It's odd to me that so many businesses behave as they do. Instead of spending their time making you want to stay with them, they spend their time trying to prevent you from leaving. It's the difference between that company taking your money from you versus them earning your money.
One of the questions I received frequently this afternoon in a public chat about the issue tracker was about the ownership of data in our application. Our stance is simple. If anyone signs up with us, we have a responsibility to enable you to leave our service with as little effort as possible on your part. In fact, if it's possible, I'd like to provide the tools to help you switch services.
Now, we might not be able to cover every import/export option right off the bat, but I guarantee you that we'll do our best. Leaving our service should be up to you, not us. It's only fair. If you signup and use our service, and then you decide there's a better option for you, then we need to either accept that we can't meet your needs and let you go, or we need to bust our ass to satisfy those needs.
This might be a little bit idealistic, but in my mind, it's really just about doing what's right. I only wish more companies felt this way.
We’re creating a simple bug and issue tracker named Sifter and blogging about it along the way. We think it’s a great way to get feedback and keep everyone updated on our status.
Grab our feedWe'll only send emails for significant product announcements, and those happen every couple of months at most. Of course, we won't give away or sell your e-mail address either.
Comments
Totally agree! I see a slow but encouraging shift in applications offering more openness, but still, people have to be reminded to complain if they can't get at their data.
Having said that, sometimes it's better to get an app online asap and then offer that service at a later stage - like my recent http://whichweekend.com Shameless plug sorry! :-)
Anyway, really looking forward to the bug tracker!
Totally agree Garrett, and it's great you guys are serious about this. Data potability is very important for me and I'm sure for many people. It's often a reason to use open-source software, or choose propriety software with at least the options of easily exporting my data.
Eeven if it's just a plain text file, or a simple CSV file or whatever, as long as I have control over my data.
I think it will also be a reassuring thought for many people using a (web) app. They know they can easily export their data. For backup reasons or to use their data somewhere else.
And last, knowing that I can leave whenever I want and I can take my data with me at anytime might even be just enough reason to start using your service in the first place. I bet I'm not the only one :)
Amen! I wish more more companies would follow in these steps. Many of them just don't seem to get it (like AT&T). Either that or they don't care about there customers. They only pretend to.
I think you are talking about the power of inertia.
It's easier to stay than move. It's easier to let an automatic bill pay keep dinging your account than trying to call up and cancel it.
It easier to keep using the software that sucks than migrating to a new platform, etc., etc.
Jack - That's true, but my point was that a lot of companies make it much more difficult than it needs to be to leave their service. Personally, I feel we (and any company for that matter) has a responsibility to their customers to enable, or even help, them to leave without hassle if they aren't satisfied.