What Turns You Off About Evaluation Software? 699
An Anonymous Coward asks: "I work at a mid-tier software company (which shall remain nameless, lest I draw attention to myself). Recently we have started making 30 day evaluation versions of our software available for download after prospects register. An email containing a username and password is sent to the registrant a few hours after submission. We have been surprised to find that not a few registrants don't actually go on to download the software. We make the file size and system requirements clear up front. I would guess some slashdot readers get involved in evaluations. What process do you go through? Why might you stop short of actually downloading the software?"
I dont enter my email (Score:5, Insightful)
A few hours? (Score:5, Insightful)
Click-through EULA? (Score:5, Insightful)
Typically, in my industry, anyone downloading evaluation software or even documentation must click-through a EULA. At what point, if any, in your register/download process do you do this?
If you take the email registration info before presenting the EULA, then you could be losing people there.
Why surprised? (Score:1, Insightful)
They're registering with bogus info.
Who knows what is going to happen to the info? (Score:5, Insightful)
And often the answer is "NO".
You answered your own question (Score:5, Insightful)
If the software is that great, you should just let people download it, no need to have people jump thru hoops. When you get free samples at the supermarket, they don't ask you for your name and address.
Latency! (Score:5, Insightful)
Why might you stop short of actually downloading the software?
The very nature of getting a free eval download revolves around the impulsive nature of the user/customer. Make 'em wait a few hours and you've removed your advantage.
the wait.... (Score:5, Insightful)
If the link/password/whatever hasn't hit my inbox in a minute or two, I'm probably moving on looking for another thing to try. Welcome to the short attention span decade.
reg process turns me off (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:A few hours? (Score:3, Insightful)
Joel's rule (Score:5, Insightful)
http://www.joelonsoftware.com
Evaluation software bugbears (Score:2, Insightful)
2) Install spy-ware without public notice.
3) Infect registry(for M$), store/replace files in strange non-obvious places.
4) Difficult to uninstall.
5) Send info about user without permission.
6) Source not available.
Re:what turns me on is... (Score:0, Insightful)
Having to give an e-mail address (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:5, Insightful)
How to turn customers off:
1. Make them enter an e-mail address.
2. Make them fill out a form. See 1.
3. Make them wait for registration info.
4. Use a 30 day limit. 90 sounds better.
5. Make them do all that crap for software they didn't need or like anyhow.
6. Have you sales staff hound them nonstop by phone and e-mail and personal visits. (Will you folks at StorageSoft get the point?)
How to turn customers on:
1. 90 day or unlimited trial only with the stupid features turned off.
2. No registration crap.
3. Precise product description, no lies.
4. Screenshots, my god, screenshots.
5. Multiple fast download sites. I should be able to get 150k/sec at least.
6. No hunting for downloadable files. This goes for you too, Real.
7. Upfront licensing policies and prices. Tell me on your website how much I have to pay for 1, 10, or a site license.
8. I will call you if I want to buy it. Don't feel free to bother me during my lunch hour. Your voicemails get deleted, too.
9. If you must have my e-mail address, remember this: My inbox is a sacred shrine, none shall enter that are not worthy.
-my $.02
Your product is not unique enough (Score:5, Insightful)
Say, they are looking for jp2 viewer, they will go for shareware first, then evaluation ware. If nothing is found, go for evaluation ware that need registration. As long as they find something okay, they will stop searching. (Of course, if your software is unique, and some customers really need that, then they will wait.... Maybe more common in some sector of the research community. Not so in the commerical world.)
The better approach is to allow the user to download first. When they want to evaluate more advanced function of the software, pop up a window to lure them to register. If you really want to validate their email address in advance, please use automatic mail reply and ensure the avg time taken in within 5 mins rather than a few hours...
Fake addresses (Score:5, Insightful)
Why might you stop short of actually downloading the software?
Why do you think the people gave you their real email address in the first place?
I'd say most of the non-downloaders simply didn't give you their real email address.
Why are you registering people? (Score:3, Insightful)
I just downloaded a trial-ware app the other day, and the company in question also wanted my email address, physical address, who I worked for, etc. All of the form items were required. I said, "bullshit," and did a Google search for the program - a minute later I was installing it.
So here's a question back: Why are you requiring people to register in the first place? Not knowing you or your business, I'd make two guesses:
- You're hoping to prevent your trialware being "pirated" or cracked, perhaps by keying each copy uniquely so you can identify the source of a cracked version.
- To collect information so you can market to me later, or sell my personal information to some other company.
