Rewrite for InScheduler - Part 5: Tweaking the Pricing and Next Steps
Even with the changes we’ve proposed in Part 4 of the rewrite of InScheduler, the best buyers will still hesitate to buy, to sign up, to take the product into their business. So let’s tweak the pricing and next steps.
No we won’t reduce the price. No we won’t replace the “Try now” button with “Call us for a demo”.
We’ll do something different. And the best buyers will be excited about the progress they’ll be making.
The Mind of the Best Buyers, Experiencing the Revised Page
Let’s run through this revised page through our best buyer’s mental back-and-forth.
Just before they get to the page, they’ll be in this situation, as developed in Part 2:
- ⚬→ Struggle To our surprise, we get a lot of new clients from the website, but we have too many no-shows from these new people.
- ⚬→ Struggle I’m putting too much of my attention on worrying about no-shows, and not enough on my clients. That’s enough.
Then they’ll hit the page:
- →⚬ Attraction Nice site. This looks made for my problem.
- →⚬ Attraction Good, I’ll be able to address no-shows.
- →⚬ Attraction Oh nice, that’s how clients will be able to book an appointment.
- ←⚬ Anxieties Will this work on my site?
- →⚬ Attraction Ok good, they’ll show me how or do it for me.
- ←⚬ Anxieties But how will this help with preventing no-shows?
- →⚬ Attraction Right on, reminders will be sent right before the appointment.
- →⚬ Attraction Ok good, people that usually call-in, I’ll be able to pencil them in easily.
Right now, they’re feeling like this is promising. The mental back-and-forth had more attraction than anxieties. And plus, they came with a lot of purchase momentum thanks to a solid struggle.
So far there’s some good purchase momentum. But something will cause these buyers to hit the brakes.
Anxieties Around Next Steps
On paper, this is a great price.
On paper, these are appealing benefits.
On paper, the free trial is the way to go.
But loaded with the thoughts of the buyers experiencing the situation we outlined above, we can see how this “next steps” section creates hesitations.
- ←⚬ Anxieties I’ve got all my appointments in this other system. Is it going to be a hassle to switch?
- ←⚬ Anxieties What happens after I sign up? Do I have to install anything on my site to start trying it out?
What is the visitor going to do?
Scroll a bit more, and they’ll see some FAQs and another call to sign up.
Scroll back to the top, there’s that sign up button they won’t want to click. It’s a scary button!
It doesn’t matter that there are 14 days to try. It won’t matter that “No credit card is required”. The hesitations are all about moving the business over to this. There’s nothing about that on the page. That huge category of concerns is left on the owner’s shoulders.
And so they’ll revert to their “I’ll just” alternatives, their “Habits of the present”…
- ⚬← Habits I’ll just wait a bit. I’ll think about it.
- ⚬← Habits I’ll ask my nephew to see what he thinks.
…and then they’ll leave.
Different Options For the Next Steps
What if there’s a way to alleviate those hesitations with new pricing or new kinds of next steps.
Option 1 - Offering to transfer old appointments for a fee.
What if they’d charge $200 one-time for offering to transfer their old appointment system (paper, Google calendar) into InScheduler?
$25 USD/month
Help with the installation.
Or for an one-time fee of $200, we also copy over your appointments from your old system, paper, calendar, whatever.
This additional option reduces anxiety and increases the perceived value of the whole package. They’ll probably think “Nah, I’ll transfer them myself”, but the availability of that option re-assures the visitor. “I can do this.”
Option 2 - Only annual pricing, because we’re serious.
What if there’s no monthly price, only an annual price, pre-paid. You’re moving systems. You want something to be stable, reliable.
$300 USD/year, pre-paid
Free help installing it on your site
We’re serious about helping you avoid no-shows, and we’ll be around to help you along the way.
In this case, an extra $200 for helping with the transfer of appointments (see Option 1) might make the $300 look way too much. But maybe not. Sometimes, a low price creates anxiety, whereas a higher price re-assures.
Option 3 - “Try with a sample schedule”.
What if the next step is “Try with a sample schedule”. “Try copying over a bunch of appointments, see how it feels.”
$25 USD/month
or [Start with a sample schedule for free] for as long as you want. We’ll populate it with pretend appointments, you’ll be emailed with these pretend appointments. Pencil in some appointments manually to try.
This sample schedule is a real schedule, their own free account, but it’s filled with pretend appointments for the next week, re-filled every week, and they can practice adding new appointments. For as long as the potential buyer is in this sample mode, it’s pretend mode and it’s free. When they’re ready to go for real with their account, they can wipe, they can clean-up the fake stuff and keep the real stuff. Up to them. The sample mode is available for as long as they like. But these pretend appointments will keep rolling in via email until they choose to cancel their free account, or move the paid tier.
Maybe there’s an in-between mode for $15 a month. They can use the calendar to manage your appointments, but they enter them manually. They’re no lonter in pretend mode. The clients get email reminders, but they can’t book online. This new option would change the way pricing is shown on the InScheduler page, and maybe it’s laid out in a three-step process. Start with a sample schedule, in sample mode, for free. Down the road, when you’re ready, you can just use the manual scheduling, that’s step 2. Or Upgrade to online scheduling, that’s step 3. You’re in business.
Free to start, two extra steps when you’re ready:
Step 1 - [Start with a sample schedule for free] for as long as you want. We’ll populate it with pretend appointments, you’ll be emailed with these pretend appointments. Pencil in some appointments manually to try.
Step 2 - [Upgrade to just the calendar], but no online scheduling. $15 USD/month. Use our quick way to enter appointments into the system, and clients get reminders if you added their email into the appointment.
Step 3 - [Upgrade to online scheduling]. We’ll help you set it up on your website, and you get all the scheduling, your clients get reminders, they can book an appointment from your website. Focus on your clients in the store, and we’ll make sure you’re booked solid. No longer any no-shows. $30 USD/month.
The point is, people here are offered an attractive first step, with a clear vision of how they can install this into their business. “You’re serious about how you run your business, we’re serious about easing you through the process.”
With these changes, we’re removing every last bit of anxiety, of hesitation, that a visitor might feel as they’re eager to make progress. And at the same time, InScheduler will be getting a lot of barbershop/hair salon/spa owners happy.
This concludes the series on the rewrite of InScheduler.
In Part 1, we saw how the page wasn’t going to work even for “typical visitors” (who usually wouldn’t buy anyway).
By going deep on the struggling situation that would make InScheduler a no-brainer purchase (as developed in Part 2), we were able to judge whether the current page was going to work for those best buyers (see Part 3).
We spotted some holes to fill, and in Part 4 we tweaked on how the product was presented to make more appealing for our best buyers. And in Part 5 above, we saw how the pricing and next steps could be made to reduce anxieties even more, and help the best buyer in their quest for progress.
Stay Sharp!
—
Pascal Laliberté
@pascallaliberte