Team 9: 21 Things to to be an Epic Couponer

[Giving-Small]

Usually bulletin boards have some sort of system to show reputation for either content and members.

Smart Canucks has a couple of things:

1. Thumbs up - which helps "promote" the best threads. On your profile you will see the total number of thumbs up you have over the lifetime on the board
2. Reps help show a person who is valued by the forum community. In the Smart Canucks case reps are only loosely related to reputation.

How to get Reps and why it's a weak indicator of your reputation.

People who make good posts get reps.

People who have lots of friends usually get reps.

And people who hang out on the "I want a rep" thread get reps too.

On Smart Canucks reps are used just for fun. It's a quick and easy way to leave someone a short comment and/or say thanks for a post.

Once you accumulate a lot of reps you'll start having little stars and candies show up under name and little graphic/avatar.

How Using a Rep Helps the Smart Canuck community

Are you on some threads were someone posts a free code or idea and 10 people say thanks. It's nice they say thanks. In fact it's great if one person says it publicly so it's acknowledged.

The trouble starts when for a day or two people keep posting thanks. Why? Each time someone posts, the thread rises to the top and looks like it has "new" useful info information like a new code. Instead you open the thread and find it's just people saying thanks. And you do this many times before there is new information to use. Kinda a waste of everyone's time.

So if you collect pampers gifts to go points and read that thread and someone posts are "free code", you can give them a rep (nicest option so that if the thread looks new to readers ONLY WHEN there really is new content.) and the person who posts knows it's appreciated.


How to Give a Rep

The diagram shows where to click to leave a rep on a post:




Two options for repping:

1. Just click and say okay - it shows up as a "thanks" and is linked to the exact post that you clicked the scales on.

2. Click and type in a comment.


It's about 50/50 what people do.

Another time people leave a rep is when they ask for info or help and then someone answers ( ) -- it's a way to say "thanks for the answer".

Your Supply of Rep

Each day you have about 20 to 30 reps available to hand out. It starts over each day.

Can you give all your reps to a friend or to someone like me?

No. If you give someone a rep, say crazycoupongirl, and then no one else, when you try to leave her a second rep, it'll tell you to spread the rep around.

This was probably built in to the software to prevent "gaming" the system -- giving one person all 20 reps each day for a month to bump them up. "Gaming" the system doesn't really matter on SC - hence the thread for give me rep. But I suspect this limit was part of the original bulletin board software.



Your Activity

Find a few good posts this week and leave a rep for the writers. Make someone's day If you do every day for a week, you`ll be able to make this a habit and anytime you see something you like, you'll leave a rep.

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[Giving-Small]

Or How I Learned to be a Confident Couponer


This is an audio recording (podcast) of an interview I did with Susan who is part of this EPIC couponing group. I'd like to thank her so much for being willing to share her experiences starting out shopping with coupons and what she did when she encountered obstacles.






Listen to the interview now.



Heads Up - a couple of people have said Susan's voice is too quiet to hear Let me know if it's a problem -- I can try to up the volume and repost if it happens again.

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[Giving-Small]

1. Share an experience (good or bad) with a cashier and check out that you had recently.

2. What tips or advice do you have to offer the group? What's worked for you?

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[Giving-Small]

Mrs January an amazing couponer has a super section on her blog for starting out couponing (which I just discovered).

So why invent a wheel, when there's a super one out there?

Here's her take on: How To Handle Cashiers That Won’t Accept Your Coupons Link: http:///pdB09


I think this fits nicely with the ideas Susan shared in her interview and has a few more suggestions.

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[Giving-Small]

Cashiers are People Too

If there's one thing that I'd pass on to all couponers is that cashiers are people too. They have good days and bad days. Most of them are great people - trying to do their job right. They're worried they'll do it wrong and have a supervisor be unhappy (or worse). Often cashiers have next to no training on coupons so they don't know the ins and outs like we do. It's our passion. It's a small piece of their job.

Of course, there are bad apples in the bunch - ones that are grouchy everyday and would rather not serve anyone, let alone a couponer. [ That said not all couponers are great either - some photocopy coupons, are rude, in a rush, etc etc. If you get to know them, you'll hear the horror stories cashiers have about couponers.

And then there's the cashiers who have to be the expert/in control -- it's part of how they're wired and probably because they're not super happy at what they're doing or who knows? And they will make up their own coupon interpretations and say it's "this way". No winning directly with this type. Save your breath. You need to now when to hold them and when to fold them. Try another cashier or head to customer service or the manager.

So be kind and especially be calm. If your cashier is looking stressed, reassure them. Say you're in no hurry so they can take all the time they need. If they're looking stressed because a line is long behind you, say something like: "They really should have someone to help on another till when it's busy like this." ($power gave me that line, isn't it great, and she used it last weekend at Shoppers and it worked like a charm. Cashier said "You're right, and phoned for backup" )

Another way to reduce stress is to let the people behind you know --" I'm going to be a few minutes, you'll want to pick a different till." After a while, I find the cashiers will learn to speak up too and say -- I'm going to be 10 minutes here.

