We encourage anyone buying a product or service to think critically about why it may be sold by subscription. In some cases, the subscription is tied to consumables. In other cases, the subscription is tied to access to content (like streaming services). Sometimes, it’s just a supplier who did the financial calculus and forces it for the shareholder returns.
In other cases, such as with our cloud-enabled access control software platform Teleporte, it’s tied to constant updates to keep up with phone models, security updates, and real-time support for your operational peace of mind. We continue to add value over the lifetime of the subscription, and our customers choose us over other solutions because of this added value.
We believe that our Teleporte subscriptions are valuable for the advanced features that are possible with keyless systems. We also believe that there is far more value for our customers in these systems than the price of the subscription. For customers who agree with this, they will continue with Teleporte Enterprise or Standard.
For customers who don’t see the value, or customers who simply have budgets cut (like many of our municipal customers did at the start of the pandemic), then we have Teleporte Basic. It’s free, and allows the locks to maintain basic keyless access functionality, but they otherwise behave like mechanical locks, with no reporting and no advanced features. It’s our way of providing assurance that we’re never going to hold you (or your property) hostage.
We sell new hardware with a minimum one-year Teleporte Enterprise or Standard subscription. We want our customers to have some time with a subscription package to experience the value to their application and organization, and then make an informed decision whether to renew. We also offer packages for customers who prefer to just pay once, up-front.
Selling a one-time purchase can be easy. Keeping loyal customers, who renew their subscriptions, requires a different level of service, reliability, and product quality. We want our customers to love, value, and renew their Teleporte subscriptions, and we do the work to keep them happy.
We see good reasons for some offerings to be structured as subscriptions. Ultimately, the decision on whether a subscription is a good value and a smart buy is up to the customer. In our view, it’s really important that the structure and costs of an offering is clearly explained in advance, so that the customer can make an informed decision.
If you’d like to learn more about Teleporte and our access control hardware solutions, book a demo at www.sera4.com.