Pricing for Perfection

Pricing is a four letter word. Many entrepreneurs I know hate to price their products because pricing seems to be so challenging: Pricing your product or service too high may lead to fewer customers (and thus, fewer profits). Pricing your product or service too low may lead to fewer profits. Of course you HAVE to price your products or services; so what should you do?

In a blog post for BusinessBlogs.co.nz entitled “Revenue is Not Your Friend – Pricing for Profit“, Charles Blakeman talks about the need to raise your prices.

Blakeman rightly points out that low-price providers tend to attract customers who are highly price sensitive. And I hear the same thing from salespeople and seasoned business owners all the time: The people who offer the lowest prices frequently have the most challenging customers and the biggest customer turnover. One of the reasons has to do with customer loyalty: A price-sensitive customer is often less loyal because they go where the lowest prices are.

Okay, so if pricing needs to be set more effectively, how can you do that? You can read more about pricing and what goes into pricing and value and cost from one of our IAC-EZ participants: Check out Aaron Hoos’ blog post “Prices and Pricing Strategies: How to Price Your Offerings More Effectively“ where talks about strategies involved in being the high-priced, medium-priced, and low-priced provider.

And in another blog by Blakeman, he provides what I think is probably the best list of pricing how-to options I’ve ever read: He gives ten ways to help you figure out how to price your products. Read it here.

Jessica Routier, IAC-EZ

More on Customer Service as an Investment

Just a couple of days ago I wrote about the customer service you provide in your business as being an investment and we mentioned a Freshbooks blog from way back. While thinking further about this issue, I was clicking around and found an article in a newspaper that referenced… Freshbooks and their take on customer service.

So, since it’s so closely related to what I was just talking about a couple of days ago, I just had to share this article, too. Find it at The Globe and Mail. The article is written by Mark Evans, a consultant who uses content and social media to help businesses get more attention.

Evans writes that customer service is not just about correcting bad things from happening but also about building and leveraging a positive experience. For example, he mentions connecting with the customer to touch base with them and to show them that you value the relationship. And here’s how Freshbooks plays into the subject: Evans quotes Mike McDerment, CEO of Freshbooks, who says that a happy customer provides referrals. Although I might have disagreed with this a few years ago, I think that today’s socially connected world makes that true now. Just look at what interactions are like on Twitter: One person might tweet “boo! Invoicing day. My least favorite day of the month.” And someone else might respond with “Try Freshbooks. I like them.” A simple referral from a happy customer can go a long way.

And just when I thought I was wrapping up the topic, there was a link at the bottom of the article to a blog by Ben Yoskovitz. Yoskovitz is an entrepreneur with an impressive background and lots of interesting things to say and in his blog post , he reviewed the book BAM: Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World. His review/summary is incredibly helpful as he lists 9 points from the book that every entrepreneur should pay attention to. Number 1: Tie customer service to revenue and profits. Brilliant! Number 5: Tie customer service to surprise. There are others but those were my two favorites. Read this blog , change your customer service, and transform your customer’s experience!

Jessica Routier, IAC-EZ