I think it would be a big mistake not to support unregistered or unpaid users. Aside from any ethical issues, many users will buy your software after seeking out your support. Most users buy for support anyways, that's why commercial software can exist along with freeware and open source products. If they know you provide them with great support, they will be more confident with your company. I think it will hurt your sales if you do not support your unregistered users and you should probably be offering them quicker responses, or at least surpassing their expectations. For example, by saying you will reply within 48 hours but reply within 24 instead.
Remember you are still trying to sell to your demo users. You must build confidence in your product and your company. All I can say is try offering unlimited support to everyone and see how many unpaid users buy. Then try offering very limited support and see how many users buy. That's the only way you will know for sure. My findings are that customers almost always buy after you help them with a problem. Otherwise, if you do not help them, they will move on and buy from someone else. If you find yourself spending to much time on support, there are many things you can do there to speed up the processes. But I would recommend you never provide a lesser standard to your unpaid (or soon to be paid) customers. -- Paul Levine RAGE Software http://www.ragesw.com > Sorry, should have worded it better as I have seen many similar > responses. > > How do you feel about the policy of providing e-mail tech support to > only those who have paid? As it takes time and effort to solve > problems, I feel it would be necessary to provide custom support to > my paid customers. > > On one hand, I feel there should be no distinction between customer > and paid customer. The application should be intuitive and complete > enough to not require tech support to begin with. Every time I > justify supporting only paid customers, I feel like a dirty business > man. > > But time is money. So what thoughts have the list? > _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe or switch delivery mode: <http://www.realsoftware.com/support/listmanager/> Search the archives of this list here: <http://support.realsoftware.com/listarchives/lists.html>
