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Echoes of Comcast ... the NYT is constantly promoting 50% off the posted rates for new subscribers, without ever offering such terms to existing customers. But
by GCA10 10y ago
Echoes of Comcast ... the NYT is constantly promoting 50% off the posted rates for new subscribers, without ever offering such terms to existing customers. But if you're a "frustrated" long-time customer who's on the verge of canceling, then suddenly the 50% discount is rolled out.
In most other industries, loyal customers get better treatment. Or it's the same deal for everyone. These sorts of inverted pricing structures may squeeze more revenue out of a few long-term, inattentive customers, but the hidden cost in churn, irritation and haggling is considerable.
- caconym_ 10y ago> But if you're a "frustrated" long-time customer who's on the verge of canceling, then suddenly the 50% discount is rolled out. Yes, IIRC the reason it was such an exhausting call is that they offered me a series of no less than 3, maybe more, progressively larger discounts. I simply wasn't interested, for my own reasons which are even less relevant to this thread than my original comment was.
- caf 10y agoInsurance is another industry with the same inverted pricing structure.
- nommm-nommm 10y agoWhich is why I shop around every 1-2 years. I have saved thousands.
- fjdlwlv 10y agoWhat? Your prices go up every year? I've never seen that.
- caf 10y agoYes (although I should clarify that I'm referring to car / house / contents insurance here). Typically the premium offered at renewal time will increase every year, but if you come in as a new customer you can get a substantially lower premium.
- fjdlwlv 10y agoIn no industry to loyal customers get loss-leader pricing indefinitely. If you've ever gotten the discount once, you aren't treated worse than new customers.
- GCA10 10y agoIf we get only one chance to be a "new customer," then it would be a reasonably fair system. But most of these churn-inducing systems are run in such a way that the Customer Acquisition Teams are quite willing to book you at the new customer rate, again and again. The internal incentives (worth an entirely separate post) reward phone reps disproportionately for heroic "saves" of accounts that were about to quit. The big promotion within these call centers is to get to work on the Customer Rescue team. I don't know why the finance guys haven't figured out that they are rotting out their core revenue by doing this.