Re:Ask HN: When to get customers' billing info?
by kneath on Tuesday September 22, 2009 @12:21AM
(#836248)
I'm the designer for tenderapp.com, and we decided to try putting in credit card information when we need it (after the 30-day trial) instead of up front, like we previously did for Lighthouse. Well, decided may be the wrong word... let's call it a happy accident that it happened that way.
Now that we've had this flow live for a few months, I can't think of a reason a small startup would possibly ask for credit card information up front.
Pros:
- We have one of the lowest barriers to entry to our app. Literally 10 seconds and you have a fully functional install.
- We have lowered the amount of people complaining about us accidentally charging them (i.e. they forget about the 30-day trial and ask for a refund at day 31) to zero.
- We've opened up a lot more channels for follow up. We can contact people weeks/months after their trial expires and see if they'd like an extension or to try again. (In other words, we've removed the negative parts of trying the product -- cancelling)
Cons:
- It's lowered our conversion rate (remember what rate means) and made it extremely unpredictable.
- We don't get to steal as much money from people who forget to cancel their subscriptions.
At the end of the day, I believe in our product and I want as many people to try it as possible. A credit card form isn't going to stop someone from purchasing a product (unless it's really bad), but it sure does stop a lot of people from trying out a product. So I work as hard as I can to remove any roadblocks to people getting their feet wet. From the responses I've had, our customers love it too.
Re:Ask HN: When to get customers' billing info?
by kneath on Tuesday September 22, 2009 @01:00AM
(#836303)
Yes, it does. We don't generate reports often enough to take into account day-long variations, so it ends up being people that stick around a month or two (at minimum)
Now that we've had this flow live for a few months, I can't think of a reason a small startup would possibly ask for credit card information up front.
Pros:
- We have one of the lowest barriers to entry to our app. Literally 10 seconds and you have a fully functional install.
- We have lowered the amount of people complaining about us accidentally charging them (i.e. they forget about the 30-day trial and ask for a refund at day 31) to zero.
- We've opened up a lot more channels for follow up. We can contact people weeks/months after their trial expires and see if they'd like an extension or to try again. (In other words, we've removed the negative parts of trying the product -- cancelling)
Cons:
- It's lowered our conversion rate (remember what rate means) and made it extremely unpredictable.
- We don't get to steal as much money from people who forget to cancel their subscriptions.
At the end of the day, I believe in our product and I want as many people to try it as possible. A credit card form isn't going to stop someone from purchasing a product (unless it's really bad), but it sure does stop a lot of people from trying out a product. So I work as hard as I can to remove any roadblocks to people getting their feet wet. From the responses I've had, our customers love it too.