Doug,
First, before discussing rates, I'd like to point out that the "subject" of
your posting letter cause your letter to go straight to my Deleted Items. I,
and I'm sure many others, have spam filters in place. The double dollar
signs in a subject is something that such filters commonly determine to be
spam and, as a result, send it to the trash bin.
Anyway... on to your question.
We just recently sold our cybercafe here in Vancouver BC. Our website is
still available and through it you can see all our rates and what those
rates provided. Go to www.digital-u.com Then, from the menu on the left,
select "About..." and then "Pricing" from the menu at the bottom of the
page.
That will give you a flavoring of what a successful public access computer
business is like and what it is capable of doing.
Pricing is one of the most commonly underused marketing abilities available
to cybercafes. Many cybercafes base their pricing on what another cybercafe
is doing hundreds or thousands of miles away. This is a silly practice as
those distant locations have no bearing on their customers or the value of
the products and services that they provide. Your pricing should be based on
local market conditions and competition. I have customers using our Digital
Access Management System who charge only $1 per hour and others who charge
$16.50 per hour yet they both do well.
Another common misconception is "Who is your competition?" A fairly simple
way of answering that is by asking yourself, "If this customer were not
here, at my Cybercafe, what else and where else might they be?" Your
customers each come to your business for their own unique reasons and
understanding those reasons is a big key. Once you understand that, you can
determine who is competing for that customer's dollar and hence, what
pricing must you offer to be their preferred choice.
If you examine the pricing from our site, you will note that we had
different prices for different types of customers. Each type of customer
comes for different reasons and uses different products and services. They
also have different pricing thresholds. $8.00 per hour is expensive for a
student or senior citizen but cheap for many tourists and traveling business
people. Gamers respond well to package deals for 2 to 4 hours but lunchtime
e-mailers are looking for speed and convenience.
Identify your customers, their needs, and your competition and then take
your best shot at guessing what the market will pay. Fine tune your pricing
from there and you'll be on your way to being more profitable.
Ron H
Digital U
========================
Digital Access - The leader in Public Access Computer Management Systems
http://www.digital-u.com/digitalaccess
========================
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Doug Hooper
> Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2000 11:50 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [cc] $$
>
>
> What do you all charge customers for internet access,
> and how do you set your rates?
>
>
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