02.17.06
Getting payment plans right.
One thing that annoys many of us, is paying for things we dont use. Like a payment plan that gives you a certain number of minutes on your phone, or using a piece of software.
Fogcreek software recently released a piece of software called copilot which allows you to remote control someone elses computer (not much new there, but they provide a service around it that works, and makes it simple to use through firewalls etc). They have a payment plan which allows you to choose a certain number of minutes per month, so if you are a heavy user! you can benefit from cost savings. But Joel (the owner of Fogcreek) is always one to remove barriers to entry, and so has this little bit after his list of payment plans.
“Don’t worry if you’re not sure how many minutes you need: you can change the plan at any time, up until the last day of the month.”
Now you see the great thing here is that he will never loose a customer who is unsure of how many minutes they will need, infact rather than making less money (some traditionalists would say that ever customer who trades down before the end of the month is lost money) he actually gains money because he gets customers he would not necessarily have had otherwise.
I remeber once trying to organise a payment gateway for one of my clients and not going with a particular company because they wanted my client to specify at the begining of each month how many transactions they would be making. Even though the cost is minimal its the perception of wasting money that kills the sale.
