With Cloud Computing, cheap computer and easy merchant services it doesn't take much to start a business. Making it a successful business is a whole different thing.
The first mistake people make is confusing price with value. The trick here is to deliver a high value product / service, but at a low price. If your competitor charges $6 and you charge $5.50 that doesn't mean you get the business. At some point price becomes irrelevant. What do you get for your six bucks?
The first and most important place to start is service.
- Can your customer figure out what you have?
- Can they get answers quickly?
- Can they buy it easily?
- Are there no surprises?
- When something goes wrong can they get help?
You must stand behind what you have. I have been using a hosting service for the last 10 years. They got good reviews, I signed up. I got an email from them the other day inviting me to check out some new goodies they offered. Turns out by clicking a button they would install a copy of SugarCRM for you. (this is the open source equivalent of Salesforce.com.)
I pushed the button.
It installed and I logged in. The first question was to confirm a time zone. I did and the system crashed. Horribly. So I filled out a trouble ticket. And here was my reply:
I have tried logging in the Sugar CRM application and noticed that the issue you are facing is with scripting. We suggest you to contact the application vendor and fix the issue from your end.
If you have any further questions, please update the Support Console.
Sincerely,
Stan Harper
Technical Specialist
Nice. So they will have 100% installation failure and I'm supposed to fix it.
Let's just say I won't be recommending these guys to anyone soon.
So make sure you walk through every offering you have from end to end from the customer's perspective. And that will serve you well.
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