The 30 day free trial is mostly broken • Hacker News Board

Re: The 30 day free trial is mostly broken

#41

Post by chc » Fri, Apr 26, 2013, 9:17 PM UTC

jimmaswell wrote: post #30

I was expecting this to refer to how easily most software trials are bypassed. Some simply by changing your clock, others require uninstallation and reinstallation or change registry settings (I have yet to come across trial software on linux), and some even go so far as to have rootkit behavior, modifying your boot sector. For website services like this, it's trivial to just use multiple accounts. Not that I'd want…

If $20 is worth more to you than the hassle of creating a new account and having to re-enter all your data every single month till the end of time, you are probably not somebody the provider should be optimizing their sales process for.

Re: The 30 day free trial is mostly broken

#42

Post by andrewflnr » Fri, Apr 26, 2013, 9:22 PM UTC

chc wrote: post #39

kintamanimatt wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you measure how pissed off I am? From your side of the table a lack of positive action is indistinguishable from absolute apathy, passive interest without action, undelivered mail (most tracking widgets fail in webmail), etc. I've observed that some less-savvy people don't know how to unsubscribe from emails, or fear doing so will "upset someone" and so grin and bear an otherwise annoying deluge of email they…

Why should they measure how pissed off you are? Why is that data point interesting to them if it doesn't affect any of the metrics they're actually interested in, such as making more money and satisfying a higher percentage of users? It doesn't feel great to be told you're unimportant, and no company owner will say that to their own customer, but really — you and I are not that important. I do not expect McDonald's t…

Avoiding pissing people off is a basic ethical concern, which is at least as important as making money. Obviously it can't be totally avoided, but you try anyway. If you can't make more money without pissing a bunch of people off, you should consider changing your business.

Re: The 30 day free trial is mostly broken

#43

Post by chc » Fri, Apr 26, 2013, 9:30 PM UTC

andrewflnr wrote: post #42

chc wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should they measure how pissed off you are? Why is that data point interesting to them if it doesn't affect any of the metrics they're actually interested in, such as making more money and satisfying a higher percentage of users? It doesn't feel great to be told you're unimportant, and no company owner will say that to their own customer, but really — you and I are not that important. I do not expect McDonald's t…

Avoiding pissing people off is a basic ethical concern, which is at least as important as making money. Obviously it can't be totally avoided, but you try anyway. If you can't make more money without pissing a bunch of people off, you should consider changing your business.

This isn't about a bunch of people. Remember, we're talking about so few people that they don't even make a blip in any of your metrics. If you're getting angry replies or all your emails are deleted without being read or lots of people are unsubscribing, yeah, that's bad and you should think about what you've done wrong. But that's not the situation we're talking about here.

Again, McDonald's pisses off millions of vegetarians every single day. Would you say on that basis that they should go meatless? Should churches close to avoid pissing off militant atheists?

The point is not that you should be callous about offending people. Obviously it is better for all involved to make people happy, and that should always be your goal. But the point is that one or two guys saying "I'm so angry!" on an Internet forum does not mean you've failed. No matter what you do, even if it's pure charity work, you'll eventually find someone who gets upset about it. All you can do is apologize and offer to unsubscribe them — it's not rational to throw your business away on that basis.

Re: The 30 day free trial is mostly broken

#44

Post by monkeyspaw » Sat, Apr 27, 2013, 6:08 AM UTC

andrewflnr wrote: post #40

patio11 wrote: post #18

Test against your own audience, but I would bet heavily against the conclusion "Usage limited trials outperform free trials" for the majority of SaaS apps. Dropbox's case is different with a capital D because the trial/invite mechanic is code to their viral adoption. One powerful reason why you generally want to avoid having a meter running is you are really making two related but distinct sales: you are trying to co…

How much better is a free trial for making that harder sale? If I know that any work I put into switching to your thing might get destroyed after thirty days, I'm less likely to bother at all. Whereas if it's a partially-free-forever thing like Dropbox, I don't have to commit as much to either the new way or old way. If I hate it, I don't have to rush to get out before the trial ends, I can just wait until I can't ta…

Not speaking for patio11, but I would guess the free trial allows businesses to evaluate whether the software meets their requirements.

Companies have budgets to pay for what they need. Their concern is that the software meets those goals, then they are willing to break out the checkbook. They know they have a problem, they have a budget to solve it, and they just need to know your software solves it.

Consumers, OTOH, may need to have value proven over time. Thus, the dropbox usage limits make a lot more sense.

Re: The 30 day free trial is mostly broken

#45

Post by monkeyspaw » Sat, Apr 27, 2013, 6:11 AM UTC

chaz wrote: post #7

Another thing I don't like about 30 day free trials is that they usually start right away. Before I know it, I'm getting an email saying that the trial is almost over, and I've barely used it. It takes time to develop a new habit and explore a product or service. This is worse if it requires some integration, setup, training, or data import. I wouldn't say the 30d free trial is broken, or even mostly broken, but it's…

I often sign up because something seems neat, or because it solves a problem I know I have.

It would be great if the 30 day trial started the first time I really start using the software.

A great alternative is for a company to offer a newsletter. Then I can get reminders about what they do, learn about how great they are, and sign up when I'm ready to use the software.

I'm bad at estimating time frames. I often think I need something (e.g., KissMetrics) next week. In reality, I won't start using it for months.