Are You Nickel and Diming?
Everyone is focusing on covering the cost of additional work required to meet customers demands in the digital world (i.e. charging for digital services), not to mention dealing with price erosion on core printing services. Isn't it frustrating when a customer accuses you of "nickel and diming" them? You are trying to run a profitable business. Seth Godin has an interesting blog post on this subject. I believe the market needs to move to true "a la carte" pricing that allows customers to choose which services they require or have service level agreements with customers where they get certain services included in a subscription fee. The challenge is conditioning your customers to move to that business model. It is also important that it fits into the way they charge their customers (i.e. charging the owners)
I think the most important thing about how you price your services is how you DELIVER your services. If you are truly the best at what you do, you should charge accordingly. We should all strive to be the best, not the most expensive (or least expensive!). Customers complain less when they feel they are being taken care of. Regardless of your pricing model, we are all in business to make money. Making the client feel their money has been well spent is extremely important.
Posted by: casey | December 31, 2007 at 07:42 PM