Customer Treatment

Managerial study years ago revealed that obtaining a new customer is several times more expensive than retaining and existing one. Some companies therefore focus efforts on providing excellent service in lieu of expanding their marketing budgets. As the satisfied customers result in future orders they also become advocates within their sphere of influence often recommending a product or servce. Such personal referrals are several times more likely to convert into a customer than a cold lead from an advertising campaign. In spite of the evidence, the business decisions often do not reflect the value of existing customers.

With the introduction of Leopard (10.5) operating system for Macs in October of 2007, Apple indicated that support for PowerPCs and the old infrastructure would go away with a future release. Software written for PowerPCs was given extended shelf life by the presence of Rosetta under the Intel platform. This allowed new users to continue working with older applications while software developers caught up by rewriting for the new platform.

Nearly two years later, we are at the doorstep of Snow Leopard (10.6) release. For the last several months, the Apple community and software developers have been preparing for the launch by testing compatibility and ensuring a smooth transition to the new operating system. This new version will enhance performance, open the door for 64-bit architecture, and nearly eliminate the support for Rosetta. So far, so good.

Enter Epson, one of the major sellers of printers and scanners. The main support page welcomes visitors with a link straight to a page detailing Mac OS X Snow Leopard support. Carefully scripted corporate PR message explains further:

From here, one would assume that Epson is right on the money by providing a list of devices and offering a download. Instead, a much uglier reality emerges:

No matter which device you select, the same PR department instructions profess Epson's committment to their existing customer base by offering software that has been obsolete for 2 years. Why are existing customers forced into a degraded experience? What does this approach from Epson indicate to their potential customers?