The other day, we received a door tag advertisement from a roofing company. We had a bad hailstorm recently, and the roofers are out in full force vying for roofing business. What was interesting about this particular door tag was that, with purchase, they would give you a free gift: a Yeti cooler.

As a consumer, this might be considered a nice little gift; a nudge, if you will, to go with them for your roof repair or installation. However, it might raise a question about quality or reliability. If a company is trying to entice you with a gift, what does that say about their reputation? It could be construed as shifting the focus from their ability to install a quality roof to their ability to attract new customers.

You might be thinking, “well, isn’t attracting new customers a good thing?” Yes, of course. However, what is the cost of this strategy? In many industries, including roofing, word of mouth rules the day. Word spreads quickly among consumers about both good and bad experiences, companies, etc. So, if your customer acquisition strategy is more important than your ability to do quality work, your work is probably going to suffer and stimulate negative word of mouth.

Now, I’m not saying this particular roofing company does poor quality work. I don’t really know anything about them. They may be fantastic. However, on its face, it looks like their focus is doing whatever possible to get new business, which may be taking away from their perceived competence.

There is another problem with giving gifts in exchange for patronage: it’s not good for building a loyal customer base that leads to repeat business. Repeat business is generally great to have: it allows you to cut down on the time devoted to cold calling. Repeat customers are happy with you and are also more apt to tell others and spend more, etc. However, those who patronize you because of incentives are generally not going to be loyal. The next time a need arises for your product, they’re going to shop around to see who has the best incentive at that time. This leads to significant customer churn, which is problematic.

So, overall, it’s generally better to focus on providing good value to consumers, which includes a good product, solid customer service and support, empathy, and appreciation for their business. All these things help lead to loyalty, repeat business, and other benefits. I’m not saying you should NEVER give things away to attract customers. Rather, just be careful, as it is a double edged sword.