Yago,
First let just say thank you for jumping in. It sounds like you offer a great product and service for a very reasonable price.
As a business owner you know that not every product or service you offer is going to be a money maker. For most dealers, the new car department is loosing money, should this dealers stop selling the new cars? Some products and services that a company will offer to its customers are simply as a Value Service or product.
Stefan,
Thank you for sharing the experience. I'm very interested in contracts/relations because it is the fine thread that links vendors and dealers.
I hope I didn't sound pushy on my blog thing... there are other things I would love to sell you than my $50 money making site! It justify the example of a product the got twisted between needs and wants and that it became a good learning lesson for my company.
Most of this issues come up due to communication or lack of.
And that is the reason why DR is so useful. If there is one thing that social media (and somehow I consider this blog to be a form of SM) has done is to reach out to people like you and me that would have never meet otherwise and allowed us to grow from the experience.
I often try to remember to communicate better with my clients so this doesn't happen to me, nor just because of the scorn but because it will make me better at what I do.
Lets take a look at vAuto. No long term contracts, not the least expensive, not the only company offering similar services, ok sales team, however, GREAT account managers/baby-sitters that will call and email you every month to train and retrain the same mangers over and over on the same basic stuff and also remind you how great their product and service is and how you cant really run a successful car dealership without their product. The result: very happy dealers (that still dont know how to truly use or understand vAuto) and a very low cancelation ratio (their sales team actually brags about that...good for them).
vAuto is a great example, BUT (not taking anything away from their success) it is a piece of software. It is a much more scalable product where a lot of resources can be taken away from production and added into support. As a mater of fact, I think vAuto production is their support.
I didn't write that to defuse your example but because what I found interesting about your complain was the fact that it is related to unique content writing/generation.
Let me just ask you a question: Who should be taking the loose when a dealership calls and cancels a service prematurely? Let just remind the people reading this, that at some point in time the dealership believed that service to be of value, otherwise the dealer would of never signed up for it!
Should I call you (the vendor) every month and ask how are we doing, or should you (the vendor) call or email and show me the great progress we have made? Let me just say this: Just because I dont call you it dosent mean I dont pay attention!
Personally, I think nobody should loose money.
Why should people lose? Why can't we find a place where I as a vendor get something out of it whether is some kind of comp or another contract, etc. The key goes back to open communication (and willingness!).
From a vendor POV let me say that it is frustrating when the GSM calls me, we put a full plan together (no set up, no this, no that and a good deal because you know--I know you) then 2 months later bounces and I get cut by the next guy without even a phone call. That is when the vendor pulls the: "we had a contract, you know".
In your second paragraph here I see discontent from the service, that is a little bit of a different story.
If it takes a company 12 months to brake even on a product they offer, maybe they shouldn't offer it directly, maybe they should work in building relationships with some other vendors that found a way to provide that service and also make money... refer them and maybe make a small referral fee.
Every product is its own world but... I do have a few rules about that in my company:
1) We don't white label products: I didn't want dealers to think that a product is mine when is not. For example: I resell Sister Tech Videos.
2) We don't take money for a referral (if I catch my employees doing it they will lose their job). We either sell it and therefore invoice it, implement it, and support it, or we refer the business to the vendor and hopefully they will refer someone back if my product deserves it. That way you know I will refer to you what I think is best for you and not whomever pays me the most.
3) If we resell a product is because we integrated it with our stuff (so there is synergy there) and we sell it for the same or less as you can get it from the mother company.
Wile I paid $300.00/mo per make, totaling $1,200/month, I can tell you I did not get the kind of service you describe above. Once again, it sounds like you offer a great service to your customers.
Again, we do screw up sometimes just like anyone else. How we react to it is what makes the difference between us and the other guys.
While the choice of contract that I described above may not be the best approach in the world as Kyle mentioned it is the best one I came up with that leaves an open door to choices so we--dealer and me--don't get backed into a corner.
I must say, I did received an email today, letting me know that the 75 pages of content that were removed, will be restored. Thank you DP & DR.
And so communication saved the day!
Sorry for the long email but I hope that DR still a discussion forum where people like me can share an opinion and it doesn't simply became a Yelp for dealers to rant about vendors.