Why are my free customers more of a pain then my paid customers?

One of the factors may be mindset.

Free customers my have more of a scarcity mindset - which is why they don't pay and try to GRAB everything and anything they can.

VS

Abundance mindset - Life is Win-Win and not Zero Sum. They can use your product, get value out of it, give value back in the form of money and feel they've won as well. You both win which is their model of the world.

Paid Customers value your time because they pay you for it. Free customers don't value your time because they do not pay for it. I was an IT consultant for over 10 years and always required customers pay by the hr for support, whenever I tried offering "support plans" as a test I worked twice as hard and made half as much.

There's no such thing as a free customer.

Probably because you have a lot more "free customers".

For one of my ecommerce sites I have a list where I get several hundred subscribers per day by giving away something for free. The site itself does somewhere between 50-150 sales per day. So, I tend to hear from my subscribers a little more because there are just more of them.

I wouldn't ignore them, they might be telling you something that should be included in your information.

we do tracking on customer support time spent and there are a few customers that won contests or got a free copy of our software for some reason (it is $1000) and on our support desk tracking we found that these "free" customers actually take on average 8x the amount of resources on ours support desk than "paid" customers

go figure and we learned our lesson.

Stop giving ****e away. Charge at least $1 for the free stuff.

I guess when you buy something, you actually want it because it will help solve whatever problem you have and therefore appreciate it more than the freebie seekers trying to grab anything they can

There are free customers who are what you can call freeloaders and they are out to get as much as possible for free. It's their nature.

I believe that it all depend upon customer and yes, their mindset. It is not that if you are getting some thing free you don't value it even I had seen many cases where even after paying for the things they don't value the things. It depends more upon which type of traffic I mean customers are visiting and their belief.

Why build a client based full of the sort of people who need to seek freebies? Wouldn't you rather have actual paying customers?

Tee hee

It's called the Pareto Principle, everyone's heard that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Well the same ratio applies to many things like 80% of your profits come from 20% of your clients and , unfortunately for you, 80% of your troubles come from 20% of your customers....

Ste

From my own experience we have to be upfront with people when we give them anything for free (I prefer zero cost) that leads them to our paid product or service. On that same note, if your not upfront that product or service leads to a paid product or service than we might be confusing them. It depends on where we market, what we wrote or said, how we conveyed our intentions, and if we are smart.. what others have testified about the product.

Examples. Say a free report, with the optin, etc., that describes a solution to something that the subscriber needs. It is explained how the product/service solves a problem or provides a solution. It just so happens that you and you alone are the solution. Your solution works well for others and is backed by testimonies. The report points the subscriber to the website with product/service. They get there and learn that it is a paid product/service. Wrong! The report should have clearly stated that the product/service that provides the solution is a "Paid" (with a capital P in quotes) product/service "before" they walked into your funnel.

In my own experience, in that light, there is no confusion, customers pay, and if you are doing everything right for them and by them they will become repeat "Paid" customers.

Yes, there will be those who will ask (even demand) anything and everything for free - even when it is understood that payment is mandatory. Those types fall into a category of what I call unreasonable. It can be called the "entitlement factor" or whatever, but it all comes down to they are unreasonable and unless the can see the reason they are to be politely ignored or cut off completely. Depends on the circumstances.

Moral of my take is.. Did the free report (first contact) with the potential customer do you more harm than good?

When in doubt, when the need is to know, read everything Paul puts out, and heed.

Jeffery 100% :-)

What are the issues that your free customers are having?




.

Hey LMC,

The category of customers you take on when conducting a marketing campaign for any particular product needs to always be tailored to suit your business model.

Free prospective customers can often be converted into paying customers, but this is not always the case.

The category of prospect visitor who shows up to your site is either:

1. Hot & Ready to Buy:
Someone who is experiencing troubles that your product claims to solve and is ready to pull out their Credit Card and pay you.

2. Definitely Interested but Not Ready to Buy:
THESE are the folks you need to capture email addresses from and maintain a good relationship with over email. Send these people an email a week, or at maximum 2 emails a week (the more emails you send out, the more likely it is that your prospects will unsubscribe. No one likes a cluttered inbox.).

You can tell the difference between Definitely Interested and Freebie prospects just by the tone of their emails. People who are definitely interested in your offers will almost always send you email replies, fire in questions, show proactive interest in your products and keep a good relationship with you.

The freebie lot may or may not, send you a quick email asking for , for example, all the free bonuses you mentioned you would give them, etc etc.


3. Interested in Freebies: These prospects can be good later on, if you are a VERY convincing salesman, but 99% of the time, these people will walk away / unsubscribe / not buy, and you are better off not having them on your list.

Simply get rid of Free Customers who are not interested in the value of your products but are simply interested in acquiring as much free stuff as possible, and they will give you a headache to get them too.

As a businessman it is not worth your time to invest efforts in this kind of prospect. Simply send them a polite email that you're discontinuing their subscription to your list, or simply setup mail filters to ignore their replies.

--
Like I said, make sure you capture the "Definitely Interested" and make every effort to watch out for this particular crowd of prospects. It will help you reduce the headache I'm sure you probably have right now with your free customers

Hope that helps~

Cheers,
Ange

I think this is a problem common to all,

Psychologically, when people see something as 'free', they attach less value to it. Also, you might find that because it's free, they feel that there is 'no limit' to the amount they can ask.

