Groupon SA, the recently acquired local operation of the global group buying powerhouse that was created from the of a local startup Twangoo, is coming over all grown up.
Once a fledgling business running on adrenalin and strong coffee, Groupon SA has had to become an adult fast in a very young industry that’s barely out of nappies – but one that still has a responsibility to set the standards for South Africa’s social commerce space.
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Groupon SA has now moved out from the serviced offices it used to call home to new corporate headquarters with enough space to keep growing.
The company now has 41 new staff members and more joining later. From a small handful of people last year, Groupon SA has been on a hiring spree to build a full team in the last two months. Many of these new people are focused purely on customer care.
The daily deals site has began formalising its systems of fact checkers, copy editors and deal validation to prevent customers being disappointed or outraged.
Groupon SA operates MyCityDeal.co.za, which runs great deals aimed at users in each city Groupon covers – giving people a chance to rediscover the delights of their city at discounts of 50 to 90%, and giving local businesses and way to reach new customers.
According Daniel Guasco, CEO of Groupon SA, “For such a young company, Groupon has an enviable reputation around the world for putting the happiness of its customers first – and for quirky but honest editorial. We have made many mistakes in the past few months while we were launching the business and getting it flying. Now that we have more resources, we have tightened up how we do things, with people checking up on each other.
“Subscribers of the MyCityDeal sites in the various cities will now get daily deals that are fresh every day, and that are double-checked to make sure customers get what they expect. If we do drop a ball, we have customer care people to sort things out. It’s our responsibility to make sure that the group buying and daily deal business in SA becomes a positive experience for both our consumer customers and companies wanting to promote their offerings.”
Groupon SA has set up sales teams in each of its cities to find local businesses with great offerings. These are currently Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Durban and Port Elizabeth.
