It's always been a bit of a bug bear of mine. Many companies seem to spend a lot more time, effort and resources on attempting to attract new customers than they do keeping their existing clientele happy. The deals new customers get from Sky, from telecoms companies or banks are always better than those deals offered to existing customers whose subscription fees or business they often appear to take for granted.
I mention this because a few days ago I received an email from Dani, the brains behind Sportyy, saying that because there hadn't been many tips issued recently, he'd be extending the membership period by a couple of weeks to compensate. It's not the first time the tennis maestro has made this offer, and it's heartening to see a tipster look after their subscribers.
I count myself fortunate that most of those that run the services that make up my portfolio have, over time, made similar gestures. Just last year, offers were made to current subscribers by On The Nose and Northern Monkey, extending membership periods at a lower subscription rate to help make up for disappointing results.
In this context it was interesting to read Football Elite's thoughts in an email subscribers received today. Matt certainly does carry the burden of responsibility for performance squarely on his shoulders and in what has been a disappointing season thus far, is talking about reviewing the system behind subscription rates in the summer for those that remain loyal to the service through the thin times. I do think that this is something that all good tipping services should look at closely. Rates for new subscribers can be set at a certain level, sure, but if someone is with a service for a decent length of time and has lost money in the short to medium term, is it not worthy customer service to introduce reduced rates in return for sticking with a service for the long term? I'm not disputing that with any service, there will come a point in time where should performance be consistently poor for long enough then a line must be drawn. But in a betting world in which the punter is told to never draw judgements based only on short term results and to keep focused on the end game, to forget the frustrations of losing spells and to be forgiving of the cruelties of variance - in other words to be in it for the long haul - wouldn't it be nice if adopting such a stance was recognised by the ones providing the tips?
The point was made in the Comments section of this blog a couple of weeks or so ago, that subs are paid to tipsters with no guarantee of returns. Of course this is the nature of the beast with gambling - there are no certainities when it comes to making a profit. But tipsters, and indeed any business, that find ways of looking after their customers, particularly when times are tough, should in the long term reap the rewards by way of a more loyal and stable subscriber/customer base.
As I say, I'm fortunate that the services I use treat their customers well. Like anything though, there's always room for improvement if improvement is hard enough sought. To this punter, charging a long term subscriber a lower rate than new customers, regardless of whether performance has been good or not so good, would be an improvement. And if poor periods of results were similarly recognised by lower subscription fees until the points lost had been recovered, so much the better. Over to you, Chaps. :)
Sunday 4th February
Unfortunately I ended up giving most of what I made on Saturday back to the dastardly bookmakers yesterday. Still, a profit over the weekend is a profit I suppose.
The recent rot suffered by Sportyy was hopefully stopped whose one bet returned stakes. Summer Of Football found one winner (Real Sociedad vs Mallorca Over 2.5 goals - 1.95) from two bets to produce a tiny loss. The one Football Elite bet was a loser.
No joy on the horses either, with two On The Nose tips unsuccessful.
On The Nose: Staked 1.75pts, -1.75pts.
Summer Of Football: Staked 2pts, -0.054pts.
Football Elite: Staked 1pt, -1pt.
Sportyy: Staked 2pts, N/A.
Finally, a heads up for anyone interested. On Radio 5Live at 7.30 tomorrow is a program that concentrates on the hard life experienced by jump jockeys and the day to day dangers that they live with. I believe Tony McCoy is shadowed for a day and other notable names of the jump racing world interviewed. It should provide a fascinating insight.
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