I buy lots of stock photos for use in my work -- either to illustrate concepts for people, mock up new ideas, or to enliven my client reports.
When I got a good-for-one-day-only offer from iStockphoto to get a 15% discount, I was interested and clicked through.
The problem:
- Landing page did not make the discount clear. I thought I was looking at regular prices, and that the discount would show up later
- There was a coupon code box, but no coupon code. More confusion
- When I paid and confirmed, I thought that I would see some kind of "you saved $x" notice. Nope.
- Thinking that I didn't get the discount I was supposed to, I made an enquiry of customer support.
- 8 days later, I received an e-mail response "The coupon was already built into the site when you made the purchase, that is why it does not appear as an additional discount on your receipt."
The mistake here, often made, is the assumption that I am so familiar with the regular price that I would instantly see the discount. The landing page did not make it clear I was getting anything special -- it looked the same as always. So an opportunity to make a little wee splash was missed.
The other odd thing was that this offer arrived on a national holiday. So only us poor fools who were working would receive the offer, and we had to act on it immediately (I think -- the offer wasn't crytal clear on that). Alll I wanted to do was finish up and go play, but instead I had to add something to my urgent to-do list.
My take:
When you do something nice for customers, make sure they know. Don't assume it's obvious.
Reader participation:
Are the "special offers" you get actually special?
