(I’m starting a new category here at 47hats.com for smart marketing tactics being used by microISVs – MicroISV Tactics. The thing about these tactics is that they draw on the nature of microISVs; they’re not just general good things to do in business ideas.)
Patrick McKenzie, Bingo Card Creator, posted about why he treats his competitors’ customers as if they were his own, even to the point of supplying them on occasion with “their” registration key:
- It costs him nothing,
- It saves him time doing tech support,
- It often creates a raving fan of your microISV who is worth their weight in Google AdWords,
- It feels good!
Can you imagine say Adobe treating non customers this way? Not a chance in hell. And therein lies the beauty of this microISV Tactic – we, as microISVs, don’t need to ask the VP of Marketing whether we can have our outsourced to who-knows-where tech support provide certain customers who meet 23 criteria a registration key during a six month pilot program to be evaluated by staff before being summerized for the weekly Executive Committee meeting.
We just do the right thing, personally.
And in a world where the wrong thing gets done impersonally to us as “consumers” each and every day, this is a powerful, positive business practice.
Have a look at Patrick’s post, give it a try for a month and see if you don’t like the results.
1 comment
Join the conversationpeter donegan - September 14, 2007
I design and build gardens – if you dont like a particular plant… even after my gizillion years of college studyig horticulture and experience [yada yada..] it doesnt matter. Client is King. Sometimes just sometimes [mostly!] it is important to keep a smile on a clients face and go a little further – where you could charge and extra ten or hundred euro/ dollars – you dont. From a college graduate in marketing point ofview I would not suggest there is an equation to count that as a statistic but – it does work.
We end up sometimes driving for a day with one man to replace …. one tree! because the client doesn’t like it – fine! It ain a bingo card, it costs a lot more but, long term wise if we get a ‘good’ nee great referral – bingo!
I’m glad I’m not the only one to pick up on that Bob. Men of honour, morals and ethics do exist. The problem in my opinion is that an executive cannot see his from an office window and doesnt get to ‘the shop floor’ to see for real why sales have fallen.
Best of luck
peter
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