Reseller Program

**VOIPoTim** · 03-31-2009 12:20 PM

It'll still be a little while before the reseller program launches.

We do have a Referral Program launching soon though which is similar.

**Russell** · 03-31-2009 08:05 PM

Originally Posted by VOIPoTim

We do have a Referral Program launching soon though which is similar.

Tim,

Some thoughts about a referral program. First, a disclaimer in case this has been previously discussed: I'm new and have not read through past postings and don't plan to.

I've come from Vonage, SunRocket and ViaTalk.

I hated the ViaTalk referral program. However, since I never referred anyone, it was moot. The reason I bring it up is to mention the VT program (at one point in time): 10% off per customer referred at the time of your renewal. I sincerely hope you guys don't come up with something like this. Why? For a reward to be meaningful, I think it needs to be immediate (naturally, awarded after the 30 day trial period is over and the new customer is still on board) and not something to be given a couple of years later. There's nothing like real cash. e.g. $25 a customer. After all, I suspect, you'll be paying the affiliates substantially more (per customer). And, make it easy on the prospective customer and your customer - don't require some obscure referral code or link to be clicked or have your current customers set up some account. As long as the new customer gives you the name of the referring customer or the phone number, that should do. And, if they forget at signup time (it's easy to forget when you're busy making all those choices and filling in your credit card info - all the time wondering if you're making the right decision) give them a few days grace to call in or open a ticket to give the referrer's name. It's the spirit which is important - after all your customer has put in the effort to find you a new one and you want to reward them so they find you more new customers. SunRocket was great in this respect - I referred several of my fellow employees to SunRocket and never missed out on a reward. Some forgot to mention me at sign-up time and SunRocket graciously accepted the referral a day or two later. And, don't ever disqualify a referral because of some on-going special - its a great marketing tool when you have some great special to tell your existing customers and mention that if new customers mention their name when signing up the existing customer will get (e.g.) $25. SunRocket never disqualified - you could always get their special du jour and still get referral credit. Naturally, once you have an affiliate program it is understood that if you go through an affiliate that customer cannot also mention a referral.

**livepublicity** · 06-02-2009 03:13 AM

any news yet.

thanks

**dtrose** · 06-03-2009 08:09 AM

http://www.voipo.com/voipaffiliate/

**usa2k** · 06-03-2009 08:36 AM

Originally Posted by dtrose

http://www.voipo.com/voipaffiliate/

That is not the reseller program.
I expect it would need nice tools like the HostGator reseller account.

**Vumes** · 06-07-2009 01:32 PM

Tim,

Is this still in the works?

**VOIPoTim** · 06-10-2009 09:44 PM

Yeah it's still coming.

Our biggest holdup is not so much doing it from a technical standpoint. It's just a matter of fraud protection and structuring controls for it in the right way.

As an example, it could be messy if a reseller has a fraud signup that makes a bunch of international calls and they're not able to absorb it, etc. So lots of little things like that to deal with.

It happens a lot actually (mostly people wanting to use a "softphone") and we're getting better at catching it quickly (these guys can go through $1K/hr easily), but need to handle it appropriately for resellers too.

**livepublicity** · 12-09-2009 01:16 AM

Originally Posted by VOIPoTim

Yeah it's still coming.

Our biggest holdup is not so much doing it from a technical standpoint. It's just a matter of fraud protection and structuring controls for it in the right way.

As an example, it could be messy if a reseller has a fraud signup that makes a bunch of international calls and they're not able to absorb it, etc. So lots of little things like that to deal with.

It happens a lot actually (mostly people wanting to use a "softphone") and we're getting better at catching it quickly (these guys can go through $1K/hr easily), but need to handle it appropriately for resellers too.

Any updates on this after 6 months?

thank you