Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Nice touch Todoist

Customer engagement letter from Todoist
Customer engagement email from Todoist
In my never ending struggle to find better ways of prioritizing and scheduling my life I came upon Todoist. The product/service seems like a pretty good todo list and task organizing software. It has some nice bells and whistles and good cross platform support. Whether or not I actually keep using the product remains to be seen (I'll post my experience on www.afloat.ca at some point in the future).

What has immediately impressed me is their customer engagement strategy. While, their general marketing, social media presence and website design are nice, that's almost a given these days. Their personal touch is what impressed me.

Soon after shelling out a meager $30 for the year's service (seems too cheap to keep trying the limited trial) I received a nice personalized message from them. Yes, this is an automated message. I know that. But, it is well timed, well written and makes me feel important as a customer.

I need to find a good way to integrate this feeling into my own business.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

SiriusXM Half Price

SiriusXM price increase letter
Impending Price Increase for SiriusXM
I recently received an email from SiriusXM stating that there was a fee increase taking affect this year.

Since I do a lot of driving for work, I do enjoy the XM service. However, given that there are great podcasts available for free with similar content, and I enjoy public radio, the cost has always been a little hard to swallow.

The fee increase to $175 + tax was too much. I decided that I would cancel my service.

When I called their customer service line for the cancellation I was immediately offered a half price discount.

This type of tactic is troubling to me, as a consumer. I should not have to threaten cancellation to get a better price that is available.

The fact that they can, without skipping a beat, offer me half the cost tells me something about their fee structure. I wonder if I could have done even better if I had relented a little more?

I'd like to say that I held to my principles and continued with my cancellation but their tactic obviously worked. I'm still a customer, for another year...