Frankly, I think they're both stupid reasons. First, you can't prevent a determined person from cracking your software, or getting a cracked copy if he/she wants it. Second, if you'r eethical and up-front about using the information for marketing purposes then most people will just opt-out.Unless you've got a better reason, think hard about why you're making it more difficult for people to get your software - and why you weren't clueful enough to figure out people wouldn't register in the first place.
Lastly - hours?? That's one of the great things about online software distribution - you can have it right now. Unless I were convinced you were truly the only source in the world, I wouldn't even consider waiting that long.
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:2, Insightful)
Car dealerships don't have demo vehicles with only three wheels, and offer you the fourth wheel once you make the purchase do they?
As well, when the trial period ends, do not cripple the program, especially if it gets installed on a server. The last thing I want is my phone ringing off the hook with angry users complaining a service isn't available because the trial period ran out and the program killed itself. Send reminders, maybe even put a delay at startup with a message or something, but please don't make the software self-destruct itself. If I'm serious about evaluating a piece of software, I want to put it to good use, in a semi-real enviroment.
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:5, Insightful)
How to turn customers on:
1. 90 day or unlimited trial only with the stupid features turned off.
In other words, pretty much give it away for free. (90 days apart to uninstall/reinstall or in some cases reformat is not much of a pain in the ass.) Not that this surprises me coming from Slashdot, News for People Who Don't Want To Pay.
2. No registration crap.
If you're serious about trying out the software and would seriously consider purchasing it, giving them an e-mail so a representative can contact you for support makes sense. Not really for like winzip, but if you're downloading a trial of a professional software package it's more professional, in my opinion, if after downloading it you get an e-mail from Bob Soandso and his phone number if you have any questions about how to use the software, etc.
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:4, Insightful)
Everyone here seems to poo-poo the email giving registration process in fear of spam. How hard is it to sign up for a junk excite or hotmail account and use it anytime you need to register something shady? Am I the only person who can figure this out?
What's worse, you're possibly missing out on a great product because they're asking for you email? I think that's a little short-sighted. Just because RMS didn't bless it with his magic GPL wand doesn't necessarily mean it sucks. Sometimes programmers have to eat, too.
Download accelerators (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:2, Insightful)
I can't think of anyone who would choose an option from list 1 (two posts above) over list two. So you *can* please all people, in this limited range of the definition of "please". And I'm someone who would seriously have a use for some products, and would be prepared to pay (and have), and yet will not give out my e-mail address. Instead, I'll try to find a competing product that *does* have an easy download system. It's often faster than waiting for the e-mail reply.
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Turnoffs include.. (Score:1, Insightful)
1.) I'm going to look for an Open Source package that meets my need first.
Commercial software is usually better quality than shitty Open Source software.
2.) I'm going to consider writing my own software or extending an existing OSS package before buying a proprietary software license.
Your time must not be worth very much, then. You're in high school or a community college, aren't you?
4.) I'm not even going to consider your product if your company does not support the free operating systems I use.
You're in that little 2% slice huh? Bummer, they probably don't care for your business anyway since it would not be worth the time or money to port their software to an OS notorious for users who don't want to pay for anything. (Testimony to this fact are your 1) and 2))
5.) I'm not even going to consider your product if your company is run by greedy bastards who treat customers like criminals or never give back to any open source projects they may employ.
Companies are there to make money. If you think otherwise you're delusional. Yes, there are unethical businesses, but I warrant a guess that you're not very hesitant to label a company as "greedy" unless they'll give you their software for free and/or waste their money to work on other software you can get for free.
6.) Even if you stay proprietary, source code would be nice because I inherently don't trust the security of binaries on my networks. Disassembly is a much harder method of security auditing if the need presents itself or clients require.
Yeah, source code would be nice, but then again, 98% of people don't want it, care for it, or would know what to do with it, and in almost all cases opening source would reveal trade secrets and things of the sort. Not to mention the fact another company could take it, change the logo, wrap a different GUI around the algorithms, and sell it as their own.
If you ran a software company, how would YOU make money and put food on the table while fitting your "requirements?" I submit that if you ran a company such that you would be a satisfyable customer, you'd be out of business due to people stealing your work in a few weeks.
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:2, Insightful)
I beg to differ. I am more than willing to pay a fair price for usefull software that does its job well, but there is absolutely NO REASON they should need my email address. What does email have to do with purchasing software online? I'll give them my credit card number, they generate a serial number and point me to a download. Very simple.
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:4, Insightful)
It's just like if you're planning on filing a lawsuit against someone. You go after the people with money.
