7 Keys to Marketing Genius: Firing Customers
The following is an excerpt from The 7 Keys to Marketing Genius by Michael Daehn
A big complaint I hear about using sales promotions is that people do not use the product without the incentive. My parents own an Italian restaurant. My father tried running some coupons in the direct mail pack, but he was not happy with the response. He says the only people that used them were paying in pennies and looking for more deals. They also did not return later to make full- price purchases.
The first problem is poor targeting. The wrong people got the promotion. This is another reason why you should not run promotions indefinitely. If ideal customers that enjoy the food had gotten the coupon, they would have tried it and then returned to pay full price.
If you do get customers that are not ideal, or worse yet are anti-customers, fire them. These are not the kind of people with whom you are trying to do business. They will only look for bargains and try to take from you. They will not build a positive reciprocal relationship with you (Key 5), so fire them.