MYOB is an annoying company — literally. They annoy me. I’ve written to them about this — but of course like most companies they never bothered replying.
They’ve already sent letters and faxes and emails about renewing before 30 June. Today they phoned. “I’m at a client’s,” I said, “So I can’t talk now. But yes, we’ve received the faxes and we will be renewing before the end of the month.”
Now at that point I’d expect a polite goodbye. Something like “OK, good. Have a nice day, bye.” But no. Mr MYOB sort of stumbled and asked me if I wanted to pay with my credit card.
“No,” I said with a sense of deja vu. “I’m at a client’s, so I can’t talk now.” And of course I’ll give my credit card number to a complete stranger who called me unexpectedly.
Sheesh. I know, software is a competitive industry, there’s a target to meet etc etc. But please be able to understand simple human communication protocols.
Because the person who called you only gets commission if you pay right now.
They have zero incentive to let you pay at a time convenient to you, in a manner convenient to you – they don’t get commission for that.
Heck, they probably don’t even work for MYOB, they’re probably working in an outsourced call center somewhere.
None of that explains the deeper problem though – why would MYOB allow someone to contact you without first ensuring that the person is motivated to ensure that your interaction is pleasant? Being a (virtually) monopoly market probably explains some of that though…
@Zhasper: I think you’re mostly right. However I think MYOB’s big fear is that they really aren’t a monopoly market any more.
While existing small businesses tend to stick with whatever accounting software they use (or their accountant uses), someone starting a new business has the freedom to choose. And at CeBIT the other week there were at least three different companies offering web-based accounting software-as-a-service.
If I had shares in MYOB, I think I’d be looking very closely at what these emerging competitors are doing.
Our product Netaccounts was at Sydney CeBIT, we won the Platinum award for Innovation there which we were pretty happy about. Particularly because our neighbours at CeBIT were MYOB!
I think the key thing that will differentiate organisations in this space going forward is companies like ours are viewing service as a revenue area. We’re not being cute we just feel human interaction more in our day to days lives – blogging for example! If we give you guys good service, you’ll tell everyone about us so it becomes a symbiotic relationship.
enjoying your blog btw 🙂
@Marc: You’ve hit the nail on the head. Seeing service as a revenue stream instead of a cost is the absolute key — for businesses like yours and many, many others.
I’ve been thinking about this in the context of web development. Most web developers seem to think a website is “finished” when it goes live, and find client requests for modifications annoying. But going live is the start of the journey, a journey of communicating with clients, stakeholders, whatever you want to call them.
Congrats on the award. I didn’t look at your stand at CeBIT but I will not. I’ve edited your comment to link directly to the product website. And glad you’re enjoying my little rants.
Mind you, I’d feel a lot better about your comment if you’d skipped the words “in this space going forward”… 😉
So you want to pay with your credit card now?