The service is based on technology Groupon acquired from OpenCal, a Vancouver, Canada-based company, in September. To that end, it has rolled out Groupon Scheduler, an online calendar that enables small businesses, like spas and salons, to book appointments online. Instead, the Chicago-based company wants to be known as a technology company for local merchants. Meanwhile, a poor recommendation rating or an especially pissed off commenter could lead them to ditch the daily deals service.Groupon doesn’t want to be known as just a deals company.Īs many others have proven (Google, Amazon, LivingSocial, etc.), that business is easy to replicate. Positive review may also have less influence on a merchant’s decision to stick with Groupon than whether it’s actually helping their business. Previously, merchants may have assumed customers were happy since they were getting a big discount. The comments may also be highly polarized, with only those who truly love or hate a deal taking the time to respond in words.Ĭonsidering chronic gripes about fine print deal term, and employee dissatisfaction than can influence the customer experience, the new feedback stats are a gamble for Groupon. So far, only 1 million customers have left feedback, so merchants won’t always have a representative sample. To calculate the satisfaction rates, Groupon surveys users immediately after they redeem a deal. The customer feedback system may not be totally accurate, though. It also includes the deal statistics feature launched last month which shows aggregate buyer demographics including zip code, gender, and age. The new Merchant Center is now available to all Groupon merchants. The feature could be a double-edged sword, encouraging retention or desertion depending on a merchant’s feedback. Worse, a 2010 study showed that just 36% of customers spend more than the value of a deal, and just 20% return to the business. Data on satisfaction rates is scarce, though. Customer satisfaction is a big question for merchants wondering if they should start or continue running daily deals.

It includes the real-time percentage of deal customers who would recommend the business to a friend, plus their comments. To combat the lack of transparency around customer satisfaction with daily deals, Groupon today launched a new version of its Merchant Center.

Groupon merchant sign up