Last week StartupSmart presented a disturbing story on the scourge of “sweet hearting” – when employees offer family and friends discounts or freebies.
Apparently 43% of staff have done this and think it’s OK. Of course, it’s not. Your dear staff members might feel they are entitled the odd five-finger discount, but it’s actually hurting your bottom line.
One way to get around this problem it to establish a formal staff discount program as a way of rewarding staff, building your customer network and controlling any “sweet hearting” that might be going on behind your back.
There are several ways to do this. A blanket discount on all products (call it 5% or maybe 10%) could be one way to go, although the fact different products have different margins might call for something more sophisticated, where different discounts are applied to different product areas.
If you want to take this a step further, you could even hold special “family and friends” promotions to offer discounts to your employees’ nearest and dearest.
Stop the sweet hearting, start the controlled promotions.
Get it done – today!
