How to make money on the support of Internet projects?
We have learned to make money on the support of Internet projects. It turns out this is possible. For several years, life has convinced me otherwise, and I almost agreed with her. But ... There is a way out.
Subscription fee. It would seem that the most favorable support option for studios is the subscription fee from the client and a fixed set of services from the studios. Everything seems simple and profitable until you try. We are starting to provide the promised set of services, but after a while we realize that we forgot to put in the cost of support - the cost of consultations, document flow, disputes with the client’s accounting, training of new employees, night calls, our responsibility in the end ... As a result, support one client can unbalance the whole studio. A high monthly fee is useless. Most customers do not want to pay just like that (in their opinion) and offer a payment option for each revision separately.
The solution of individual problems. Not less difficult option when the client pays each completion separately. As a rule, the solution of individual tasks becomes unprofitable at the stage of discussing the cost with the client. An experienced studio manager knows that with this approach, even a trifle, which is done in 5 minutes, requires the participation of at least 3 people in the company (manager, programmer, accountant). As a result, disputes with the client about the amount of the bill and dissatisfied with the two parties.
My experience shows that these customer support methods impose high risks on the studio to go to a minus if you keep the prices the client will agree on.
')
How to be? Refusing customer support would also be stupid. After all, the most expensive operation - getting a client has already been completed, it remains only to work and earn.
The solution in which we found a way out of the situation is hourly work. This scheme involves payment for work upon its completion, in accordance with the time worked by the developers. The cost of an hour includes the overhead of the studio and the RFP developers. We have been using such a scheme for more than 1.5 years and, most interestingly, we have stopped arguing with customers, and they are with us. We started earning on support!
What are the main advantages for the studio:
What is the minus:
With all this, the client is frightened by two points, 1) the studio will wind the clock, relying on the client's incompetence, 2) budget uncertainty for refinement.
On the first point, the client should just believe you, and you, in turn, regularly (at the end of the day) note the time worked. On the second point, this is not such a big amount of money that needs to be planned in advance. In any case, the manager may call the client a preliminary assessment. Convince the customer. Eliminate all other payment options. The most important thing is that the client tries this scheme of work once, then it’s like a drug ...
What is needed, what would an hourly scheme work? Use the task manager and give the client access to it. Let the client see the whole development process, developer comments, receive an alert about the change of task status by email, etc. Allow the client to take part in commenting, testing the results and he will never want to return to the prepaid scheme. The client will become part of your team, see that the projects are not done in 5 minutes. He will understand how difficult this process is, and he will no longer rush, accuse you. You will see how the moment of mistrust disappears after the first month of work.
Of course, this scheme is not effective for all projects. It should be used on large projects with a stable pool of improvements, or with clients who have many small sites that have been outsourced to the studio. In our work, we use bagzilu to set tasks and monitor the hours worked. It allows you to make a time summary of hours worked per month, indicating projects and developers. Partially the process of working with baggilla is described on our website . For customers, we have made a separate document on which they become familiar with the system.
How much can you earn? How much - everyone decides for himself, adjusting the cost of an hour. Here the key word - "earn." This is what this post was written for. If this direction is not unprofitable, this is a great achievement)
Perhaps all of the above, for the majority has already become a banal truth, but for me it has become a revelation. If anyone has his own opinion on how to make money on support, I will be glad to hear. I hope that my notes will help studios to earn money on support, and clients will find stable partners and never swear with them)
What does not work?
Subscription fee. It would seem that the most favorable support option for studios is the subscription fee from the client and a fixed set of services from the studios. Everything seems simple and profitable until you try. We are starting to provide the promised set of services, but after a while we realize that we forgot to put in the cost of support - the cost of consultations, document flow, disputes with the client’s accounting, training of new employees, night calls, our responsibility in the end ... As a result, support one client can unbalance the whole studio. A high monthly fee is useless. Most customers do not want to pay just like that (in their opinion) and offer a payment option for each revision separately.
The solution of individual problems. Not less difficult option when the client pays each completion separately. As a rule, the solution of individual tasks becomes unprofitable at the stage of discussing the cost with the client. An experienced studio manager knows that with this approach, even a trifle, which is done in 5 minutes, requires the participation of at least 3 people in the company (manager, programmer, accountant). As a result, disputes with the client about the amount of the bill and dissatisfied with the two parties.
My experience shows that these customer support methods impose high risks on the studio to go to a minus if you keep the prices the client will agree on.
')
How to be? Refusing customer support would also be stupid. After all, the most expensive operation - getting a client has already been completed, it remains only to work and earn.
Decision
The solution in which we found a way out of the situation is hourly work. This scheme involves payment for work upon its completion, in accordance with the time worked by the developers. The cost of an hour includes the overhead of the studio and the RFP developers. We have been using such a scheme for more than 1.5 years and, most interestingly, we have stopped arguing with customers, and they are with us. We started earning on support!
What are the main advantages for the studio:
- Minimal risks, or rather their absence. All hours worked will be paid by the client. Of course, the client will not pay for obvious bugs. The studio itself assumes the payment of bugs, as a guarantor of quality.
- Understandable planning. We know the volume of hours in a month, accordingly, we can easily calculate the possible profit. It will of course be less (on paper) than in the "prepaid" system, but much more stable and, as a result, more)
- Minimum paper work. A report is sent to the client at the end of the month and an invoice for the payment of the accumulated time. I remember terrible times when they prepared an account for each task, acts, sent it by courier, etc., and so on for a month.
What is the minus:
- Distrust of the client. The most difficult thing is to convince the client that this scheme is the most correct for both parties. For a studio, with such a scheme, you can work quietly, which means quality. Actually it is necessary for the client. Do you need a cheaper client? This is exactly the option. With an hourly schedule, the studio has no risks, which means that they are not included in the price per hour. With us, for example, with an hourly payment, the cost of an hour is almost 2 times lower than that of prepayment.
With all this, the client is frightened by two points, 1) the studio will wind the clock, relying on the client's incompetence, 2) budget uncertainty for refinement.
On the first point, the client should just believe you, and you, in turn, regularly (at the end of the day) note the time worked. On the second point, this is not such a big amount of money that needs to be planned in advance. In any case, the manager may call the client a preliminary assessment. Convince the customer. Eliminate all other payment options. The most important thing is that the client tries this scheme of work once, then it’s like a drug ...
What is needed, what would an hourly scheme work? Use the task manager and give the client access to it. Let the client see the whole development process, developer comments, receive an alert about the change of task status by email, etc. Allow the client to take part in commenting, testing the results and he will never want to return to the prepaid scheme. The client will become part of your team, see that the projects are not done in 5 minutes. He will understand how difficult this process is, and he will no longer rush, accuse you. You will see how the moment of mistrust disappears after the first month of work.
Of course, this scheme is not effective for all projects. It should be used on large projects with a stable pool of improvements, or with clients who have many small sites that have been outsourced to the studio. In our work, we use bagzilu to set tasks and monitor the hours worked. It allows you to make a time summary of hours worked per month, indicating projects and developers. Partially the process of working with baggilla is described on our website . For customers, we have made a separate document on which they become familiar with the system.
How much can you earn? How much - everyone decides for himself, adjusting the cost of an hour. Here the key word - "earn." This is what this post was written for. If this direction is not unprofitable, this is a great achievement)
Perhaps all of the above, for the majority has already become a banal truth, but for me it has become a revelation. If anyone has his own opinion on how to make money on support, I will be glad to hear. I hope that my notes will help studios to earn money on support, and clients will find stable partners and never swear with them)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/103597/
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