Cryptnotic
Re:You might have it backwards. (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess what I'm trying to say is that many other posters out here. Do not require an email address until they buy the software. Do not cripple the program from the start. If you treat your customers like pirates, pirates they will become (see RIAA). If you treat your customers like people you want to please, then some will buy, and some will decide your product isn't worth it. That's the chance you take.
Spam in e-mail or telephone form is EVIL (Score:5, Insightful)
No, it doesn't. If I'm looking for a solution, I might try a ton of demos until I find the right one. I don't want to be hounded by all of the ones I discounted as crap.
It's like shopping at JC Penney or Sears and the salespeople hound you EVERY 3 MINUTES. Thanks, but I already know how to shop and you just turned me off to your store.
Here's a shocking idea - How about if I need help I'll ask?
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:3, Insightful)
Rather, limit it to 30 days, but 30 REAL days. I might have downloaded your software and find that I have no time to evaluate it now. If by the time I evaluate it I only get a week before it expires, it's unlikely I will be convinced.
I don't plan my life around testing and buying someone else's software. Days I didn't use the product should not count. Make only the days the product was used count, or limit it by number of uses as some products do: but if you do, make them cheap and assume more than one use per day (90-120 uses) because, once more, users don't plan their lives around your product.
Those who do plan their lives around trying your product will probably pirate or crack it. Most people are not profoundly ethical, they don't buy software out of legal duty, they buy software out of convenience.
If you make it more convenient for them to crack your software than evaluating it, they will do that. Same goes for the buying process. That's why registration sucks.
I hate crippled software, the sole mention of "all features enabled on the commercial version" will send me to the competitors webpage. I prefer not having a feature than having that button mocking me all day, because I know I WILL need that feature, by Murphy's Law.
But if you're going to cripple, please do not cripple essential things, like printing, saving, exporting, etc!
For example: If I'm evaluating a Visio-like program, part of the evaluation is comparing the result on paper with the usual alternative, and comparing other people's reaction to that product on paper. I need to work on something sufficiently large or complex that I won't do it all at once, or I might to see whether many people can work on a document more easily than with the other product, which implies saving and exchanging files. I need to see whether the files can be exported to other formats I work with, and that the exported files work.
Re:You might have it backwards. (Score:2, Insightful)
Show Me The Money (Score:2, Insightful)
Case in point: Avernum [avernum.com]. They've been going some good advertising for that game, and I'm really interested, but there's no way I'm going to pay 25 bucks for it when I see games RETAILING on store shelves for $10 to $20 all the time. And $40 for Opera? Yeesh. Blah blah I'm a cheap bastard yadda yadda, but I still wanna know where all that purchase price is going if there's no big monolithic publisher involved. Nobody's buying? Try lowering your price to increase volume. I know I'd pay five bucks for either of these programs right now if I could. But no, they have to play hard-to-get. Well fine, two can play at that game.
Re:Spam in e-mail or telephone form is EVIL (Score:3, Insightful)
It must be that some companies don't want to see their 1-800 phone lines abused in the same way that they abuse their customers email addresses.
-Derek
Evaluation time never long enough (Score:1, Insightful)
TogetherJ has a 30 day evaluation period. How in the hell do you expect me to learn how to utilize all of it's features, and actually apply them to a "round-trip" development cycle, in 30 days?
total bs
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:2, Insightful)
I' not asking for it for free (I work for a large global company and open source is not even approved for anything but pilot work at this point), but 60 or 90 days is better than 30. Where I work, we have many projects going on at one time, with a number of difficulties with interdepartmental coordination of efforts. I may get it installed on a server, and it may sit there for two to three weeks doing absolutely nothing until someone from the client department is available to test it. I have actually had 30 day evals expire while waiting to be tested.
As for point number two...that's crap also. If your software tested out ok, is on the corporate "approved" list, and is at least competitively priced with other similarly capable products, I will contact the vendor for purchase. The last thing I need is to be inundated with spam and pathetic calls from sales people. (Don't call us, we'll call you really works here)
That's my .02 cents.
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:3, Insightful)
I am a student with not too much money. I try to get freeware or Free (as in speech) software as much as possible (but of course you know how piracy is on university campuses for the commercial software that they use in the labs.)
The only pieces of software that I have paid money for (online) are the following:
- Turbo Navigator - US$10 - It is an excellent Norton Commander clone for win32- The Official Page [turbonavigator.com] is acting funny so check this Unofficial Page [webattack.com] if you want.
- Query-Web [query-web.com] - US$9.95 - A highly unique program that uses SQL in combination with HTML/XML to generate pages dynamically from MS Access databases. It is how Webattack [webattack.com] is generated.
