As part of your expanding product lineup the company has begun to offer software solutions for products that have traditionally been available as hard goods. You were able to keep the costs down but now realize that the amount of support being given to customers has become quite costly.

In an effort to make the product line viable you researched what other companies have done is a similar situation and learn that most of them charge for any customer support given. Your product comes with an extensive users manual and is supported by online FAQ’s. Most of the questions you have been getting are from existing customers who used the previous version of the product. The new customers seem to be more accepting, or more able, to use the support materials.

In an effort to cut down on customer service time you announced 6 months ago that a new service charge would be added for telephone support for questions that could be answered in either the manual or your growing list of FAQ’s. You were comfortable with the timeline and sent out 3 reminders of it to your current client base with links and instructions for your support options.

However, your biggest customer has just called and is furious. They received a sizable bill for more than 50 support calls, and now are claiming that they were never notified. Your support department notifies of the charge with each call that comes in, both before and during the conversation. Detailed records of such calls are logged and in this case are all properly documented. The bill is right.

You mention the notice of policy change and that service records are kept and seem appropriate. The customer becomes more agitated and voices displeasure with the policy, stating that they purchased the program before service payments were mandated. They threaten to walk away if you force them to pay the bill, which you don’t want, but the amount of service time they have used brings their account to a reduced but still significant profit level.

What do you tell them?