As a consumer, I am a huge fan of social coupon sites, like Groupon and Living Social. However, as a marketer, I can see the many pitfalls that face a business trying to grow through this avenue. In the ideal world, a consumer discovers your store or product through a social coupon, they fall in love with your brand, they become a customer for life and we all live happily ever after. It’s certainly possible.

However, what’s also possible is that a customer simply uses you to gain the goods or service they need at the price they want, and then quickly moves onto the next competitor when their coupon hits the web. An even worse scenario is that a customer has a bad experience in redeeming a social coupon and not only blacklists that brand, but shares there experience with their entire social community.

Below are two examples of social coupons working properly and coupons gone bad:

The Good

Last Spring I purchased a Groupon for a local eyewear chain, Kennedy & Perkins. In desperate need of a new pair of prescription sunglasses, I was more than happy to pay $60 for $200 worth of store credit. Fast forward to this past September when I found my Groupon buried under a pile of old mail and realized it had expired a month ago. I still went to the store with the intention of at least using my Groupon as a $60 credit. In passing, I mentioned to the woman helping me that I had heard about them through a Groupon that I accidentally let expire. Without any hesitation she said, “I’d let you still use it.” A week later I had my new sunglasses and I was a very happy customer.

At this point, I’m already a cheerleader for this store, but it gets better. Two days after getting my new sunglasses I drove down the street with them on the roof of my car and completely destroyed the lenses. After swallowing my pride, I went back to Kennedy & Perkins to see if there was anything that could be done to save them. They immediately got on the phone with the lens manufacturer, told them the story, and three days later I had a brand new pair of lenses, free of charge. They went above and beyond and then kept going. In return, they gained a loyal customer who will sing their praises for years to come.

The Bad

There appears to be a new CrossFit popping up in Connecticut every week. Social coupons to test out these facilities seem to rear their heads equally as often. I decided to grab one each for me and my fiancée at the local CrossFit in my neighborhood. This time, rather than letting my coupon expire, I remembered it literally on the day before it was set to expire (do you see a trend here?). I called immediately to see if we could schedule ourselves for one of their upcoming “ramp” sessions. We were willing to take whatever they had, but were quickly told there were currently no spaces available. Desperately trying to salvage the coupon, I asked if we could sign up now for a future “ramp” session when they became available. The answer once again was “no”. As a consolation, I was told we could use the $40 we paid towards the purchase of the same program at the full price of $150. As a last resort, I asked if we could at least combine the two coupons so at least one of us could take advantage of at least some savings (still needing to pay $70 out of pocket). “Nope!”

In the end, I opted to eat the $40 rather than send any additional income to this establishment. As a consumer, I was clearly disappointed, but as a marketer, I couldn’t believe they let me slip away so easily – especially when there are at least 3 other CrossFits within a 10-mile radius. The $210 savings they denied us had the potential of becoming a $3600 annual piece of business. What a lost opportunity.