So here is the scenario. You are looking for an online product to support your business. You scout around and find one, it is used by some big names in your industry but you want to try it out before committing to the bigger costs of an 'Enterprise' version. Imagine your delight when you find that there is a free, hosted version that you can use until you get to a certain size before switching to the paid version.
Sprat to catch a Mackerel right?
Everyone happy right? You get to try the product, they get to reel you in? Usually no unfortunately.
A case in point. We were sold on OpenX, an online adserver that we wanted to use with a client. Their free version claimed many users, and a nice lady spent 30 minutes on the phone with us explaining the product. She did tell us that it was unsupported by OpenX but that there was a vibrant online community that supported it through the forums. This meant that any minor implementation issues could be answered by the community.
So we plumbed the product in. Great user interface. Easy to configure. All the bells and whistles.
Problem. It does not work as it should. Ads are delivered sporadically or not at all. Single Page call doesn't work. There are blanks, delays, things missing.
So over on the vibrant forums we realise something - no-one from OpenX takes part in the forums except for the occasional monosyllabic (responses blocked) announcements that something is fixed. The forums are full of desparate companies repeating questions on the same topics - why doesn't it work? Why won't you respond?
Over on Twitter the clamour for action grows and is largely ignored. One customer says "It has been three days since any ads were served to my site". Emails to their help email address get no response. An email to the nice lady who talked with us gets this response: "This is the problem we have with our free products since they come with no support or guarantees."
Our guess is that 'No support' actually means 'We don't care and won't help'.
So is there a point to this rant? Yes, actually.
If you are going to offer a free product to entice people to to use you and then move on to your paid product then:
a) It has to work and well
b) You need to support the fundamentals of the product - i.e. to keep it working
c) Your customer service and responsiveness needs to be of at least the same quality as that of your paid products.
Otherwise, guess what? Correct. People will rip out your system, never progress to the paid product, and will not be fans in the futute.
p.s. Using Twitter for Customer Service only works if you pay attention.
Recent Comments