Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:55:27 by Matt Hopkins
I received a letter from the ISP who hosts our co-located servers today. Despite paying a large fixed fee for our rack space and bandwidth each year, I am now being advised that if our servers consume more power than they think they should, we will be charged additionally. Recently, we were also warned that if our tech team need to access a keyboard or monitor when maintaining our servers - that we will be charged for their use (despite the monitor being some 10 year old CRT that you couldn't give away if you tried). Why? How hard is it to build these costs into the primary fee.. and not chip away at your customers nerves with these types of charges?
I see this all the time - and it always baffles me.
My wife and I have a holiday home in the Dordogne. We ensure that everything that a guest needs, is included.. built into the fee. We know several other home owners in the area that charge for everything. Want towels or bed linen? An additional charge. Want to watch a movie? They "rent" a DVD or Video per night. Why?
Many of our competitors offering SEO seem to follow the same approach. They get customers in the door by offering low prices with very basic levels of service and then assign a "campaign manager" that is simply a sales person who's job is to "up-sell" the new customer on additional services. Have you added a new product line and now need some additional keywords optimised? Additional charge. Want article promotion as part of the "off page" activities? Additional charge. Want analytics or "enhanced" reporting? Additional charge.
Personally, I hate this approach. I understand that "upselling" makes good business sense to many - but it benefits the business more than the customer and we are too customer-focused to let that happen. I believe that money gets in the way of most relationships - especially in business. I want our customers to be able to rely on us without having to think about the financial consequence, I want our staff to provide services to customers and not have to think about what they may cost, and I don't believe that SEO can be offered "a lacarte" -- for me, its an "all or nothing" approach.
The problem is that I expect the same from my suppliers.. and I think that you should too.
Matt Hopkins
Managing Director |
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