (spend $8, get $16 worth of flour/sugar/butter), but had something unique in the fine print:
"May be used over multiple visits"
Usually you need to be very careful w/ these types of offers. You rarely spend more than $5 during a visit, and the group buying deals are often single use w/ no cash back for the difference. This deal was different, it said “May be used over multiple visits”. This is awesome. It meant I could spread the awesomeness across 3 visits, as opposed to one 4,000 calorie binge. Knowing this, I went ahead and bought the deal twice.
Fast forward two weeks.
My buddy Will, who bought based on my recommendation, printed the coupon and attempted to use at the bakery. Once at the register, the sales associate told him that the entire coupon value must be spent during this visit. What? She pointed to the coupon where there was no reference to the “May be used over multiple visits” text we initially saw on the deal, just this:
"Entire value must be used in one visit"
Yeah, not cool…
To be clear, I have no issue here w/ the concept of forcing group deals to be applied in one visit (the redemption and authentication of these coupons is hard enough operationally as is). I simply have a problem w/ the mixed message, because it puts small business like The Bovine Bakery in an unfortunate situation. They potentially piss off existing customers (whom this deal is arguably not for) as well as new customers (the ones they hope to convert into repeats).
I’m not sure which party is to blame for this miscommunication, and do not feel the need to make a conjecture. I only wish to use this as an opportunity to share some advice for business interested in partnering w/ group buying sites – Make sure you are 100% clear on the offer, both in marketing and fulfillment.
Naoto Fukasawa described in Objectified as a design goal of the cell phone he produced. The texture is a way to remind you it’s there.
