Auto-renewing contracts are common...but when a contracted customer wants to move on what is the best course of action to take?
Public relations is all about building trust and connections with others. It can be person to person (P2P), brand to person (B2C) and brand to brand (B2B).
Relationships take time and effort.
In the software service provider world that effort can be as straight forward as providing a product that works. Sometimes it is more involved and requires hand-holding through complex and difficult situations your client is facing. Other times it is simply a check-in to see how things are going and answering questions.
When you are building a product, or have a service offering the primary goal is to sell the product or service. If we lay it bear though, you can see that nothing important happens in the office where you are building that product or service. Yes...the coding happens but the reason for that coding and how it will proceed comes from the customer's business needs. That is outside the office.
Brands easily and often lose sight of this. The pressure to sell more at better margins has a negative effect to customer satisfaction and relationships. This pressure makes good people do bad things.
Relationships in the Cross-hairs
Auto-renewing contracts renew at prescribed times and we as consumers are accustomed to this arrangement...heck we agreed to it when we signed. Right? Well yeah, we did. It is convenient; it is one less thing to remember in a world where we are bombarded with information.
So, what happens when the deadline for cancellation has passed…and you just missed it? Yikes!
Our customers and prospects are sharing their recent experiences and explain that their vendor provides no option to cancel once the deadline has passed. In one example the customer was a client of this vendor for 10 years and the vendor thought so little of their relationship that they stood fast and have them locked in for yet another year.
What does the vendor gain in this situation? You might be quick to say nothing…but wait look at what they get:
- A disgruntled customer.
- Bad recommendations – we all know that people share their bad experiences more readily than their good experiences.
- One year of revenue.
You were right in the end the vendor gets nothing good out of holding a customer who does not wish to stay.
We believe that is no way to treat your customer.
- PRgloo does have auto-renewing contracts.
- PRgloo maintains positive client relationships all year long, not just leading up to renewal.
- PRgloo sees the people behind “The Customer” and that is where we shine. Person to person we build our relationships on trust and transparency.
Having beautiful, easy to use software doesn’t hurt either.