Choosing your markets

Further to my Aus Tech Blog post on the TIO annual report, Dan Warne picks up on Dodo's problems with the TIO.

While Dodo hasn't covered itself in glory with it's "free" Internet plans and support that does leave a lot to be desired, I do have a little sympathy for them.

Dodo has chosen to chase the cheapest customers. This is a mistake for anyone in the tech services sector.

The simple fact is if you choose to chase the sort of customers who buy your services based on your being the cheapest, or the fact your ads feature bikini clad babes, then you are getting yourself a nasty pile of headaches.

At the bottom of the retail technology market lies a big, seething mass of demanding, whingeing customers that want gold plated, Rolls Royce standard service for the price of a Hyundai, if they want to pay at all.

Even if they do get what they want, they will still whine and take up your time.

The trick to succeeding in selling technology is to avoid these customers like the plague. Let the bloke up the road have them. Even Bigpond have sussed this out.

It's not just an ISP or IT thing either. Steve Neil's HiFi Gossip diary the October 19 entry describes how he's learned this lesson through selling some cheaper sound equipment.

My advice to Dodo is stop selling to the bottom end of the market. Increase your prices and use some of that extra money to improve service levels.

You'll have fewer customers, but they'll be happier and you'll make more money from them.