On 18/12/09 23:21, Dave Sones wrote: > the real test of any > company is how it behaves when things go wrong. >
On the other hand, it's a perfectly legitimate business model to get as many customers as possible on a miniscule margin, and let the ones with problems flounder until they leave. As long as your systems work, the vast majority of customers will be happy and problem free and if enough of them are making you £1/month you can make a decent income. Once you let the few with problems eat into that margin the business model falls apart. Companies like A&A (and there are plenty of others out there) charge more for the service so can provide decent support, and that's another perfectly valid business model, not least because effectively you have TT and other big boys out there recruiting for you. And there are smaller companies in the middle (mine is one of them) who offer broadband with other support services so the business model is different again (although I'll say for experience that we're very much dependent on our upstream providers to deliver decent support to us when there is a problem). I think the best model might be to be completely open about the margins on a service like TT's, and offer decent support on a chargeable basis when needed. You get your broadband at a very low price, but if you're unlucky enough to have problems you understand that there isn't the money to provide support except if you pay at the point of use. And I'm not talking about £1/min phone lines, I'm talking about something like £100/incident but backed up with the kind of support that Dave described - someone takes ownership of the fault and gets it resolved. Since you could be saving £10/month by using the cheaper provider, £100 to sort a problem isn't too hard to justify. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG _______________________________________________ Peterboro mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/peterboro
