Convert compensation

[keithclark]

I love your free services and would like to move up to paid, but I still have a bit of time left on my current webhost.

I would love to see a compensation made to new accounts upon conversion. I can provide my account details of where I am now and how much my financial penalty would be to move my account. It would be nice if X10 would compensate for that loss.

Just an idea.

Keith

 

[Livewire]

I don't want to sound harsh, but that's something that'd normally be left up to the original hosting company, not the one you're moving to.

That said, initial "join now" promotions (such as X months/timeframe free, or join now and get 500mb extra disk space etc) would work, but if I were to cancel my internet with Charter and move to Verizon, I don't get any discount or compensation for the switch to Verizon (and I probably get some crap about being pre-billed from Charter, so they probably won't refund me for the time I was no longer using their services either).

 

[keithclark]

I don't want to sound harsh, but that's something that'd normally be left up to the original hosting company, not the one you're moving to.

That said, initial "join now" promotions (such as X months/timeframe free, or join now and get 500mb extra disk space etc) would work, but if I were to cancel my internet with Charter and move to Verizon, I don't get any discount or compensation for the switch to Verizon (and I probably get some crap about being pre-billed from Charter, so they probably won't refund me for the time I was no longer using their services either).

Well if I were looking for customers and they had a current account with someone else, I would at least consider/ask what account they wanted and compared it to what they have.

Lets say they were going from a $60 per year account and had one year left of a 3 year term. They wanted, if asked, a 3 year term at $120 a year. Would it not make sense to give them a hand in converting with credits?

Keith

 

[Livewire]

Well if I were looking for customers and they had a current account with someone else, I would at least consider/ask what account they wanted and compared it to what they have.

Lets say they were going from a $60 per year account and had one year left of a 3 year term. They wanted, if asked, a 3 year term at $120 a year. Would it not make sense to give them a hand in converting with credits?

Keith

If they're already paid up at their other host I don't follow why x10 would feel obligated to essentially throw more money at the person changing providers, not because they're being mean but because that's essentially feeding the competition. The other host gets to keep the $60 for the rest of the year, and x10 loses some money in the conversion.

And not to nitpick, but the current x10 plans are better than 3 years at $120 a year; going month to month on the currently available x10premium plan is $6.95 a month (about $3 less a month than their asking price). X10 already has it set up to do a better deal if you sign for a longer contract - a 3 year contract ends up at $3.95 a month (3 year price $142.20 total once you multiply it out). That's the incentive to switch I mentioned (I didn't realize the premium plans had changed when I originally posted).


I still don't see much of a reason to compensate for hosting time left at the other host though, especially when they've already got it set up to cut deals depending on how long you're initially signing on for. I've yet to find a company that pays you for time lost at the other company when you switch, although to be honest I'm not usually looking at things with contracts, other than internet bills, and there's definitely no comp for changing companies with any of the providers I've seen that are actually worth switching to.

 

[keithclark]

If they're already paid up at their other host I don't follow why x10 would feel obligated to essentially throw more money at the person changing providers, not because they're being mean but because that's essentially feeding the competition. The other host gets to keep the $60 for the rest of the year, and x10 loses some money in the conversion.

And not to nitpick, but the current x10 plans are better than 3 years at $120 a year; going month to month on the currently available x10premium plan is $6.95 a month (about $3 less a month than their asking price). X10 already has it set up to do a better deal if you sign for a longer contract - a 3 year contract ends up at $3.95 a month (3 year price $142.20 total once you multiply it out). That's the incentive to switch I mentioned (I didn't realize the premium plans had changed when I originally posted).


I still don't see much of a reason to compensate for hosting time left at the other host though, especially when they've already got it set up to cut deals depending on how long you're initially signing on for. I've yet to find a company that pays you for time lost at the other company when you switch, although to be honest I'm not usually looking at things with contracts, other than internet bills, and there's definitely no comp for changing companies with any of the providers I've seen that are actually worth switching to.

So how would you suggest getting customers to covert with one year left in their three prepaid service? Consider the upgrade revenue.

Keith

 

[Livewire]

So how would you suggest getting customers to covert with one year left in their three prepaid service? Consider the upgrade revenue.

Keith

Offer a better service with a good incentive to start. Honestly I'm not sure x10 has to worry much about offering compensation for the switch - again, that's something that -I- think should be handled at the original company.

If I were to go and get a new TV from Walmart to replace the one I got from Bestbuy, I don't get compensation for the unused time on the Black Tie Protection Plan, or on the remaining lifespan of the tv. The TV itself still works, just like the other hosting account would - it's up to the customer if they want to switch ahead of the contract they locked themselves into, in my opinion at least.


Not saying x10 -wont- do a convert compensation, I just fail to see the $ logic behind the scenes when there's already the "tiered pricing" based on contract length.

 

[keithclark]

Offer a better service with a good incentive to start. Honestly I'm not sure x10 has to worry much about offering compensation for the switch - again, that's something that -I- think should be handled at the original company.

If I were to go and get a new TV from Walmart to replace the one I got from Bestbuy, I don't get compensation for the unused time on the Black Tie Protection Plan, or on the remaining lifespan of the tv. The TV itself still works, just like the other hosting account would - it's up to the customer if they want to switch ahead of the contract they locked themselves into, in my opinion at least.


Not saying x10 -wont- do a convert compensation, I just fail to see the $ logic behind the scenes when there's already the "tiered pricing" based on contract length.

