With the revamp and release of BlueCrestStudios product line right around the corner, I am paying extra detail to user experience as we polish off the corners and get things ready to go. When you are in development mode, user experience can slide a little as you are mainly concerned about just getting the software working. I would rather be late to the market and get it correct, then early or on time and wrong.
Free trials and demos are a key part to new customers, something that I will admit I have taken the wrong approach on over the years. It’s natural to release a trial application that is locked down, doesn’t have all of the features, and only gives you a glimpse of how the application will behave if and when the user becomes a customer.
I recently had this experience with Stamps.com. I have be eyeing up stamps.com for about three months now. Lately I have been backlogged on items I need to mail out. Free welcome package to get me started, free digital scale, and 30 day money back. What could be better? Well then I get the welcome email. My welcome package has been sent, and I should get it in as soon as one business day. The digital scale, however; well I have to wait 30 days for my voucher and then pay shipping and handling. I understand that this is to prevent customers from canceling the service and making off with the scale, but I also find out that even if I wanted to stay a customer and keep using the service happily for years to come; I would still have to wait 30 days to apply for the scale.
Why is this a big deal? Well because I have packages to mail… now… not in 30 days. And in 30 days if I get the scale, and find out it’s a huge pain to mail packages, and the scale doesn’t work, and it killed my dog, and my girlfriend left me; and this whole Stamps.com thing just isn’t working out; I can’t get my money back.
Solution? Send the scale out, get the customer that still has an easy out using and loving the software. Get them thinking that it’s the best thing since slice bread. Then if within 30 days on the off chance that they do not like the service, let them know they have to return the scale or they will be charged for it.
It saves me from having to go to Amazon.com and use my Prime account to get a certified scale sent overnight to me. The only reason I did this was because it was a certified USPS scale vs. the one that Stamps.com gives you, and it had a higher weight tolerance. Still, not something you want customers to have to do.
