Hidden Costs:
The Unexpected
How many of you have had work done on your house, car , personal health and come to find out there are always hidden costs?!!
I prefer to work with companies that are very upfront about costs and about capabilities. So, the further Adventures of Matt may surprise some of you, but those who know me, know that I am always up to something and most recently, I (meaning we my wife and I) decided we (meaning the wife) wanted a new kitchen. Now, I love cooking though I cannot claim any great skills; I still like to cook, so a new kitchen sounds great. We begin our research on kitchens.
WOW!
And I mean WOW – those kitchens can cost a lot. Fortunately for me, I have many friends in industry and I have great company I brought in. So far, they have done an amazing job, not only on my floors a few years ago, but also on my new kitchen. When you work hard, you appreciate the hard work and quality service of others.
About those hidden costs. This particular company happens to be very upfront about what they can and cannot do. They are also upfront about the potential cost(s) for any changes and/or shift in services. My kitchen came in at budget and WE Love it.
But, this got me thinking.
How often are we presented with a product or service that has hidden fees or cost that are not really brought up early on in the process? Dwayne Lay recently wrote an article about SaaS products which also ties into additional service: Some Assembly Required. Please read this post, as well. I try to bring up all cost for service early in the process but that are some companies that don’t like to bring them up, so the overall cost of your project, whether it’s an HR Transformation or a new kitchen remodel goes up significantly and unexpectedly.
In the HR Case Management realm, it can mean going over budget and causing projects to take longer than necessary. Dovetail Software, our company, has the highest level of integrity – we believe it’s important – so we are upfront about what we do and the fees, if any, associated. We have SaaS products that really are very easy to implement (for YOU) which do not require a secondary or 3rd-party implementation. Often, our EES (or Employee Engagement Suite) can be implemented by the very people using it. Of course, I have examples of customers that have done this if you would like to know more. 😉
The Real Point?
The point is, I don’t like having to pay more than expected once I have a budget for a project in place and I am willing to bet most of my customers and you don’t like it, either. The question I ask is how do you avoid this? With Dovetail, it’s pretty straight forward. Personally, I like to do a significant amount of research and talk to others who have done a similar project.
What do you do?
If you want to talk to me about kitchens (recently done it!) or HR Case Management ( I happen to sell it!) please reach out, as I would love to talk to you.
