Unsuccessful Pricing Strategy for Inquiry-Based Model

Until recently, one of the appealing aspects of our sound bank for users was transparency. This meant that the system allowed them to see the total cost of their project before placing an order. However, some voice actors were not willing to work with a transparent pricing model. They would only announce the project price after receiving complete project details from the client and reviewing them. Upon client confirmation and payment, the project would proceed.

🔎 To investigate this further, we conducted limited experimental access for some of our valued users.

🥀 Today, after a year of enabling this feature and conducting analyses, we officially declare that, in our view, the inquiry-based pricing model is unsuccessful. Or at least, it should not be the default pricing model in all cases; it should only be utilized for specific situations like special projects such as audiobooks.
One of the main reasons for this perspective is the contradiction of this approach with the principle of transparency. Often, people prefer to purchase products or services with a visible price tag (even if slightly more expensive) and another point is that some users prefer to place orders with voice actors who have fixed rates rather than spending time waiting for price inquiries.
It has even been observed that the time taken to provide price inquiries by inquiry-based voice actors is sometimes longer than the delivery time of voice actors with standard rates!!!

Another reason is the higher rates of inquiry-based voice actors compared to the average rates of other voice actors.
When a user visits the website, they see the rates of voice actors and consider an average of these amounts. Based on their preferences, they might place an order with an inquiry-based voice actor. However, after a few hours, seeing the price difference, they change their mind and switch their order to another voice actor with a lower rate. This results in wasted time for the inquiring voice actor and conveys a negative perception to the user.

What was the purpose of enabling this feature?
Prior to launching the “Price Inquiry Feature,” some voice actors had expressed interest in offering their services on our sound bank with more reasonable rates. However, since other colleagues and sometimes their own students were also members of the sound bank, they were not comfortable with others having detailed information about their pricing. Additionally, for certain smaller projects where discounts were possible, they aimed to announce lower prices to attract customers.

According to the customer support department’s report:

1- 80% of users who placed orders as inquiries on our sound bank immediately transfer their orders to other voice actors after receiving the inquiring voice actor’s rate (unless they are familiar with the inquiring voice actor’s background and experience).

2- The number of orders from inquiry-based voice actors is about one-fifth compared to voice actors with standard rates.

3 – Most users only place inquiry-based orders to get the price and have no intention of finalizing the order. Consequently, the inquiring voice actors spend more time responding to these inquiries.

Our suggestion to address this issue is to allow voice actors to enter necessary details for accurate pricing calculations based on their conditions on the website. However, this is still under consideration and might not be available for voice actors currently. Nonetheless, we are committed to providing the best solution in the near future to facilitate this process.

So please, provide us with your thoughts and suggestions on this journey. 🎙