Ok, simple math will win.

Customer has $60 left on account....he is looking and will find a better service anyways. Or stay there. Lost sale either wise.

New Host has package for $120 per year. Hmm, let new guy have credit for $60 (cost way less) and have him for 3 years. Nice profit. If he wants to leave, he has to pay. Same as last host. Not sure what the confusion is here.

If you have all the clients you can handle I guess it is cool. Then stop offering free services and concentrate on you paying clients!

Keith

 

[Livewire]

Ok, simple math will win.

Customer has $60 left on account....he is looking and will find a better service anyways. Or stay there. Lost sale either wise.

New Host has package for $120 per year. Hmm, let new guy have credit for $60 (cost way less) and have him for 3 years. Nice profit. If he wants to leave, he has to pay. Same as last host. Not sure what the confusion is here.

If you have all the clients you can handle I guess it is cool. Then stop offering free services and concentrate on you paying clients!

Keith

My guess is the paid servers aren't even close to full; my concern is what's driven the other guy away from their host to begin with, and whether or not it'd actually be profitable for x10 to start doing a convert compensation when they're already cutting the prices if you sign up for 3 years.

If x10 was only doing the $6.95 monthly and no discount for signing up for longer, I can see the benefits easily. I fail to see the additional compensation being needed when buying an extended contract in advance ends up saving a pretty hefty chunk of change in the end.



Edit: Plus if he's upset enough with his existing host to potentially leave $60 behind and start lookign for other hosts, someone's not done their job right at the other host. There's just no reason to scare away someone who is already obligated to pay $60 for the rest of the year.

 

[keithclark]

My guess is the paid servers aren't even close to full; my concern is what's driven the other guy away from their host to begin with, and whether or not it'd actually be profitable for x10 to start doing a convert compensation when they're already cutting the prices if you sign up for 3 years.

If x10 was only doing the $6.95 monthly and no discount for signing up for longer, I can see the benefits easily. I fail to see the additional compensation being needed when buying an extended contract in advance ends up saving a pretty hefty chunk of change in the end.

Edit: Plus if he's upset enough with his existing host to potentially leave $60 behind and start lookign for other hosts, someone's not done their job right at the other host. There's just no reason to scare away someone who is already obligated to pay $60 for the rest of the year.

Well, I fail to see the argument! Here is a client, willing to transfer. Pay my $60 remaining fee on my current account and I'll sign up for you $120 a year account. Yes, more features, but still the same. I don't understand the resistance.

 

[Livewire]

For what it's worth, I'm not actually staff. I'm not one who can handle anything regarding signups for paid/free hosting at all.

That said this is one that's a tricky one; I've no idea how to forward it to the right folks, because it'd have to be Corey or one of the admins I'd imagine, and I can't use the report button because it's not in violation of the TOS :S


For this one, go here: http://x10premium.com/support.php That should get you in touch with the ones who can actually officially answer the question and see if they can dow hat you want them to.

 

[crimsonhunter]

The idea (I think) is to make the conversion a no brainier for the casually looking website owner. The idea would be to get the recurring income of the hostee onto the x10 severs as quickly as possible so he could start bringing in money. I also agree that this has a potential to be stupid (for lack of a better word) business-wise. If you're not making a profit before the transferred website's old contract was up there would be no point in offering compensation, as it'd be the same result for the bottom line in the long run (unless at the end of the contract period they have forgotten about x10 and go elsewhere). But the compinstation would make it seem to the website owner that they have not wasted money by going for x10. Ultimately its purpose would be to encourage impluse buying and make it so x10 does not have to depend on its branding and hope that it stays in the minds of those who are casually looking.

That all being said I also agree that if someone is -seriously- looking the lost money is not going to matter; They are going to come etheir way, but it may convince a few that would not be convinced to try x10 otherwise.

Just my thoughts,

 

[Livewire]

If there's one thing that -would- make sense it's doing an incentive like that on something that's closer to even $60 a month or even maybe $30 a month - it'd be handing out 2 free months basically.

But $60 a month on the 3 year contract which is $4 a month is handing out 15 months just to switch, on top of the fact that the $3.95/mo rate is already lower than the $6.95 you would do if you didn't commit to 3 years at the start.



That's the main reason I'm saying it probably won't happen on x10. If it was car insurance or something where you're looking at $60+ a month anyways? Would make great business sense. Doesn't seem to make much sense to throw an extra 15 months free into a deal where you're already getting about a 43% discount.


Edit: But just to clarify again - I'm not staff. I just don't see it making much sense to add that many discounts together for any reason.

 

[crimsonhunter]

I completely agree. x10 would need to use a very carefully crafted formula to make it worth their time in the long run. I was simply saying that the concept behind it does have -some- solid reasoning behind it. Do I think it'd be smart to implement at x10? Perhaps...but it'd have to be done -very- carefully. Demographics would have to be run to make sure it would do more good than harm and even then as I said a very strict formula, or number, would have to be created to make the idea profitable.

 

[Markstar]

If I were to go and get a new TV from Walmart to replace the one I got from Bestbuy, I don't get compensation for the unused time on the Black Tie Protection Plan, or on the remaining lifespan of the tv. The TV itself still works, just like the other hosting account would - it's up to the customer if they want to switch ahead of the contract they locked themselves into, in my opinion at least.

I totally agree. If you want to switch early that's your responsibility.

Plus, if X10 starts paying out other contracts, one could easily make quite a nice scam out of this.