One More Bit of Automation
One More Bit of Automation
Yesterday I decided it was time to automate how I offer my coupons for The Journal.
For years I’ve offered discounts (20% off) for students, educators, US military and people with a hardship (and in November I offer a discount for NaNoWriMo participants). The only requirement has been that people had to ask, which meant emailing me.
I made it easy to email me, of course. I setup mailto links on the Discounts Available page. And most often, all I had to do in response was copy-and-paste the appropriate coupon code information from The Journal and send it right back.
Over the last year or so, though, I noticed a few issues cropping up.
First, and most irritating, was that by including a link in the response email I was just begging for the major email services like Yahoo to declare the email “junk”. So people sometimes wouldn’t get the discount they asked for.
Second, not everyone who asked for a coupon used it.
Third, the whole process added more emails to my daily quota.
So, as of yesterday, I’d like to think I’ve (at least partially) solved all of those issues. When interested people look over the available discounts, they can check the discount they want and click on the associated button. This will take them back to the “Buy” page with the chosen coupon active. What could be simpler?
The first and third issues get solved because they don’t email me and I don’t email them back. The second issue, I’m hoping, is reduced because I no longer have an email “speedbump” interrupting the purchase impulse. Since I’m out of the loop, of course, I won’t really know. But I’m always optimistic. 
The remaining question is: Will this be abused? If so, how much? And really, do I care?
I used to worry about the abuse of the discounts. Now, though, I’ve decided it’s in my best interest to worry less about potential abuse and focus more on making the experience pleasant (and easy and fast) for the customer.
Pizza Hut and Papa John’s (and, I suppose, pizza delivery services I don’t use) offer their coupons right on the order page. Just pick the one you want, and they help you fill out your order to match. Or even at Borders, when my wife and I go into the store to use one of the coupons they email us, most often the cashier has a printout of the same coupon, and they scan that one. We didn’t even need to bring ours.
Like Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, and Borders, I’m happy to make the sale, even if it costs me a slice of the profits. So it makes sense for me to make it easy for those who want a discount to get it with the least amount of effort (from me and them).
-David
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