Google proves SaaS is hard, even for big guys.
A recent story at Google Apps shows once again that software as a service is harder than most people think.
A customer using Google Apps for their intranet had paid for their own domain through Google and their partner eNom. While their account in Google showed their domain was paid for until 2010, on their anniversary date eNom went ahead and expired the domain. eNom put up a parking page and are now receiving confidential company emails.
Obviously, expiring a domain on a customer and throwing up a spam page is not exactly good customer service. What’s worse is that Google considers this a known issue. Ouch.
Given no options to resolve the issue, the customer had to contact support. The only channel to contact Google is through email, and that has a 24 hour turn around. Double ouch.
When a company fails to deliver this badly, it’s important to make it easy for customers to get ahold of you. For tough problems, I often tell people my name, email address, and phone number so they can “wring my neck” if the problem is not resolved.
I wouldn’t pick on Google if this was a one time issue, but if it is a known issue they definitely deserve some criticism for not helping customers more pro-actively. Once again, I am reminded that the hard part of software-as-a-service is not building the software. 15000 engineers can bang out a lot of code. The hard part is the service. That’s what people are paying you for month after month.
SaaS is not just a new distribution method for software with a lovely revenue stream. It’s a new social contract with the customer that we all have to live up to, whether we’re companies big or small.
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4:55 pm
Excellent point. A SaaS solution isn’t a product; it’s a promise. And it’s more than the set of features, narrowly defined. It’s the support, the ease of deployment and configuration, the buying process, the entire experience.
6:04 pm
This is an excellent post, your final point is very well received.
Thank you.
6:46 pm
This guy was using Google Apps for free and registered domain through Google for how much? $10 bucks? Google failed to delegate renewal, but you can’t just blame Google. He should take responsibility as well for not checking with eNom whether his domain was successfully renewed.
For Google, providing these services is a way how to move more people into webbrowser. They don’t do it for profit, it’s more about weaking Windows dominance and destroying their main competitor’s cashcow. Therefore they can’t prove whether SaaS is hard or not because they’re not really doing it.
7:13 pm
I was just having a conversation with someone who said that SaaS accounting / invoicing is a risky space to get into because it is so easy to make a invoicing application — anyone with some programming skills can make an invoicing / accounting application. But the process certainly has not been easy for us and I do not assume it has been easy for FreshBooks. It seems like years after FreshBooks first started, they continue to hire a team of developers to innovate and respond to customer requests.
The SaaS space also calls for a different kind of approach to customer service, fast and personable –which I know Sunir is very good at
At the end of the day, a company like FreshBooks is successful because it has great people who provide great customer service and continuously innovate with their product offering.
9:59 pm
[...] Another fellow blogger added an interesting post today on Google proves SaaS is hard, even for big guys.Here’s a small readingFor tough problems, I often tell people my name, email address, and phone number so they can “wring my neck” if the problem is not resolved. I wouldn’t pick on Google if this was a one time issue, but if it is a known issue they definitely deserve … Peter Cohen, SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors says:. Excellent point. A SaaS solution isn’t a product; it’s a promise. And it’s more than the set of features, narrowly defined. It’s the support, the ease of deployment and … [...]
11:23 pm
I’m not sure how long it’s been this way or was an outstanding issue, but the page shows last updated yesterday (1/29/09) and the status of that problem is “resolved, but contact us if this is affecting you.”
2:22 am
[...] was a sponsor of, yet another reason to be a fan) posted an article on their blog today about the difficulty of Saas.SaaS is not just a new distribution method for software with a lovely revenue stream. It’s a new [...]
12:02 pm
[...] Another fellow blogger added an interesting post on Google proves SaaS is hard, even for big guys.Here’s a small excerptEmail Marketing Systems » Blog Archive » Google proves SaaS is hard, even for big guys. says:. […] Another fellow blogger added an interesting post today on Google proves SaaS is hard, even for big guys.Here’s a small readingFor tough … Peter Cohen, SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors says:. Excellent point. A SaaS solution isn’t a product; it’s a promise. And it’s more than the set of features, narrowly defined. It’s the support, the ease of deployment and … […] … [...]
1:33 pm
[...] Another fellow blogger placed an observative post today on Google proves SaaS is hard, even for big guys.Here’s a quick excerptEmail Marketing Systems » Blog Archive » Google proves SaaS is hard, even for big guys. says:. […] Another fellow blogger added an interesting post today on Google proves SaaS is hard, even for big guys.Here’s a small readingFor tough … [...]
3:42 pm
Thanks for the information. You made an interesting point about the fact that the only way to contact Google is through email, which involves a 24 hour waiting period. As more of us are using email as a main form of communication, I wonder how much customer service is going to suffer? Just like face-to-face customer service, email etiquette is going to have to be a focus to promote customer care.