Living Social

[Garry Dean]

After seeing the recent posts about the horrors of Living Social I decided to share my experience.



I got a phone call the other day from a Living Social rep. To make a long story a little shorter, I asked a lot of questions and she gave answers.



She explained how the program works and my immediate thought was, NO WAY! Im not going to work for 1/4 of my standard price just to draw in new business and I have to split advertised price 50/50 with you...? WHAT? NO WAY! Split the money they do bring in 50/50...? They get that money for doing what?



I then thought, well, maybe I could reach a lot of new people about my new product line this way. A quick second thought also answered a NO WAY! Work for 1/4 my usual price... NO WAY! I work hard to provide a quality service. At 1/4 the price and the potential to get more of those junk jobs than I can handle as a one man show... Again, NO WAY! This can only be bad as I would piss more people off than I would make happy by being so backed up.



She told me I would need to raise my prices on my website by 100% so that they can advertise them at half price to make it seem like they were getting a deal... Can you say MISLEADING! WOW! They are lying to their customers. I figured it was a scam anyways.



After an hour on the phone with her I decided she had wasted enough of my time and I told her I would take a day or so and think it over and give her a call back.



Again, NO WAY should I or anyone who values their image or business name do this. I personally feel it is a bad idea. Make up your own mind. I just wanted to share my story. Below you will find the email I sent her last night.



Rachel,



I have thought about this situation long and hard and have come to the conclusion that it is not good for me, my business, or my image. I have worked very hard to build my reputation and I feel that this will have a negative effect on how people perceive me. I am not a discount detailer and I do not want to be known as such. I appreciate your consideration. I am sure you understand. I apologize for any inconvenience.



Thank you,

Garry Dean

[Richard Grasa]

I`ve done 2 LivingSocial deals with very good results. I`m glad you realized that it was not for you, but for some others, it can be good for business. I`m not a one man show, if I was I would never have done it, I would be out of business now if I did. I went into it purely for marketing, realizing I would most likely not make a dime after paying my guy to do all the details (all express details), but I have not lost a dime either. I actually did make some money with all the upsells we`ve done. We have had about a 95% customer satisfaction on these deals which has generated crazy word of mouth, many, many referrals, and we should be getting many people coming back in the spring to pay full price for detailing. The other 5% are the unreasonable people nobody would ever be able to make happy. Of course alot of the people who got the deal are purely price shoppers who won`t be back for full price, but a huge amount were people trying out the new guy in town without a big risk of losing money on a crappy detailing job and will now be regular customers. I could go on about the good things but I`m running out of time before an appointment (not livingsocial).



As for the bad things I experienced with my deals were the trashed cars with people expecting miracles. We had to honor all of the vouchers so if we couldn`t upsell to a higher package we had to spend extra time on the car to make it look as good as possible to avoid any bad-mouthing from these people. I expected this going in, but the amount of these types were much less than expected. Then there was the huge rush of people who waited to the last minute before their voucher expired. I was in no way obligated to honor the expired vouchers but I did anyway (as long as they made the appointment before the expiration). This resulted in a couple extra weeks of doing these details but these people really appreciated us being so accommodating that there`s no doubt they have spread good word about us. That`s about all the bad things I can say about it.



I just wanted to write this so people realize yes, it can be bad for certain businesses, but it can be great for others. Do tons of research and run your numbers and make sure it won`t hurt you before getting involved. I`ve heard plenty of horror stories but these businesses just jumped in with no thought about it.



BTW, my deals were for my $99 Express Detail, sold at $49. I was also able to negotiate a lower commission that they took, so I ended up making more than 25% on each deal. I also had them put in a surcharge of $20 that is paid directly to me at the time of the detail for any SUV`s, trucks and vans.



EDIT: I don`t want anyone thinking I condone these 50% deal sites. I do not. They are bad for businesses in general because people are now expecting to get everything for cheap because of these sites. But they are there, and they are probably not going away anytime soon, so if you can use them as a tool to get new and hopefully repeat customers without hurting your business, then maybe do it. Even though it has helped my business I wish these sites never came into existence and hope they get banned or somehow else go away. They only contribute more to the "walmartification" of this country.

[Garry Dean]

I definately agree that this could be a big attention getter for a new start up or big car wash crew. Its just not for the one man show like me. Thanks for sharing and congrats on the success.

[Nth Degree]

I just wanted to write this so people realize yes, it can be bad for certain businesses, but it can be great for others. Do tons of research and run your numbers and make sure it won`t hurt you before getting involved. I`ve heard plenty of horror stories but these businesses just jumped in with no thought about it.

Good to hear a positive story about these deals, as many have spoken negatively about them, including myself on another site. Your statement above is so important that I put it in bold. Crunch your numbers and make sure you don`t compromise your income or your image. An important point for people to understand is that you are not a one man show, which is why this was successful for you.

[Garry Dean]

I just got a call from the rep at L/S. She said that the company searches the internet daily to see what people are saying about them. They came across this thread and she wanted to know if I was upset at her. I told her no. I do not feel that she did anything wrong, but that the service was not for me. I would like to publicly apologize to Living Social and the rep if my original post was offensive. Maybe I jumped the gun and my written experience was taken as a slam.



I would like to add that in MOST cases advertisements and or marketing campaigns are misleading, or have very fine print that explains more. Its the nature of the MARKETING beast. I am not specifically talking about Living Social as the rep did come right out and tell me, in a nut shell, that they take my price, advertise it at 50% off and split it with me. Look at any commercial on TV, or listen to them on the radio. Listen for the fast talking little man that mumbles at the beginning or the end of the commercial.



I do see how their service would be great for a multiple person, more production oriented or high volume business. All I was trying to explain by my original rant was that for someone like myself who prides themselves in providing the highest quality service available and works as a one man show this, IMO, is not a good business decision.



Again, for the high volume detail business that provides more a production oriented service, or the new start up that could really use some extra attention, I feel like this service could really be beneficial.