I was invited down to Maidenhead to meet Melanie Vala and the Quickbooks marketing team following my rant and their subsequent work on improved customer communications.

Melanie is a marketing manager in charge of acquiring new customers.

She explained how the company is very US-centric with a lot of personal taxation management products which are market leaders in their segment.  They have started sharing knowledge between the US and UK teams in order to create a global knowledge-base of best practice for social media marketing.  They also do customer research with a "follow me home" where they observe customers using their products in their own offices / homes.

It appears that the marketing programme is very PR oriented working on customer acquisition and strong messaging to upsell to new products and mainly being product marketing focused. 

There is some channel marketing work with resellers.  Interestingly the closest market alignment to the UK is Canada – they think the same way as us.

The database is UK and Canada sharing with the US on a different platform creating some silo issues.

Customers are differentiated by value in their current segmentation but not by needs at all.  And so I thought to give back soe value to Melanie and thank her for her time meeting me, I'd ask the community to get involved.

Any suggestion about how Melanie might create a customer differentiation model for Quickbooks customers?  I'll put down my own ideas of what the relevant issues and metrics might be to make up an algorithm?

• company size and type i.e. products vs services
• company complexity e.g. do you use multiple currencies / bank accounts
• book keeper or accountant
• attitude to learning – do you discover for yourself or want to be taught
• response to problems – do you research online or want to speak to a person
• interest in community – participant, reader, lurker or no interest

I think we need a few more…. suggestions please.

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Image via Wikipedia

Having been spitting mad last week.  I am now calmer, but nonetheless mildly frustrated.

The post got some big profile and a direct comment from Melanie Vala, an Intuit employee. I still feel bad that when trolling you get the fiery responses!

She wrote

 We really appreciate all the comments, feedback and help which our customers have offered each other on the online community and their own blogs.  This is a great example of why this facility is so important.

So why isn't the forum more clearly flagged off the home page or mentioned in customer communications?  I couldn't find it.

We also appreciate that the sudden change announced by the government this week is causing undue stress and frustrations for business owners.  I can promise we are working to get the right information to our customers via the right channels and are confident we can start communicating this by the end of today.  As a previous post commented, we have posted the VAT guidance received from the HMRC in the mean time (http://community.quickbooks.co.uk/discussion/index.php?showtopic=35377).

Timeliness is close to godliness in online communication.  Good effort, a little too late in the day for my needs.  But at least it's there now.

We very much appreciate your support as a user of QuickBooks 2005. While we make every effort to deliver the best products and to continue to make QuickBooks better and easier for small business owners to use, we need to consider the investment needed to enable this. One way we’re able to continue delivering leading-edge business solutions to our customers at the lowest price is by managing the costs associated with supporting older versions.

This wouldn't have been my choice of action / response if I were the brand and marketing manager.  I think exceptional circumstances like the VAT change warrant exceptional responses by leading brands.

Finally, I love your ideas for communicating this change. Thank you for your feedback and stay tuned – you might even see some of your own suggestions implemented in the next few days.

Cheekily I have written asking her for a free copy of the new software.  What's the cost to Intuit (a stamp!) and brand values online via you and my community / networds.  £High.

I hope my response is helpful and that you are reassured that we are doing all we can to do right by our customers and make sure we give you the right guidance from the very beginning.

What does this mean?  "Do right by our customers".  An americanism with little back up in some of the actions I've seen.  It appears to be "Do right by our profit motive".

Guidance from the very beginning.  Beginning of what?

Anyway, I am glad they responded and I do hope Melanie uses some of the marketing ideas from me.  I'd like to meet her in person.

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I use Intuit Quickbooks accounts system.  And I called today to ask about the new VAT rates and how to manage the switch over.

They refuse to support my 2005 version of the software because it comes under their "Sunset" Policy. [i.e. phasing out each year's version and forcing upgrades onto customer]

But advised that 'within a couple of days' information would be on the website.  Nothing there now.  Nada,  Not even a link to HM Revenue and Customs (who has a useful pdf downloadable document about what to do).

Big customer service opportunity missed. This is a one-time situation when the opportunity to develop a trusted relationship with all your customers exists.

Here's what I'd do if I was Marketing Director of Quickbooks

1 – write to all my customers advising them of the change

2 – send them to the website where free update information for each version of the software is available on how to transition to the new VAT rate

3 – offer free phone support for 15 days in exchange for

• verified customer data
• permission to contact
• customer satisfaction survey response

4 – offer a one-time special price for upgrades for customers like me who can 'see the benefit' in this period of improved accounts support (phone / website) and up to date software

5 – ask for referrals

6 – blast the PR airways with the positive scores from the customer satisfaction survey showing how fabulous we are 

But will they?

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