I think you're right about the idea of trying to 'pull' as much as you can from it.

That being said, maybe you should also put some restrictions on your free products, this gives both an incentive for them to upgrade to a paid service and also demonstrates that you are serious, and your time is valuable.

I hope this helps

I appreciate all your comments,

I guess it is true, they are not customers but subscribers...

In the future I'll have to add in support restrictions as when I look at it now, it is partially my fault for allowing the free support to be readily available

Because YOU set the standard.

Setting the "get stuff for free" standard is not a bad thing... In fact, it's a good thing if you work it properly... Providing you know how to nurture the subscribers into the buying cycle.

If you set the standard upfront, by giving away free stuff, you damn well better have a good grasp on your back end... or you'll just encourage your people to have an entitlement mindset...

I've had telephone calls from users of free services leave lengthy complaining voicemails and quite aggressive direct telephone conversations.

From what I understand moving from free a month to a few dollars a month puts their 'business' in jeopardy - so I 'must' provide support for those using free services as well.

It would get me more angry - but how on earth do they ever expect to succeed?

People don't value free ... after all, it is free, and that includes your time. I don't call people getting something for free customers because they haven't bought anything and most likely are drawn in to whatever you're offering because it is free. You want them to value your time or product, put a price sticker on it.

I wouldn't term someone that receives a product for free as a customer. In my opinion they are 'potentials' but not a customer until they have purchased your products. Offering freebies should be clearly defined- 'Absolutely no customer support!'

You are not there to waste your time with people that want freebies. Rather work hard on the people that you have as customers and work on retaining their interest in your products/services. For freebie hunters all you need to do is supply a good FAQ that goes with the product or service. If they are still stuck then graciously say you can offer your services if they upgrade or purchase customer support.

A good example is the hotel that I work with here in the UK. It recently underwent a change of ownership and the new owners had to purchase a different reservation system. After trying one or two demo's they settled on a specific reservation system that costs no less than £1399.00 for the standard edition of up to 30 rooms. I immediately thought it was too expensive after having reviewed that the owner just spent a couple of million £'s on this hotel and is in the process of upgrading necessary features within the hotel and making some large changes in connection with the building itself.

I advised the property manager that there are several other options and long story short, I was completely ignored and the system was installed with the intention of using the Demo for 45 days and then pay for the license. He went as far as to persuade the company that supplied the software to unlock most features of the software and reception spent several hours with support on the phone under the assumption that they will be purchasing the reservation software. Now close to the end of that DEMO, the owners decided all of a sudden that it is too expensive and although the software is easy to use, they now want something else. Not only did it waste the reception staff's time with technical support to set up the system and insert all the bookings for the year ahead, but imagine how crap it will be to the company that supplied the software.

Sure the support technician may get paid by the hour and he doesn't lose out, but that company as a whole loses out on several hours of support that could have been 'wasted' on people perfectly willing to spend the money.

I personally do love support in any form, but if a comprehensive FAQ and PDF document is available for me to read and to use, then that is good enough. I guess most people these days are in a mindset that everything they get should be free and well-delivered.

You can be polite but firm at the same time by explaining your time is precious.

the free customers always want more because they never paid for anything and they want everything and more and more and more.....

You will generally find this type of mindset in every aspect of sales ... be it online or retail. The sort of people who insist on "Getting Something for Nothing" are usually of the more High Maintenance sort.

Think of it as a study in human nature. The kind of people who are looking for freebies in life tend to have a "The World Owes It To Me" attitude. Not all, to be sure, but enough to make it a drain on your personal attitude!

Don't give up on the freebies though. Giving away valuable content is a very viable way of building a long-lasting business. The "Problem Children" you will inevitably encounter are just a cost of getting that business!

Hint: If you keep getting the same questions and service requirements over and over, you might wish to try setting up an FAQ page somewhere to refer these people to. I've found that 80% or more of these inquiries can be dealt with in this manner.

Best,
--JR

It has been said quite a few times in this thread, but people
never value things they get free.

Igor

There are three kinds of customers, freebie seekers, dont mind paying types and fence sitters(those who are always sceptical), the most notorious is freebie seekers who think that it is their right to get hands on those products of yours just because it is free, i have seen people who after taking free products send me nasty mails saying why did i charge their credit card, while the fact remains it was just two line form that they signed up, "name" and "email" for getting that free product, but they want to immediately unsubscribe and they find it very cool to write it on that unsubscription page that he is doing so because i charged his credit card. So there are guys who thank a lot for the stuff they got for free.

According to the gospel of Timothy... Ferriss (The 4-Hour Workweek) as he lamented regarding a similar situation that had befallen him;

"All, I mean 100% of my problems and complaints came from this unproductive majority." (page 70)

And his solution was "I fired their asses and enjoyed every second of it." (page 71)

If you have not read The 4-Hour Workweek, I highly recommend that you STOP EVERYTHING, get it, and read it. Your life, your business, and your thinking will change for the better.

Can I get an Amen!

Brother Joe (Yea... right.)