When I get into my job this summer I will have money again and probably pay for Trillian [trillian.cc] and donate to the Ogg Vorbis Project [vorbis.com] as well.
The things that these progs have in common are that I could have gotten it all legally for free anyway; There were no time limitations, nag screens or improved functionality promises for those who pay. I paid because the programmers did an excellent job of making a program that was useful to me and requested reasonable payment for it. Paying because the software will otherwise commit suicidce after 30 (90, whatever) days is not IMHO a good reason.
Going through my old credit card bills that's it for internet purchases of software but that does not include stuff like domain registration and buying computer equipment online. The things listed here are of course totally separate from the stuff bought in brick&mortar stores.
Re:Why we ask you to fill out a form (Score:4, Insightful)
I can personally attest to over a dozen peices of software I've purchased after entering a bogus e-mail address.
I don't know what software you sell, but if I was shopping for an application you sell, and your marketing people wanted to know this 'golden' information why I went with a competitor, it's because you wanted to make me jump through hoops I did'nt want to jump through just to see if your stuff was any good.
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:4, Insightful)
Why I avoid evaluation software (Score:3, Insightful)
I loathe any evaluation type software, especially that which has some timer/trial date period before it forces you to register/buy the product. And I especially detest it when it embeds itself into the registry (specifically speaking of Windows platforms) and even after uninstalling, it still isn't completely wiped off my HD. It still shows but yet when I try to remove programs/uninstall, I get an error message ...
Some tips for aspiring developers to break free of the not-so-surprising (at least to me) pattern of timid experimenters and reluctant trial end users.
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:2, Insightful)
Giving them my email address so they can contact me for support makes sense????? Uh, yeah, okay. How about, if I fricking need support, I will ask for it, and at THAT point you wil have my email address. Same goes with trying it out. Even if I am seriously considering buying a piece of software, THEY don't need my address. I will make my decision, and if I want to buy it, I know where to find them. If not, no amount of emailing or phoning or anything else is going to change my mind. When you go into an electronics store, a car dealer, or any other place where you are considering buying something, do you want a damn salesperson hovering over your shoulder asking whether you need help deciding if you like the product? I sure don't. Again, if I need help or have a question, I know where to find them. They don't need my name, phone number, email address, or postal address to allow me to try out their product; they don't have any reason to contact me, and I sure don't want to be hearing from them unless I contact them first.
For me, and for many others in the world, the quickest way to lose my business is to give the appearance of pushy salespeople, and that is exactly the impression requiring me to fill out forms in order to try out your product gives me. Hell, even when I go and test drive a car, they usually only ask to photocopy my drivers license, if that.
Registration/password should be instant! (Score:3, Insightful)
evalutation software on a PRODUCTION server? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Why we ask you to fill out a form (Score:4, Insightful)
A few HOURS!??! (Score:2, Insightful)
If I have an immediate need for software, I'm not going to wait a few hours. I'll have found your competitor's software by that time. If it's not available now, it's not available. Get real!
Business reasons ... personal reasons (Score:2, Insightful)
For business, the reasons are numerous. First, we can only buy from certain vendors easily. I would really like to get Jasc's Image Robot [I hope this isn't accidentally your company] but our vendor doesn't stock it so I'll do without until I can complain in an I-told-you-so manner that I love so much ... oops ... too much information, eh?
Second, I often find that I can't demonstrate the workflow I'm trying to prove with the demo. Sometimes this is a problem with crippleware and sometimes with it being hard to implement. Image Robot, for instance, looks like it'll do what I need but I haven't bothered to implement a full flow because it would be hard.
Third and so on--things other people have already mentioned. Changing priorities and the like, loss of interest, loss of job, etc.
As for software for personal use:
First, the off-the-cuff cost-benefit analysis is very important. Often I'll want a piece of software for just one little thing so even $30 might be too high for that purpose. Similarly I may only need it once.
Second, time and interest change. I may have enough time to download and install some demo, but I might not ever get back to checking it. If I go to run it and it's expired, oh well. Sometimes I just lose interest too.
I've got another specific example--Ultralingua [ultralingua.com] Collegiate Dictionary I want an electronic dictionary to give me all the features I already have in American Heritage but will run on OSX [there, I let the cat out of the bag ... I'm a Mac guy.] I already own American Heritage and really love the Word Hunter [definition searching utility] feature. Ultralingua, while slick, fast, and OSX-aware doesn't do that so I'm just not interested. I'll wait for Houghton Mifflin to pop out another version and buy that. So ... I downloaded the demo and didn't buy the product.
