by Tracy McQuilkin
Need some ideas on planning your next operator coupon? Here are some tips to help you make settling those incoming claims a little easier and effective:
- Be specific on the guidelines
For example Buy One Get One, do you mean buy two cases and get the price of the second purchase in the form of a rebate check, or do you mean buy one case and you will ship them a second case free?
If you state no photocopies on the coupon, stick to that. The more rules you list that you allow exceptions for, the more exceptions you will end up having to deal with.
- Look for cut and paste jobs
We see more "suspicious" proof of performance for street coupon type claims than we do for contracted type claims. Sometimes we will see proof of performance where the bottom of one invoice has been cut and taped to the top of another and then photocopied. In these situations, a good verifier can see where the cut and paste job isn't lining up quite right.
- Be adventurous with your coupons
Operators often respond well to merchandise type coupons, especially if the prizes are well known brands/products. DSRs, on the other hand, to participate more aggressively when they receive a money incentive. From our experience if the premiums vary and are nice quality products, we get more coupons coming in for those merchandise-based promotions than the money deals. Use these types of deals to sell your product, put your logo on them. Then not only do they get a great prize for purchasing your product, they also advertise your company with what they got.
- Try not to run two coupons at the same time for the same products
When this happens, we tend to have more rejects than payments because customers submit the same invoices for both offers. Also you run into the dilemma if both come in at the same time which promotion to reject them for, do you call them and ask them or just pick one?