You Want to Take My Money, But Who Are You?

Every day, it seems there is a new sales, marketing, customer service tool popping up on the web.  I explore lots of them, many look very promising. All of them want me to “buy” --  it’s a subscription of some type.

The subscription price may be something as simple as my email address. But my email address has tremendous value, so I want to be cautious in how I invest it.  My email gives you access to my most precious commodity, my time.

Some actually are asking for money, albeit what seems to be a fair price, one that I’m willing to pay based on what I see of the services offered.

But I’m stuck at that point.  These are people who are asking me to buy, yet I don’t know who “they” are.

I spend more time than I should wandering around the website. I look for information about the company.  There may be a cool team photo at some fun location or of the great offices they have, but no individuals.  Who’s running the company?  Who do I contact if I have questions?  How do I know you are legitimate and I can trust that you will deliver value for what I am investing.

Oops, there’s that word “trust.” I’ll come back to it.

Terms of Service

I wander more.  Usually, there’s a link at the bottom of their webpage (often, they only have a splash page than you have to scroll and scroll and scroll through—a real pain on an iPhone.).  It’s in a font and color you can barely see.  It’s called Terms of Service.  There may be another one called Privacy.

I open the Terms Of Service.  All of them read the same—use at your own risk, we can’t guarantee the availability of service or that you will get results, but we have no liability, and if you don’t pay us we’ll come after you.

That’s comforting. But who do I contact if I have problems, or what if I want to take legal action (not that I ever will, but our company’s lawyers feel more comfortable knowing these things when I sign a contract).  There’s no address, no phone number, just an email: [email protected])  The privacy statement has the similar stuff.  We’ll use your info for our purposes and marketing, we won’t sell your info (????????), but no one to contact.

There’s no street address–OK, I get you may be a “virtual office.” There’s no phone number. OK, I get you are millennials and it is so yesterday to actually speak to another person. There’s only that same email address: [email protected]

OK, I think, you want me to invest something of value to me–my email address, my time, perhaps my money.  But who are you?  What’s our relationship going to be like?  What if something goes wrong?  Can I trust you?

There’s that pesky word again.

Real Companies vs. Scammers

Some of you might be thinking, “Dave, can’t you recognize a scam when you see it?”

But actually, these are legitimate companies, with products that do offer great value.  How do I know?  I’ve actually met some of the founders at conferences, or they’ve reached out to me asking me to visit their website, review their offering, maybe use it.

There was one, actually a very good product, that I used.  I paid $4.99 a month for the entry version of it.  Ultimately, I decided to cancel my account.  But my credit card kept being charged.  I sent a note to the email address, [email protected].  A few days passed.  No response, sent a more strongly worded note to the same address.  No response.  Scoured the website, found a phone number.  Turned out to be a Google Voice Number–so your phones are virtual too.

After several days, still no response.

I started scouring the network to find a “contact.”  Ultimately, I found the founder on LinkedIn.  I sent an Inmail.  He got back to me quickly, was very embarrassed about the failure of their systems.  Turned out my emails were going into their SPAM filter (Hmmmmm) and they couldn’t find the voicemails I left at their virtual phone number.  He quickly corrected the situation, but is this the customer experience companies want to create?

Some of you might be saying, Dave you just don’t get it, this is the Internet Age, everything is in the cloud, it’s all virtual.

But you want to take my money, who are you?

Yes, I know a lot of you are testing your Minimum Viable Product.  I’m a great fan of Eric Ries and the Lean Startup principles.  But I’m not sure this is what Eric intended as a MVP.

It's All About Trust

There’s this pesky concept that keeps coming up in any kind of buying and selling relationship.  It’s this notion of Trust.

Who are you?  Are you the type of person or company I want to do business with?

What confidence do I have that you will deliver what I’m expecting and what I’m investing in?  What happens if I have a problem?  If I need to get to you, how do I find you?

How do I develop confidence that you have anything more than what I see on your splash page or at your website?

In the back of my mind, I recall hearing, “People buy from people.”  But how do I buy if there are no people?  No office, no phone?  Just a website and an email:  [email protected]

If you want me to invest in your company, whether it’s investing my email address or my money, I want some level of relationship.  I want to know who you are.  I want some level of confidence that I can contact you and might get a response.  If I’m spending money, I want to be able to know I can resolve difficulties we might be having.