We’ve been having the ‘free trials’ debate in the office again! And we found ourselves faced with a dilemma.
On one hand, free trials are an accepted way of allowing prospective customers to try out your 360 degree feedback solution. We’re also seeing some competitors doing just that.
But therein lies our dilemma. We’ve also seen some of the damage it does when you offer a low-quality or unsupported service as your ‘free’ offering. The rationale is, you can have this smaller version for free, but if you want to get real quality out of the process, you have to pay the fee.
So, given that we really don’t mind doing some of our work for free – and in fact we actively seek to provide charities with free 360 feedback work under our charity scheme (give me a call if you’re working with a charity and would like to know more) – the barrier for me is purely around the how do we provide a free trial and ensure that the individuals involved are protected at the same time.
If you’re looking at trying a 360 these are the warning signs we think you should look out for that would indicate the ‘free’ service comes with a hidden cost:
- A ‘free’ 360 with a single option of question sets – or a ‘cut down’ question set.
[You're just not going to get any value from that. At best, you and all your reviewers will simply be wasting time. At worst, you'll get a skewed perception of your performance rather the quality of feedback you'd have from the full version]
- A ‘free’ 360 that doesn’t have any support.
[There's just nothing to say about this one - its obvious!]
- A ‘free 360 that allows anyone to sign up online without first having some understanding of how they are going to be supported through the feedback and action planning stages.
[This is really high risk in my opinion. Everyone who has a 360 feedback review should have a 1-1 feedback session to help them get the most from the report]
We’ve come up with our own version which does carry these risks. If we offer you a free trial we will:
- Give you a full version of our 360 review using one of your standard off-the shelf question sets
- Provide you with our standard 100% support throughout the process
- Ensure that the person receiving the feedback is provided with a proper 1-1 feedback session at the end of the process
- Supply all our usual backup material and guidelines to make sure the experience has the same top quality outcome as our normal paid service.
These are the only standards we’re willing to work to. Anything less does not serve our clients in our opinion, and we won’t do it. So if you’re not interested in getting that sort of service – we’re not the supplier for you.
[Tip: "Free" can sometimes be the most expensive way of doing something. Make sure you're getting high quality or don't take up the offer.]
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Article by Vandy Massey
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