Getting your interviewees to add a variety of sales and specials is a great way to build value for them, and add value to your Parkbench page for members of your community.
Business owners have four different offers they are able to feature on their profile page:
- New Customer Coupon
- Review Coupon
- Daily Specials
- In Store Product Sales
When you’re meeting with them for the interview, bring up these options and attempt to get both a New Customer Coupon, and a Review Coupon before you leave. These are both options you can add in when you’re uploading the interview, to get posted on your Parkbench site as soon as the interview is up.
For a New Customer Coupon, this feature has always worked to help a business make more money, and generate more local, loyal, and returning customers.
For a Review Coupon, This feature has always worked to help a business get more reviews, build a positive online reputation, get current customers to come back sooner than normal, spend more money and engage with their brand. This is by far the best feature, really push for this one.
When discussing adding coupons to their site, here are some things to keep in mind:
- We do not recommend that a business offer a massive deal, where they are actually losing money as a result.
- It’s free, unlike Groupon where they pay 30%-50% or more of the revenue. Therefore, they have nothing to lose. Parkbench doesn’t take any money from them
- They can change these deals whenever they want
- They should still be making money on the transaction even after the discount
- Our recommendations for the types of deals with the most interest are:
- Free stuff
- Buy one, get one free
- 50% off
- 25% off
- Statistically, any offer with a value of less than 15% off (apart from high ticket item products, like cars, furniture, etc.) is not that attractive for a new customer.
Daily Specials and In Store Specials can help sell products that need to be sold, and they help create more consistent revenue throughout the week. If they don’t have them, ask them if they want to create some Monday through Sunday specials. The purpose of daily specials is to encourage people to buy products and services they might not normally buy on that day, or to stimulate the days of the week when business is normally more slow.
Daily Specials and In Store Specials can’t be added in while posting the interview, but can be emailed to and our team will add them for you, or business owners can add them in themselves. Click here to read our help centre article reminding them how.
Here’s a simple script to use when you meet with them:
“Once your interview is posted, you will get a free profile on this local website along with your interview. With this profile, you can put up a New Customer Coupon, Review Coupon, In Store Specials and Daily Specials, all for free - Parkbench doesn’t take any revenue like Groupon and other deal sites.”
“Would you like to offer a deal to new customers to incentivize them to come try you out?”
“Would you like to offer a deal to reward your customers for writing a review?
“Do you have any daily specials?”
“Do you have any sales going on in the store?”
Not every business will add deals in during their interview, sometimes they will want to take some time to think about what they’d like to offer. As soon as an interview is posted, Parkbench send them an email reminding them how they can go in and edit their page, and includes help centre links showing them how to add deals in after the fact. To see what’s included in that email, click here.
During your first follow up with that interviewee, ensure you’re bringing up the option to add in deals for them. If you need help navigating the back end of their site, click here for an article explaining how to make changes, and how to access their Businesses Dashboard.
Remember, not every business will offer deals but there’s no harm in asking! They can login and change these deals, sales, and specials whenever they want. It is all measured, tracked, and hassle free and users can’t abuse the deals. They can only get the new customer coupon once, and they can only get rewarded for writing a review once.