Why are we charging for Tech Support?
Okay, so I have now made, what some people have described as, the worst business decision of my career. I have changed the way that my company handles our customer and tech support services. We have gone from providing a free Garmin support service to all and sundry, to now only providing the Free service for our own customers. And we have implemented a Paid service for everyone else. Oh, Shock and Horror…
To give you a bit of history…
For the past five years, we have been happily providing our exceptional Garmin product and tech support service, for free, to anybody and everybody who needed it. Unfortunately, we have now reached a stage where we are spending so much of our time and money providing free support for people who have not purchased their Garmin GPS units from us, that it is starting to affect the level of service that we can provide for our own customers. In the last year alone (2007). We spent just over 800 man hours, providing support for people who purchased their Garmin GPS units from other dealers. That works out to more than three hours per working day.
Now of course, my decision has been praised by a few people who believe that I am moving in the right direction, and blasted by others who cannot understand why they should now have to pay for their ‘customer and tech support’ from me (even though, technically speaking, they are not my ‘customers’).
I see it like this… when you purchase a TV, PC, laptop, DVD player, MP3 player, Xbox, or even a cellphone from a specific dealer or shop, you cannot just walk into any other shop and ask them to spend anywhere between 20 minutes and one hour of their time to help you load software, set up the device properly and teach you how to operate it, without them expecting to be paid for that service. Why should a GPS unit be any different?
Also remember that as a Garmin owner you can always get free support directly from Garmin SA themselves.
Although this type of ‘paid’ service model is quite common overseas, it seems to be a bit of a controversial topic amongst South Africans, so I would like to put it out there and ask for your comments. Read through our tech support service offer on our website, and then come back here and let me know what you think by leaving a comment. Do you agree/disagree? Is this just a South African thing? Would you be prepared to pay for such a service? Or should I rather spend the rest of my days playing in heavy traffic…
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Hi Mark,
You get what you pay for. I think you’re quite right in charging for your time. It’s hard to think that you should make up for the deficiencies in other people’s business
Cheers
Pete
Thanks Pete,
I appreciate the support.
Mad.
Hi Mark,
I think the rates are quite reasonable. If I organise my questions properly, I could get in 3 question per 30mins at R50 a shot. Not too bad if I am stuck.
Cheers,
Andries
Hi Andries,
Thanks for the support and Yep, depending on the questions (and how deeply you want to delve into the understanding of how and why something works), 30 minutes can buy you quite a few solutions to your problems and frustrations.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of technology in general, it sometimes takes quite a bit of time and effort to fix something really simple.
An example: Last week I had a customer phone me twice to solve a problem he was having with his unit (it was routing all over the place). After 25 minutes on the phone, of me trying to explain to him what I wanted him to do to the unit (checking all the various settings) on his side to troubleshoot the problem (he just didn’t understand half of the things I was asking him to do) he gave up and drove 35km to bring the unit in to me. Once I had the unit in my hands I was able to fix the problem in less than a minute (it was simply an incorrect setting) but it then took a further 20 minutes just to explain to him (and have him actually understand) how the setting that he had chosen was affecting the routing on his unit.
Also unfortunately, you cannot just tell someone to “just leave the settings as they are” without explaining what those settings do and how they work. I have seen quite a few people, who have owned their GPS for a period of time, suddenly discover to their absolute amazement, a setting that has been incorrect the whole time, or the proper way to do a search for an address and this then changes their whole perception of how ‘useful this gadget is now’.
Mad
Hi Mark,
I’ve never understood the SA mentality that compels people to expect something for nothing.
If someone needs your expertise it’s because they don’t have it themselves or are too lazy to figure it out.
It’s cost you plenty to acquire that expertise and it has a definite value.
The cost of providing a certain amount of basic support is built into your selling price and it’s reasonable to provide a little support to your paying clients but not to all and sundry.
The more people who do what you’ve done by charging for support, the quicker SA will catch a wake-up and start accepting this sensible model as the norm.
Good for you! You’re helping other business owners who are in the same boat too, not just the GPS users.
Tim
Hi there,
I haven’t visited your site in a while now, it is looking fantastic.
I agree 100% with your business “method”, you were spending far too many hours giving “customer” service and that was way back then! You have seen a gap in the market and you have taken it.
How would you put it… you are an entrepreneur not a businessman.
Cheers
Hi Tracey
Thanks and it’s good to see you around again