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Nokolai20172016-04-24 19:09:45
Business Informatics
Nokolai2017, 2016-04-24 19:09:45

We sold the program - a year has passed - how to take payment from old customers?

We sold the program - a year has passed - how to take payment from old customers
We are selling software.
We sell a program for automating the printing of photos for documents (we won’t say which one, because in this case it doesn’t matter).
The cost of the program is 3700 rubles. When purchasing the second program, we give the client a 25 percent discount. When purchasing subsequent programs - we make a 50 percent discount.
When selling the program, we indicate that those. Program support is provided by email for 12 months.
Service (12 months) includes:
- Consulting on functions and problems with the program (by e-mail).
- Correction of errors in the program (if they are detected by the user).
- Transferring new versions to users (upon request, it is not necessary to update).
- If the issue is non-standard and we cannot resolve it by e-mail - we offer a free remote access connection to resolve the issue.
Of course, a free remote access connection is provided only in cases where we cannot provide a qualified answer to a clear user question. If we gave a clear answer to the user - but cannot fulfill it, for example, due to low qualifications (what is a disk, how to copy a file) - in this case, the remote connection will be paid - 500 rubles / hour, the minimum session is 30 minutes. That is, when the user himself asks us to connect to him remotely, we provide him with this service at a cost of 500 rubles per hour. But in no case do we call him this service.
And all this (such a system) works fine - from the moment the user bought the program - until 12 months have passed.
NOW THE MOST IMPORTANT
Let's say 12 months have passed. We are no longer obliged to provide the user with technical support. program support. But the user has already bought the program and needs service. Question - for what to take payment and in what amount ?
We were tormented with old clients who had already bought several programs. There are a lot of questions and technical support, comparable to new customers, and the payment is minuscule.
You can, for example, offer the user to extend the service for 12 months for 1500 rubles. Email service, of course.
But what if the user bought five programs - after all, those. support in this case is more, although not five times? For how much in this case to extend the service for a year? For 1500 rubles? So after all, the user will extend the service for 1,500 rubles and torment him with questions (after all, if he has five programs, there will be more questions than in the case of one program - but go check - for which of the five programs he will ask questions - he will probably extend the service of one program - and questions will be asked on all five).
For 7500 rubles? But it turns out to be a very horse price tag. And a user may, for example, break down one program - and he will not want to renew the service for all five at once.
Take 1500 for the renewal of the maintenance of one program, plus 500 rubles for the maintenance of each subsequent one? But what if the user says - I will renew the service for one program now, in a month I will renew for one more, in a month - for another? Or in general will it extend only one program, and will ask questions on all five? How much to charge for renewing service in a month? 500 rubles? 1500 rubles? How not to get confused in all this?
Or do not allow to renew the service for 1 program at all - only for all at once? But then what to do in this case - if the user has bought 5 programs and wants to ask a simple 5-minute question on one of the five programs? Require to extend the service for all five (1500 + 4x500)?
Or answer questions for free? But then you suffer with old clients more than with new ones. At some point, technical support for old customers will take 90% of the time, and in fact bring a penny (compared to new customers).
And what about the fact that some users are adequate and understand the program themselves, they don’t particularly strain - nevertheless, they strain a little and don’t want to serve for free? Take less payment from them and then if they start to strain - ask for more? Or take payment like everyone else (3,500 rubles for a prolongation of service for a year, a solution to the issue for 5 minutes - or maybe he won’t apply again over the next 12 months)?
But what if the user bought one program, and a year later the second? Automatically renew service for the first program for another year? Or serve only the second program?
Now about remote support.
For some clients, the program breaks down and they ask to resolve the issue of remote support. Of course, we are talking about the case when the program warranty has expired, and the maintenance extension has not been completed.
How much in this case to take for a remote connection? 500 rubles per hour, the minimum session is half an hour, as usual?
But after all, it is absolutely unprofitable for us to work at such a rate with old clients.While you correspond with him by e-mail, while he will give you an ID and a password. Then connect to it remotely and do the work. In total, it can turn out half an hour and 250 rubles. Which you then need to shake off from this client (some have to be reminded five times), or require an advance payment. So then, after all, after this remote connection, additional questions begin to torment by e-mail.
But it's still okay. Let's say we connected remotely and found out that the program does not work due to incorrectly configured hardware. That is, the program itself has nothing to do with it, the matter is in the equipment. How much to charge in this case? After all, we have not done anything useful for the client - although, obviously, our specialist will spend time and do some work .
Or we, for example, connected and found out that the program does not work, or slows down - yes, the problem is that this is a glitch in our program. But what to do now? Need to explain to the client that this is a bug in our program, we will make improvements to the new version and update the program for him? Improvements, that is, we will perform for free (although we are not obliged, because 12 months have passed), and then we will provide the client with a new version for free. And again via remote connection - and all this for 250 rubles? So after all, in this case, you can earn more as a janitor. Or in this case, indicate to the client that yes - this is a bug in the program - and in order to fix it - you need to pay for the upgrade to the new version (extend service) - then we will fix it. And you also need to pay for this remote connection session - after all, we worked - although we could not solve anything?
Or is it fundamentally not to maintain old versions of the program via remote access ? To say that we provide remote access services for a separate fee - but only during the warranty period of the program or during the extended maintenance period?
But what to do then in this case - the client (who bought five programs) set, for example, a password for the program and forgot it. He asks us to drop him. We say - well - pay for the renewal of service for 5 programs (1500 + 4x500) and pay for another half an hour of remote support (300 rubles) - we will connect to you remotely and reset your password. And, unfortunately, we do not service older versions.
Or maybe take for maintenance of old versions of programs not 500 rubles per hour with a minimum session, but 1000 rubles per hourwith a minimum session of 1 hour (so that maintenance of old programs would also be cost-effective for us)? So that if the client does not have an extended service, the solution of any issue on remote support costs him 1000 rubles? But what if we connect remotely to the client - for example, to reset the password in the program - and we will do it in 5 minutes - the client will not think that the price tag is horsey? But on the other hand - in some cases it will take 5 minutes - and in some all 55 minutes - so you still have to demand an advance payment for a full hour - so as not to be left behind later.
Or let him extend the service and then the solution of remote access issues will be 500 rubles per hour, the minimum session is 30 minutes - the minimum payment in this case is 250 rubles.
In general, how to do everything right?So that we don’t work for a penny with old clients, don’t serve them for free or very cheaply, and so that our conditions don’t look like rip-offs to the client? Difficult moment... very difficult.