Finally, and in both personal and business, software with bugs will stop me from buying. It's very odd ... if you are kind enough to allow people to try-before-buying, they'll be critical of crashes and bugs that they'd just begrudgingly work around if they just bought the stupid software without trying it. The trick is that you never release a beta as a demo. Betas are betas and should be full-blown and come with a big benefit to the user for being your tester. Demos are bug-free and designed to say that you're a competent company. Nobody likes testing software for nothing ... just ask any Windows user ;-) [ok, ok ... or Mac user or Palm user or anything user]
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:2, Insightful)
Problem solved.
Re:Spam in e-mail or telephone form is EVIL (Score:2, Insightful)
I used to hate that, but I've come to appreciate it. When they offer to help, I ask them to show me the range of items that I'm interested in, list the benefits, downsides of them, and give them a chance to try to convince me why the next model up is worth the extra money.
I get in, I get out, and I don't have to stress myself out trying to summon the attention span to look over the shelves.
Now if only there would be computer stores around here with people clueful enough to be helpful.
Re:I dont enter my email (Score:3, Insightful)
30 days is hardly ever enough to fully evaluate a software package. When I evaluate software at work, I can install it, but evaluating that software package is not my sole responsibility for the next 30 days. I may not actually get around to working with the product for a while. I mean actually sitting down with it and running through the tutorials is a lot different than clicking pretty buttons for a few minutes. To fully evaluate it, you must actually use it in it's intended environment or else how would you know it would actually fit. Then, after it's been fully evaluated and it's decided that it is the tool for the job, my company or contract is legally obligated to purchase a license to actually use it in support of the project, otherwise it must be uninstalled. Which is fine by me cause it's no skin off my wallet.
At home it's a little different. I don't have any corporate dollars purchasing software for me so my views are changed slightly. I still support commercial software. But I only register when it makes sense. For instance, I use WinZip when I'm in Windows like it's another extention to my body. It was well worth the $$ I sent them to register it. (Even the extra $50 for the self extractor that I hardly ever use) And I registered every trial version I use regularly when the $$ <= benefits. I havn't registered my trial version of Paint Shop Pro and I probably won't any time soon. Not because I don't like it but because it's not worth the $$ for what I use it for. I think I used it once or twice about a year or so ago to make a pretty widget for my personal web page. It did the job but I don't make money off my web page and what I used it for I couldn't justify the $100 or so for what I got out of it. If I actually start making money off my website (ie. some small business of some sort) I will not hesitate to register it because I will be using it more and profiting from its output. (although I may just keep using Gimp. :-) Point is, if I registered every crappy piece of software that I used once and forgot about, I'd be in the poor house. Some of these registration fees are pretty outragious for what you get.
Then there is the professional software for home hobbiests. Even the student price for MS Visual Studio was outragious on a "thank you come again" wage while I was in college... but then, since I'm out of college and making money, I've got a legal copy of that now too. :-)
God no I'm not giving my email address to these software companies until I actually register something. When I'm looking for a tool for some job, I do a search and may evaluate software from 5-15 different companies. I don't have the time to sit and read each of their privacy policies to see wether or not I'll start getting spam from them or one of their business partners or email list customers. There is no reason anyone needs my email address for me to evaluate something. If they require it, I move on to something else.
Re:Spam in e-mail or telephone form is EVIL (Score:3, Insightful)
Their loss prevention staff has them offering you help so that you don't steal stuff. It reduces theft greatly to have everyone feel "noticed." And if you're not buying, you'll feel compelled to leave.
Apparently, they lose more in theft than they do in pissed-off customers who walk out.
a few *hours*? (Score:2, Insightful)
Unless what you're selling is the one and only tool on the market which does the job it does, in "a few hours" I've found three other products which do what your thing does and I'm busily evaluating them instead. And one of them did the job I need it to. And I've forgotten you even exist.
Unless you really do have a stranglehold on a niche, go have a look around at how your competition deal with evaluation downloads. If some of them are making it even one step eaiser to test their junk, you can bet you're losing sales to them.
Re:Evaluation Software (Score:1, Insightful)
Stop being free-loaders and do some research. The number of companies that actually make money from giving their code and products away for free and living off consulting are few. Take a look around your own town, and notice the droves of consulting groups that are constantly going out of business.
Just because some poeple choose to give it away doesn't give you free license to steal from those who don't. By the same logic, you should be able to fill up a grocery cart with food and not pay because it's possible to grow it yourself and pick it for free.