I got this interesting piece of insight on customer behaviour from Marketing Profs.

If you offer a sale, say 10% on a coffee maker, for a limited period. If a customer just missed the sale dateline and you wanted to be kind and extended the offer to her, there is a 87% chance that she will reject the offer. But if you told her that the sale for the coffee maker has ended and you offer her a 10% discount on another brand of coffee maker (probably as a ‘peace offering’) there is a 40% chance that she will accept your offer. Isn’t that interesting?

Possible reason:

“The researcher suggests that consumers may transfer the “negative affect” (regret at missing a sale) to the promoted product itself, leading to a lower opinion of the product.”

Lesson we can learn from this:

“time sales of different brands, or even of different items in [a] product line, to ensure that a consumer who misses a sale on one product can find another sale on a different yet similar product,” this researcher suggests….When one item goes off sale, consider offering similar products at a slight reduction, to keep latecomers happy.”

Now isn’t that easy way to make build a good reputation with your customers? 

If you are offering services, would you be able to apply the same principles? get back to the drawing board, friends…

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