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2 answer(s)
A
Artem Voronov, 2016-04-24
@newross

The question is actually very simple.
Make several tariffs, for example:
1) updates during the year X rubles.
2) + 10-20 hours of technical support via remote access Y rubles.
3) 1 hour of technical support for Z rubles.
You choose X and Y based on how much you want to earn in the end. Then you check the elasticity of demand - few paying users? decrease X and Y. Does everyone pay? you can lift it up a bit.

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nirvimel, 2016-04-24
@nirvimel

It's simple - a separate contract is drawn up for customer support. The price tag is fixed, but support is limited both in time (quarter / six months / year) and in terms of the amount of working hours included in the price. After the expiration of the contractual period, the support expires even if the hours are not actually worked out. It is possible to provide customers with slight discounts on subsequent support contracts if the prepaid hours are actually worked out by less than 50% or 25%, this does not hit the profits much, but it has an important psychological effect on the client. If all prepaid hours are worked out before the contract expiration date (at least immediately on the first day), then another package of prepaid hours is sold to the client on the same conditions for the same amount (or with a slight discount). Usually the client himself is interested in the renewal of the contract,
For a piecework scope of work (for example, to tie some new feature into the program), hours are assigned conditionally and debited from the prepaid amount.
Older versions should not be serviced beyond the prepaid support period, but the upgrade can be made free of charge for those who enter into a new support contract and purchase a new prepaid watch package. Some customers will buy support only to get fresh updates, if they don't need real support.
And the last thing: no time quantization by half an hour and no price tags of the order of 250 rubles. and 300 rubles, you don’t even need to discuss with the client how many kopecks this or that little thing costs, you need to immediately move away from this and go to a different order of numbers, for example: “9487 rubles (excluding VAT) and you’ll blow your mind about problems for a WHOLE YEAR” - A tempting offer for any leader. And directly to the employee who actually receives support, you can mention the limited amount of prepaid hours in the support package (this is also written in the contract, but the full text of the contract is read not by the manager, but by a lawyer (or even an accountant), who knows little about the topic). If you have questions about the early exhaustion of prepaid hours and the renewal of the contract during the year, you can refer to the fact that this issue was discussed with their employee...

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