Adjustments in the FREE package - effective 29th October 2020

Dozens of people work on Smartsupp’s continuous development. Every two weeks we release new features or performance improvements and we are working on bringing more value in the future. Being so driven to improve the product and build new features, we did not realize that the current state of FREE package, with the advanced functions, is far beyond its intended shape.

At the same time, free users were missing (or still are) some very basic setting options. This lead us to much needed changes that concern:

• Detailed Visitor Info
• Chat Assign to Agent
• Detailed Visitor Info
• Custom Chat Box Colors
• Automatic Messages

In this article I want to share the motivation and values behind the changes and why I think it was about time we cleaned Smartsupp.

Order

One of the main team values is order - in  code,  processes, communication etc. Without order we are unable to deliver value to our customers.

We all know what it is like to become so immersed in an activity that the whole world ceases to exist for us. That is what working on version 2 of Smartsupp was for us.

And now that we finally released the new version and are collecting your feedback, it is time for some tidying up. We will clear out the advanced features from the FREE package and enrich it with the basic features that were long overdue.

Our goal is to make sure that what you read on our website is representative of the reality within the product.

Fairness

FREE package has for some time provided access to three features that should not be part of the package according to our pricing. That is understandably unfair to those who pay to access these features (and number of others).

Pricing packages are designed to suit the needs of different types of projects - from a hobby ecommerce project or personal blog (where FREE package makes most sense) to fulltime ecommerce projects that will benefit most from the STANDARD or PRO packages.

We believe that the features that are part of the paid packages represent a business value - they allow for smooth teamwork, conversation analysis or detailed view of visitors’ all-time value - and that they should be available to users of paid Smartsupp packages.

Sustainability

We are constantly working on improving the product and that also means growing costs. As a team, we are glad that features such as detailed visitor info are popular among users and with a lower amount of users, it was possible to have such features in the basic package with manageable costs.

However, as anyone who runs a business in the online environment, we also need to be on the constant outlook for paths to sustainability. We need to create resources for further product investments and development as well as investment into our team, their growth and happiness, because we believe they do a great job and deserve to be rewarded.

What will we cut from the FREE package and what will we add?

These three features will be taken away from the FREE package:

• Detailed Visitor Info
• Conversation History over 14 Days
• Chat Assign to Agent

These three features will be added:

• Custom Chat Box Colors
• Three Automatic Messages
• Messenger Integration that is currently in testing

Switch to version 2 and subsequent hindsight allowed us to realise something. For a long time FREE package had the advanced features available that are apt for highly professional usage, while not having such value for the basic package users.

We are working on a shift. Instead of the advanced features that have no place being in the FREE package, we decided to give you the basic features and setting options that you will surely find more useful.

Tell us your opinion

Are there any more features that you believe should be free or paid? Is there something you want to tell us?

I’ll be happy to receive your feedback. Send me a message at product@smartsupp.com