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This was highly non-obvious to me a few years ago, so I'll mention it now: Customer expectations for most B2B applications frequently do not include being able
by patio11 14y ago
This was highly non-obvious to me a few years ago, so I'll mention it now: Customer expectations for most B2B applications frequently do not include being able to pick up a phone and talk to someone during business hours. It surprised me, too. I offer "24 hour response times, best effort, via email only" as the standard plan for Appointment Reminder and get very, very little pushback. When it does happen, I quote a $5,000 a month SLA for call-me-any-hour-day-or-night phone support. I don't sell any of those, so it's been a wild success. (If I ever sell one I'll dry my tears on the money then quintuple the price for the second customer.)
- jiggy2011 14y agoYah, I guess you cannot provide 24/7 support anyway especially if you have customers in different timezones as you're going to have to sleep at some point. I was thinking more in terms of "My server died and my business is burning because of something I could fix in 10 minutes with SSH" or "my main client had their server hacked by a 0 day RoR vulnerability" and I'm stuck here filling in TPS reports until 5. I suppose some level of monitoring and a deposit + SLA left with someone you trust to resolve first line issues could go a long way.
- glimcat 14y agoThe decisive condition here is often "can a problem with the software create a halting error in someone's daily workflow."
- wikwocket 14y agoActually, if you sell one of the SLA's, I imagine you would hire a VA or other service to answer the phone, forwarding the clal to you only in a true emergency.