I love this: if I log in to Yelp and give a 4.5 star rating, I receive a coupon offering 10% off on both entrees when I bring someone with me for my next visit. That’s a great way to simultaneously reinforce customer loyalty and get new referrals. There’s only one problem: it doesn’t actually exist.
But it should. And it’s today’s Idea of the Day.
- If you login to a review site and give something a very good rating, you should receive a coupon from the vendor you rated. The redeemable certificate would be emailed or texted to you based on your profile preferences.
- In the case of Yelp, when new companies are loaded into the database their sales team should contact those companies, explain the Yelp review model, and offer “service plans.” If a company opts into a plan, their coupons would be automatically generated and delivered for each high rating. In exchange, they would pay Yelp a fixed rate for each coupon.
- Advertisers (those companies who’s coupons are being sent) would create campaigns to encourage customer loyalty and referrals. Hence the idea of a restaurant rewarding the existing customer and encouraging them to bring someone with them next time.
Everyone likes being rewarded for offering positive feedback. Yelp would stand to make a profit, and vendors would be paying for advertising that works and is measurable, since their message would be delivered to their most likely prospects.
AfriGadget
Kiva
Kai –
A lot of the strongest user communities build up based on true shared interest – and the insertion of a financial incentive to participate brings a very different type of participant. I think the coupon idea skews the nature of who participates.
Barry
So true Barry, the bane of all marketers is that false-positive. On the other hand, why bother writing a positive review in order to get a future discount at a restaurant you wouldn’t want to go back to anyway?
This is great food for thought, something I’ll consider as I listen to folks who are building businesses around user communities. If financial incentive isn’t (part of) the answer, what is?
Kai -
I have to take issue with this idea. First of all, I think sites like Yelp have what impact they do because of the perception that they are objective commentary. There are plenty of examples where companies can get “shills” to provide false-positive reviews. Buying a positive review for a discount coupon would suggest the same.
Further, coupons and discounts do generate added volume, but don’t generate loyalty – they attract people willing to say nice things to get a discount… Sorry to say, I don’t like this particular idea all that much.
Best,
Barry