Relationships matter a lot. Couponing can be more than saving $$ - it can be fun and a happy time. But checking out can be a downer if things don't go smooth. The fact is you'll probably get to know the cashiers if you shop a lot at some stores and coupon - it takes longer to checkout. So it's an opportunity to get to know them a bit and laugh or joke. At our LD, the cashiers say they love it when the "coupon ladies come in". Why? We make the time go fast, we visit and laugh and are relaxed and we know what we're doing with our coupons -- all organized.

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[jujubetwins]

I meant to post a few days ago...when I was looking for the list of "companies to contact who mail out coupons" It was actually from Mrs. January's site She has some good info on there too. I have read so many pages and blogs I forgot where I had seen it!

So far I've had pretty good cashier experiences. I always am polite and frienly and the couple of times there has been questions (Walmart) I just let the coupon go except since the lates Walmart change I did nicely bring up the policy and the front supervisor came up and put it all through. Everyone was very nice as well.

I have had more hairy eyeballs from the people behind me...I'll have to remember that line

I'm going to be a few minutes, you'll want to pick a different till."

[Meadea]

I couldn't hear Susan's voice at all when I tried to listen to your interview... I'll look at the other stuff now though!

[Meadea]

I've found that one particular Superstore is difficult when it comes to coupons both the cashiers and managers get a little cranky about having coupons used. However, I have another Superstore that's fairly closely to the house (about a five minute drive further) that is great! I make sure to thank them (both the cashier and manager) and let them know that their service and patience is greatly appreciated.

I have had some cranky people in line behind me and have let them know that I am using coupons (and sometimes a lot of them) and for the most part they either go to a different line or say that they aren't in a hurry and that they actually want to watch my total go down!

[Giving-Small]

Meadea -- I'll see if I can boost the volume for Susan's voice - thanks for letting me know.

I couldn't hear Susan's voice at all when I tried to listen to your interview... I'll look at the other stuff now though!

[jujubetwins]

Darlene, I'm so impressed at what you are doing to help people learn the ropes! Video, audio, so well organized Thank you!!

[Meadea]

I can only hope to get that organized, I've finally gotten all my coupons organized, can't imagine running all of these groups, trading, couponing, all the donations you do and still manage to keep up with everything!

[Giving-Small]

Darlene, I'm so impressed at what you are doing to help people learn the ropes! Video, audio, so well organized Thank you!!

Ah Jujubetwins - thanks ... I'm okay with the new groups because I have so much content but the first four are waiting on me to do more on Reward programs. I was hoping to interview more people but people are shy and it's been hard to find people. I can phone their landline phone with my Skype on my computer and record away.

So I just have to get back into the groove of writing more topics.

I'm also super happy because I have a senior helping with 3 groups.
Two of them put the trains together which is a big help.

And I love these groups and the people and the stories and ideas. I'm hoping some group members end up making long term coupon buddies from these groups. That would be cool.

I can only hope to get that organized, I've finally gotten all my coupons organized, can't imagine running all of these groups, trading, couponing, all the donations you do and still manage to keep up with everything!

LOL Meadea - it gets easier to be organized with coupons, much easier. I'm doing far fewer donations this year -- I had decided to slow down after two years of pretty intensive donating. I'm working alot of hours so keeping up that much shopping at busy times wasn't going to work. And I kinda had my feel. That said I always have a box of stuff each week.

[HouseholdSaver]

I am so happy to have this Forum and all of the people to help me while using coupons! Darlene thank you for all the wonderful info on how to navigate Smart Canucks!

I thought I had posted how I prepare for my shops but I can't find it on the 10 pages from our group! Any tips on how to find where I may have accidently posted it, possibly in one of the other EPIC groups?

I have had many great shops at different stores and also had some very bad experiences also, boo!

SDM has been for the most part a negative experience, no one at my SDM follows the same guidelines, each different cashier has a different answer, makes it very hard to use coupons there. If it doesn't work for me, I say thank you and go to another location.

One particular RCSS also doesn't view couponers too nicely, so again if I am treated poorly there, I say thank you and take my business to once again another location.

The London Drugs around me are amazing, they keep me in there talking long after my transaction is done! Too funny!

I also shop at Walmart because of the New Policy and the ability to use the overage to your other items. I shop there and get my groceries for next to nothing once or twice a week.

I will post more once I hit the hay and get some shut eye!

Good Nite

[jujubetwins]

I've had very good luck at RCSS in the self checkout. It takes time to go through but for coupons it works very well and I find the attendants are very very helpful thus far and also they tend to less inspect the coupons!

[Giving-Small]

This is a great question and it's useful to know how to do this.

Here's one way.

Go to the your Profile page or the profile page of someone you want to see what they posted or threads they started.

Click on Statistics tab (see below).

Notice the links with the green stars beside -- Find all posts by ... and Find all threads created by ...

Clicking on these links will show you what someone has posted.

I am so happy to have this Forum and all of the people to help me while using coupons! Darlene thank you for all the wonderful info on how to navigate Smart Canucks!

You're super welcome.

I thought I had posted how I prepare for my shops but I can't find it on the 10 pages from our group! Any tips on how to find where I may have accidently posted it, possibly in one of the other EPIC groups?