Comments on: Customer Love: No Love Like Free Love http://www.startupnation.com/business-blogs/index.php/2009/04/01/customer-love-no-love-like-free-love/ By entrepreneurs. For entrepreneurs. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:34:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: christine http://www.startupnation.com/business-blogs/index.php/2009/04/01/customer-love-no-love-like-free-love/#comment-21026 christine Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:02:03 +0000 http://www.startupnation.com/blogs/?p=4427#comment-21026 I'll buy that everyone loves a deal. I'm not so sure I understand *anyone's* agenda when they are giving away software at a discounted price (that isn't their current version)....because it creates all sorts of issues with upgrading. The discounted version is always "good enough" when folks are asked to upgrade. Discounting and Freebies only work if there retiring older versions are EASY and AFFORDABLE for customers to get on the current version. This is one reason Google and other Software As A Service (SAAS) options are more attractive than boxed software. People don't need to feel the upgrade process and are happy to pay a subscription fee in order to avoid developing IT (troubleshooting and maintenance) skills. I’ll buy that everyone loves a deal.

I’m not so sure I understand *anyone’s* agenda when they are giving away software at a discounted price (that isn’t their current version)….because it creates all sorts of issues with upgrading. The discounted version is always “good enough” when folks are asked to upgrade.

Discounting and Freebies only work if there retiring older versions are EASY and AFFORDABLE for customers to get on the current version.

This is one reason Google and other Software As A Service (SAAS) options are more attractive than boxed software. People don’t need to feel the upgrade process and are happy to pay a subscription fee in order to avoid developing IT (troubleshooting and maintenance) skills.

]]> By: Sundar http://www.startupnation.com/business-blogs/index.php/2009/04/01/customer-love-no-love-like-free-love/#comment-21021 Sundar Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:29:13 +0000 http://www.startupnation.com/blogs/?p=4427#comment-21021 Hi Christine, very nice thoughts and information. Just like the millions of consumers in the world I too am always looking for freebies. I love opensource software and am a big fan of any quality product that is free. I believe once a business made good profits on a product it should start offering it at a discounted price. I have seen some campaigns by some software providers like TechSmith which ran free software give away campaigns. They gave away older versions of their software for free and offered a 50% discount if one chose to upgrade to the latest version of the software. I enjoy many of Google's products which are of very high quality and free. Hi Christine, very nice thoughts and information. Just like the millions of consumers in the world I too am always looking for freebies. I love opensource software and am a big fan of any quality product that is free. I believe once a business made good profits on a product it should start offering it at a discounted price. I have seen some campaigns by some software providers like TechSmith which ran free software give away campaigns. They gave away older versions of their software for free and offered a 50% discount if one chose to upgrade to the latest version of the software. I enjoy many of Google’s products which are of very high quality and free.

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