Yesterday, after one too many unanswered tech support emails, I invested in a new web hosting provider. The new provider is around 400% more expensive than the previous one, but their customer service is extremely good. I had already researched them months ago and was really impressed.
My old provider offered an very reliable service; as you will know if you come here regularly. However, although their service was extremely good, their customer service was extremely poor. So, when things went wrong, it was painfully frustrating. That’s why they lost my business.
Here’s why this matters: I didn’t want to leave my previous provider! I wanted to PAY THEM MORE to offer me a better service, but they don’t offer that option. They do offer a more expensive hosting plan, BUT it’s serviced in exactly the same way as my previous one. I would get more server space, but have to suffer with the same unmanned support phone line, and the same frustrating email tech support system.
Ever thought of offering a new, premium version of your service?
Have you thought of adding a new, elite level of service to your business, for those like myself; who are service focussed and happy to pay a premium for a premium service? I know you already offer a great service, and so do many of your competitors – Remember, some of them will be reading this post too and nodding in all the same places as you!
That’s not what I am talking about here.
My suggestion, is to think about offering something that’s on a totally different level. There are a couple of really good reasons to consider this:
- The percentage of the marketplace that’s prepared to pay 2, 3 or 5 times as much for an elite service may be small, but it’s also far less competitive. In some industries, this massively valuable segment is hardly targeted by any providers at all!
- If you have existing clients or customers, who would like an even better service from you, you have something perfect to offer them. So, instead of losing what could be your best clients or customers, you actually end up making them massively more profitable instead.
Is this the right thing for EVERY provider to do? No, of course not! It will suit some business owners and not suit others. That said, if the idea of offering a new, elite service interests you and you believe you have the resources to develop a whole new level of service, why not give it some thought?
What kind of elite service would YOU be prepared to pay more for – And why?
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It’s wicked amazing how much customer service plays a roll. My personal inclination is to think “if I fix most of the problems first, fewer people will email me asking for help.” But yeah, you have to be nice to customers, haha.
I actually just made a premium version of my service last year and it’s a new experience but I think it’s a great direction to go if you offer a lot of quality for the general public and find yourself wanting more buck for your time, haha.
This is an interesting concept. If your premium services are displayed next to your regular service on your pricing page, it can also make your regular service seem more appealing as well by being the lower priced option.
This gives me a lot to think about with where my business is headed. Thank you!
I know what you mean and agree 100%. I had the exact same situation a few months ago with my hosting provider. Such a shame when people have a good product, but totally blow off the customer service part of the business. I really hated to change – but finally the frustration level overcame my customer loyalty level.
The worst is when they make you fill out this huge long contact us form and then don’t reply. The sad thing though is these companies don’t get it. They likely invest money in annoying PPC ads without understanding that good client service can be a marketing plan if you understand social. If you think about the one thing that absolutely sucks online it is the help. Most times all people want to do is succeed at using a product or service and you can’t get help in a timely fashion.
Social networks allow you to drop the corp crap and empower people to succeed. Easiest way to make your company stand apart from the next and best of all people are so happy to get good help they will tell the world. If you make it stupid simple for them.
Sadly I doubt this will catch on because it seems like all companies try to do in social feeds is be your friend. I hate logos in my feed pretending to care about me..
Google has the worst help of any company I have experienced. They own gmail but apparently don’t know how to use it. Instead you enjoy the endless maze of crap that does not help you. I would pay for google help since you have to use their products.
Another: “I know what you mean and agree 100%”
At the begining of this year I took the same step but, in my case, only doubling the fees I pay. Transferring all my clients across takes *alot* of time and effort!
Was it worth it? I’m not sure…I have good customer service now but similar reliability.
I’m now wondering whether I should go for my own managed virtual server so that initial setup and software maintenance is done for me but the final tweaks and tuning are down to me! That way, if the mail server has given up the ghost, I don’t have to wait 1-2 hours for a support ticket to be answered with “I have rebooted the mail server for you”.
[...] may recall me recently mentioning that I was moving this blog to a new hosting provider? Traffic into this blog has increased massively over the past 6 months and the time was right to [...]
[...] I was reading a great blog post by Jim Connolly titled “Can I pay you a premium fee for a premium service – PLEASE?” as I was reading it, I couldn’t help but think about how often we dismiss bad customer service [...]