--- title: "Do Discounts for Bad Customer Service Work? A Lesson From Newspapers" id: "47343" type: "post" slug: "do-discounts-for-bad-customer-service-work-a-lesson-from-newspapers" published_at: "2019-07-23T23:06:18+00:00" modified_at: "2019-07-23T23:06:18+00:00" url: "https://associationsnow.com/2019/07/23/do-discounts-for-bad-customer-service-work-a-lesson-from-newspapers/" markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2019/07/23/do-discounts-for-bad-customer-service-work-a-lesson-from-newspapers.md" excerpt: "If you want to keep a subscriber—or member—happy after a customer service mishap, a discount won't be enough, according to a recent study from the newspaper industry. Instead, offer something more." taxonomy_category: - "Marketing / Communications" taxonomy_post_tag: - "AssociationsNow" - "customer service" - "discount strategy" - "Marketing" - "Membership" taxonomy_content_format: - "Article" taxonomy_role: - "C-Level" - "Executive Team" taxonomy_persona: - "Association Professionals" --- [Home](https://associationsnow.com/) » [Articles](https://associationsnow.com/format/article/) » Do Discounts for Bad Customer Service Work? A Lesson From Newspapers As the classic video game [Paperboy (opens in a new tab)](https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8977) showed, when people don’t get their newspaper in the morning—especially if they haven’t upgraded to digital delivery—they tend to get upset. They might call customer service with a few choice words, including the time-honored threat to cancel their subscription. How do you get back in such customers’ good graces? Will a temporary discount do the trick? According to a recent study, discounts actually *discourage* customers from sticking around. Examining an unnamed metropolitan daily newspaper with a circulation above 500,000, the researchers reviewed nearly 7,000 complaints from subscribers to whom the newspaper offered a one-time discount to make amends. Monetary compensation was a deterrent to renewals even for people who had subscribed for decades. The reason? The offer creates a perception that the original “reference price” was too high, said the study’s authors, Vamsi Kanuri of Notre Dame and Michelle Andrews of Emory University, in a [report published in the Journal of Marketing (opens in a new tab)](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022242919859325?journalCode=jmxa&) [subscription]. “A higher discount results in consumers forming a lower reference price, which in turn increases the difference between the full renewal price and the reference price,” [Kanuri said in a news release (opens in a new tab)](https://mendoza.nd.edu/news/deal-or-no-deal-how-discounts-for-unhappy-subscribers-can-backfire-on-businesses/) . “This difference then translates into a perceived loss, which ultimately results in lower renewal probabilities.” There’s a better alternative, according to [Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab (opens in a new tab)](https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/07/nearly-7000-people-threatened-to-cancel-their-newspaper-subscriptions-heres-what-got-them-to-stay/) : Rather than going straight to discounts, publishers can offer additional benefits—say, a full-week subscription rather than just the weekend, or access to more online offerings. Discounts can still be part of the strategy if they’re less obvious—by extending them over a period of years rather than months, for example. “In other words, if it has been a longer time since they had to renew, people seem more willing to pay a higher renewal price,” Nieman Lab’s Laura Hazard Owen explains. The parallels for associations are clear: Discounts as a remedy for poor service tend to lower expectations for subscribers, members, or customers. Instead, offer something they were not expecting, such as an additional product or access to a benefit they did not have previously. “Everyone knows that firms are imperfect, just as human beings, and that there will be a service letdown at some point,” Kanuri said. “How the firm chooses to delight its customers can make all the difference.” (Image Source/DigitalVision/Getty Images Plus) [Ernie Smith](https://associationsnow.com/author/ernie-smith/) Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. [More articles by this author](https://associationsnow.com/author/ernie-smith/) Tags: [#customer service](https://associationsnow.com/tag/customer-service/) [#discount strategy](https://associationsnow.com/tag/discount-strategy/) [#Marketing](https://associationsnow.com/tag/marketing/) [#Membership](https://associationsnow.com/tag/membership/) **Stay Informed** [Subscribe to our free newsletter](https://associationsnow.com/newsletter/) , *Associations Now Daily News*, to find out what’s happening in the association world every business day. ## You Might Like - [VideoRecap from the 2025 ASAE MMC+Tech ConferenceMay 19, 2025](https://associationsnow.com/2025/05/19/recap-from-the-2025-asae-mmctech-conference/) - [VideoSneak Peek: Highlights from Day 2 of the 2025 ASAE MMC+Tech ConferenceMay 14, 2025](https://associationsnow.com/2025/05/14/sneak-peek-highlights-from-day-2-of-the-2025-asae-mmctech-conference/) - [VideoDaily Recap: Day 1 from the 2025 ASAE MMC+Tech ConferenceMay 13, 2025](https://associationsnow.com/2025/05/13/daily-recap-day-1-from-the-2025-asae-mmctech-conference/) - [VideoSneak Peek: Highlights from Day 1 of the 2025 ASAE MMC+Tech ConferenceMay 13, 2025](https://associationsnow.com/2025/05/13/sneak-peek-highlights-from-day-1-of-the-2025-asae-mmctech-conference/) ## Comments **Comments are for ASAE members.** [Learn more about comments on this site.](https://associationsnow.com/comments/) [Log in](https://associationsnow.com/login?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fassociationsnow.com%2F2019%2F07%2F23%2Fdo-discounts-for-bad-customer-service-work-a-lesson-from-newspapers%2F%23comments) to your member account or [join ASAE](https://my.asaecenter.org/select-a-membership-type/) !