A recent bad customer experience of mine made me think about things that clients off, or could help you sell more.
The free trial
There is a great trend in the software industry, you can start a free trial for many of the products that you’re thinking of buying. It’s great because, normally, having completed such a trial people are more likely to purchase.
The principle can be adapted for many businesses at little cost, Accountants are a great example (although one does need to position the trial carefully in the sales process).
My recent experience
After several hours of research, I started to use a new piece of software. It wasn’t quite right, but was better suited to my needs than anything else. I then started to use it in more depth, to really test it out.
Free trials are often limited in nature; in this case I could only have one template. I think that’s fair and as I would eventually need more than one template I went to become a paying customer.
The upgrade screen told me that they were not allowing any more upgrades, but I might like to but their new, improved, product. Several curses as I realised that I would have to start work again, but hey.
Having started with the new product I discover that it has fewer features than the old one, with one being the very feature I needed!
The customer enquiry
Now feeling rather dejected, having invested several hours in using their product I didn’t want to simply give up. I sent a polite request to their online support team, hoping that they would answer my question and I could proceed with the purchase.
After 2 hours I gave up, my expectation of instant communication wasn’t met. I bought a competitor product having decided they weren’t interested.
24 hours later I received an email:
“We currently do not support project templates or project cloning. In terms of future features, I can’t give out any information. I apologize for this, but I will make certain this request is passed on to the product team. We do have a lot of great stuff coming and you should follow up on Twitter (@namewitheld) for the latest info.”
I didn’t bother to write back and I will not be buying their product – or following them on Twitter!
Ideas to help you sell more (Lessons from this)
- Trials can be good ways to help prospects buy; but ensure that there is a relevant upgrade process!!
- Ensure product upgrades really are upgrades, or you risk losing customers
- Set expectations: If you have an online support service, my expectation is for a prompt reply, what’s yours? Setting a relevant expectation (e.g. we will contact you tomorrow) could have left me happy.
- Customer contact: Do ensure that it sets the right tone. Who in your business sends emails etc? Do they write in the way you would expect?
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