Take control of your competition
Recently an email was passed around with a voucher for a 2 for 1 deal at Grill’d the gourmet burger chain. I diligently passed this on to the rest of the office and a group of enthusiastic, hungry staff went down to place the ‘Big Friday’ order. They soon returned rather disheartened as the staff at Grill’d had turned them away as the promotion was apparently Melbourne based only.
Nowhere on the voucher were Terms & Conditions or anything stating ‘Melbourne Only’ which is a big slip up to start with and certainly a rare oversight these days. Would it have really hurt them to explain the situation but still honour the voucher? They could have done so and then put up a counter sign explaining the voucher now circulating Australia at a rate of knots was not valid at that store, so that the same situation did not repeat. They did neither.
the taste of lost opportunity
What lost opportunity.
Nando’s soon announced that they would be honouring the Grill’d vouchers so where did we all head for lunch? Nando’s of course. Funnily enough somewhere not many would usually pick as it’s a little further down the road and finding a park on a Friday at our local is a serious drag.
Never underestimate the power of viral campaigns, whether you start them yourself or somebody else does on your behalf. Be in control. Don’t let the message be a bad one, let the word of mouth spreading through Australia’s inboxes be good news for your business. In this case Nando’s has seized the opportunity that Grill’d simply threw away.
I’ve since seen the voucher 6 times from various friends from different networks. It’s now accompanied with a header “NANDOS HONOURING GRILL’D VOUCHERS!”.
So go on, head down to Nando’s and give them the support they deserve!
Update: Since writing this article Grill’d have announced on their website blog that after their customers have spoken ‘loudly and clearly’ they will now honour the vouchers until 15th March 2010. The comments are a fascinating insight into what customers thought about the move and interestingly they haven’t provided the voucher on the site? Do they really think it will have trouble spreading now that it’s online?
I’m sure that the cost of lost business has well surpassed the cost of the honouring the special. Bad move Grill’d.
Salutary story – thank you. A local version of the specials and competitions promoted on US sites and it’s only when you get to the end of providing your details that you find the “fine print”. So easy to be upfront on the availability of/eligibility for the offer. So easy to get it wrong and pay the price. V. smart of Nando’s!
Des, absolutely and in this case no fine print at all! I’m baffled as to how that got internally approved, a pretty significant oversight that’s for sure.
Isn’t it so frustrating for the consumer and they ARE your business! A company like Grill’d would be more hurt from this kind of negative word of mouth than the associated costs of biting the bullet, that’s for sure.