Complicated Customer Offers: No Better Than No Offers at All

When it comes to bad customer service, my husband holds grudges—bad ones. At the time of incidence, he's already drafting letters to CEOs in his head, wondering whether paragraph 2 or 3 would be the better place for the kicker—"Shame on you."

The most recent offense occurred at a restaurant. We didn't know it at the time, but we had fallen for what seemed like a great deal but was actually one of those, "Must read fine print" offers. We purchased a $100 gift card, which we gave as a present to a friend, and got a $20 gift card free. FREE!

But when we went to redeem it, we were told it had already expired. The fine print, you see, indicated that it had something like a 30 day lifespan, and we had just missed the deadline. Needless to say, we haven't been back since.

I recalled this bad customer service experience when I was reading this amusing New York Times article on rebates that are nearly impossible to redeem. The article itself doesn't have much to do with small business, but it offers a good lesson on offering your customers something for free.

If you extend an offer, do it all the way. Sure, your top line might take a hit, but what you gain in customer loyalty will more than offset the loss. If you can't handle that, then take the deal off the table. Trust me, you don't want a letter from my husband.