Can Providing Free Service During COVID-19 Serve Your Technology Business?
We are living in unprecedented times right now. As the world of work and life changes dramatically over the next few months, you might see that some companies are providing free service to people. Today, I wanted to shed some light on what providing free service does, how to place limits on the service so you don’t go out of business, and what to do if you can’t severely discount your products or services right now.
1) Understand The Value Of Being Nice During This Trying Time
First and foremost, let’s talk about why being nice during this time is such a smart business move. Your potential and current customers are on edge right now. They need services that can help them better their life, and they need a break. With so much happening in the world right now, your kindness can go along way.
Offering Free Service Leads To Great Publicity
There is a myth that all publicity is good publicity. I don’t believe that is the case anymore (although, I am sure some people will disagree.) Hopefully, your goal is to get well known by doing things that matter. I want you to be known for the right reasons. Doing something good for members in your community who are struggling right now will lead to great press and publicity.
Now, you might not be found on huge sites like Forbes for your good deeds, but you can focus on smaller sites where your ideal audience hangs out. For example, try connecting with the local chapter of a national organization your ideal audience belongs to so you can start getting eyes on your free service offer.
You’ll Get More Leads When Things Settle
If you play your cards right, offering free service now should lead to more leads down the road. Here’s how I would set this up.
After things settle and go back to somewhat normal, create a referral program for your current customers. Let people know that you are looking to expand your customer base and ask them if they know anyone in their niche who needs help with what you offer. Make it easy for them by providing a flat rate fee or a discount on future service if their friend or colleague becomes a customer. Make the referral process seamless by providing access to a recorded demo and swipe copy to convince anyone interested in what you do.
Remember, your customers probably won’t offer leads unless you ask them to do so. Lacking raving fans doesn’t mean that your software isn’t worth investing in. It means that people are busy and will often forget unless they have a reason not to.
You Get To See How Even More People Use And Get Value From Your Service
Use cases make all the difference for a company. If your technology company is newer, this is an opportune time to get more people to test your service. You are getting valuable information about how people use your service, while your free audience is using your service to change the way they live and work. If you’ve been struggling to test your product, this is the perfect time to collaborate with a bunch of new customers and make a product that everyone loves.
2) Make Sure There Is A Limit On Your Service
You can’t give away things for free indefinitely. Eventually, you need to start making money, or your business won’t stay afloat. What good is an excellent service if the company can’t afford to keep the lights on? Your ideal audience will be willing to pay for your service if it gives them something of value.
Add A Limit On How Many Months Your Software Can Be Used For Free
Instead of creating an indefinite trial, create some parameters around the service. I’ve seen most companies provide a 1-3 month trial of their services for new customers. Three months gives your new customers a chance to get to understand what your product can do. Hopefully, this situation will have slowed down and gotten better by the end of the three-month trial.
You might want to take off the automatic charge during this tough time.
Free trials are often rolled over into paid services automatically. As a kind gesture, you might want to take this off during this time. Depending on the cost of your services, it might give you more press if people don’t need a credit card to access your free service. Make sure that you have the technology set up to stop access once the trial is over, though. From there, you might want to give people a small discount to keep them coming back, or just ask them to keep subscribing if your service has provided them value for the last few months.
Create A Special Free COVID-19 Plan Of Your Service
Another way to limit your service is to create a unique and free COVID-19 plan for your service. With this, you’d create a special plan specifically for people dealing with COVID-19. Instead of offering your complete services, you’d offer a parsed down version of your software or service for your customers.
For example, say you are a service that helps people set up affiliate marketing programs. Your lowest plan allows people to process up to $10,000 in affiliate sales. If you wanted to offer a COVID-19 plan, you could create a free COVID-19 plan that handles up to $5,000 in affiliate sales per month.
With your COVID-19 plan, you’d want to limit how long someone could use it without upgrading to an official plan. You might choose three months, similar to limit we talked about earlier.
You want to make sure that your COVID-19 plan is different from your lowest plan, but that people can still get results from it. For example, you wouldn’t want a COVID-19 plan that could handle $100 in affiliate sales. You want to make sure that your new plan allows users to get a sense of the product you offer. You want this plan to give you good publicity, after all.
Use Introductory Rates Instead Of Creating A Completely Free Service
Last but not least, you could also offer an introductory rate instead of a completely free service. What is the lowest price you can go on your service? You want an amount that feels weighty but isn’t nearly as expensive as your current plan rates. You also want to consider the discounts you’ve given before. Does the rate you want for this intro rate feel like another slight discount, or are you genuinely cutting prices? Again, set a limit for how long this discount will last. You aren’t trying to go out of business here.
3) What If You Can’t Afford To Provide Free Access To Your Technology?
Next, let’s chat about what to do if you can’t afford to provide free access to your technology. As a service provider, I understand where you’re coming from. I don’t plan to largely discount my services to connect with new clients. I spend so much time creating content for my clients, and I need to get paid for that work. Here are some things you could do instead to help your current and potential customers.
Offer Free Months With Purchase
Instead of giving away free months without anything in return, give away free months with purchase. Giving away free months with purchases does a few things:
Injects your business with cash right now, which you probably need to succeed.
Gives you a better projection of the income you’ll have to work with over the next few months.
Helps your customers get more use of your service and helps them better understand the value of what you offer.
If you want to give away free months with purchase, I’d highly encourage you to do this when someone buys your service for a longer period, like six or twelve months. If someone is only purchasing a month of service, they shouldn’t be getting a month free.
Lean Into Content Creation
Another thing you can do during this challenging time is lean into content creation. Create content that helps your audience get through this. What are they struggling with right now? Ask your current clients and social media followers what they’d like more advice on right now. Create content around those topics for your audience. There is so much content going up around what’s happening right now. See what your audience feels the missing link is, and create that content.
Related Reading: 5 Content Marketing Ideas For Human Resources Companies During COVID-19
Support Your Local Community Through Donations And Other Philanthropic Efforts
If you can’t give away everything, try to donate where you can. There are plenty of great organizations in your community and around the world who need extra support right now. See how you can work with your company and your community to give back to the organizations and people who need it most right now.
Related Reading: Charity Navigator’s COVID-19 page
Conclusion
We can’t all give away our services and software for free during this pandemic. If you can afford to give away your software for free for a brief period, I am sure it would help your current and potential customers during this unprecedented time. There are other ways to support your audience right now, though. Let’s continue the conversation in the comments below: what are you doing to support your potential and current customers right now?