10 May, 2006
What makes a customer satisfied? Does it really matter if you are doing it for free, anyway?
A post by one of my favourite bloggers, Tom Vander Well, over at QAQNA has made me yet again affirm that the most critical piece of our organisation is NOT the code, is NOT the service we provide [though they are both essential attributes] but it IS our customers.
Lower prices isn't always what customers want.
Now, herein at FeedFire we have a generous policy. I like doing many things for free on the Internet, so I like to reciprocate and hope that we, one day maybe, become a part of the fabric of the Internet, much like Hotmail or AltaVista etc have become.
We offer FREE RSS feed making facilities, and paid ones.
The paid ones are inexpensive and within reach of most people [most, being comparative; I know there are many, many people who cannot afford such a luxury, so I am not ignorant to their plight, hence the free facilities].
My moot point is thus, and Tom's posting made me think [yet again] about the following: When offering something for free...does this mean we, the service provider, place no value on the 'product' we are offering OR that we can treat our free users with a lesser regard/respect than our paying customers?
In other words, do the free users really matter to us?
Apart from asking all our free users to send me a slice of cake and a cup of tea [Worzel Gummidge style....I am often mistaken in my dress, and demeanour, for said scarecrow] I am happy to provide our facilities at their disposal....and we do have a LOT of free feeds and a LOT of users.
EACH user at FeedFire is of absolute importance.
Without the users, free or paid, FeedFire simply wouldn't exist and I am absolute in my conviction that they have to be offered premium services at all times, with the paid customers getting an even higher level of premium service for their patronage.
So my belief is that when we receive emails etc from ANY user...it doesn't take much more effort to respond than it does to completely ignore them!
An email [and yes, I write many and receive hundreds per day] is my way of discretely saying to the client that I think they are worthy of my time, and that I am glad they are using FeedFire; for them to be using our technology, is a compliment that I receive on each new feed made.
Tom's post resonates well with me, although it may actually pose the same question I began at the top of this article: Do we at FeedFire place no value on our [free] service?
Au contraire, mon frere...we place so much value on it, that we feel it is worthwhile sharing with everyone.
The value of the feeds will always remain; when an upgrade is made to a feed, all sorts of enhanced features are made available, so intrinsically every freely made feed has the potential to become a paid feed.
Therein lies the secret to our success. We trust our product so much, that we allow it to roam free, and it brings back more investment than if we operated everything behind a 'for fee' interface.
I concur wholeheartedly and would like to offer ourselves as a working example of his mantra....knowing your customers mind, providing product AND service quality is the basis upon which we can do some things for free and yet still make a decent profit.
Kudos to Tom...yet again, he made me think.
That in itself, deserves a medal as many people assumed I was devoid of such process.
Warm wishes, my customer-centric chums,
Mike
You raise an interesting point with regards to Customer satisfection.
Posted by Anju 19 Jun 2008, 12:22Thanks for the link-love, Mike. You actually made me think.
I got a call from a very nice gentleman named Brian Polak at New Balance shoes. He read my blog and had a question about his companies QA team. I called him and we talked for a few minutes and I gave him my opinion on his situation - for free. Why would I do that?
Brian is now a satisfied customer of QAQNA. He isn't a paying customer of c wenger group, but maybe he will be someday. I at least hope that when he's thinking about some customer research or third party QA help, I might have earned the opportunity to bid for his business.
What's the benefit to me? I believe in the principle "give and it shall be given unto you." I met Brian. I learned something about his company. I extended a little good will and perhaps have planted a seed that will someday bear some fruit. All-in-all, I consider it a worthy investment.
Posted by Tom Vander Well 11 May 2006, 17:41