Give Me Your Money: The Value of Pricing Transparency
In a world where information is abundant, most companies are leveraging granular behavioral data to tailor customer experiences.
Sometimes this can feel invasive and maybe even manipulative for consumers, as marketers are becoming more aware of subconscious buying habits.
Unfortunately, no matter how well you personalized messaging and engagement strategy -- you can't force someone to buy a product they simply can't afford. Truth be told, your potential customers are demanding transparency.
Well, ask yourself this; are you even offering pricing details -- or are you saving that information for the sales call?
Some companies are not only keeping the customer top-of-mind, they are involving them in the success by providing total financial transparency, so potential customer can make the most informed decision.
Sift Science
Companies Like Sift Science clearly understand the customer, the importance of pricing transparency, and the true meaning of great user experience. Sift Science helps streamline fraud prevention practices, and can easily configure workflows to automate actions based on machine learning predictions or specific data values.
When you approach the site, you are given the option to start a free trial OR contact sales.
Often companies provide too much information, over complicating engagement and forcing the consumer to sift through hundreds of webpages only to find -- no pricing information?
well, look at that - a calculator to help me project my spending as a consumer, and help reduce churn for the company.
Buffer
Buffer takes transparency one step further, and provided a detailed list of Salaries for all team members, Revenues of Buffer’s combined paid plans, Emails (internally transparent to the whole team), Equity and ownership breakdown of the company and Fundraising details and valuation.
Aetna
Insurers have been working to make this financial data more accessible and understandable to consumers. Aetna was one of the first insurers to provide price information to its members.
It does so via its Member Payment Estimator, which provides comparative cost estimates for more than 550 common services, taking into account users' specific plan type and remaining deductible. Users are able to look up total out-of-pocket costs for service "bundles," so they are not surprised by, say, separate charges for a colonoscopy, for the facility, and the professional fees.
Your potential customers aren't mind readers, they aren't even customers yet (see: Potential: considering your worth) -- so how can you expect them to predict the future and buy from you if you aren't providing transparency in pricing?