[AccessD] Maintenance Fees?

Jim Dettman jimdettman at verizon.net
Sun Mar 2 13:54:31 CST 2014


John,

   I would suggest avoiding maintenance fees.

   Many years ago, I went the route of charging by the hour for anything and
everything and it's worked well.

  I know of other developers that have charged maintenance fees, and while
it gives you a steady stream of revenue, if usually means you need to come
out with a steady stream of enhancements as well.  Otherwise the customer
starts to feel like their spending their money for nothing (and if your bug
free, they are).

  You also can get bit pretty well; customer argues that something is a bug
and should be covered by the maintenance fee, but in your eyes it's not
(i.e. something not explained or accounted for when the software was done).
Then there are the "small changes"; what exactly is a "small change"?
Might seem small to them, but it may not be.

  But usually in the spirit of good customer relations, you generally let
them win.   That can really set you back.

  I like the $/hr approach because it gives the customer exactly what they
want and they know their not paying more then they have to.  

  The only thing that needs to be in place is that they trust you to do your
best when working by the hour and are being productive.

  Makes life a lot simpler. 

Jim.

  

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of John Serrano
Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2014 01:36 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: [AccessD] Maintenance Fees?

Hello,

I have recently written an app in MS Access 2010.
Application went pretty easy, however I am getting calls about "tweaking"
the application or making enhancements. So I was discussing with them maybe
a maintenance fee?

Does anyone charge past clients a monthly maintenance fee? or is it a
straight bill rate time number of hours you work on "whatever"?
If you do, can you give me a ball park range for the east coast of the US
of A.
PA to be exact...

any help would be appreciated, thanks!
-- 
John Serrano
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