Are there some lessons for MYOB and Intuit?
The Canstar Blue survey also revealed that “80% of small business said that accounting software was crucial to their business” and that 51% said that value for money was the most important factor. This may be one of the reasons that MYOB slipped sown the rankings as Canstar Blue commented that MYOB started at $29 per month while Xero was $25. What is interesting is that price is not the same as value for money as Intuit starts at $12 per month and yet its user base is clearly not that much of a fan club.
While Intuit did finish last, with a lower score than the previous year, its scores would still rate in the satisfied area of a survey. Clearly customers are not dissatisfied with their software, they are just now as satisfied as Xero ones are.
“This is a strong performance from Xero,” said Head of Canstar Blue, Megan Doyle. “Small business owners are determined to get great value for money from their accounting software, but they also demand quality service and support when they need it. Our results show that Xero is exceeding the expectations of its customers while significantly growing its subscriber base to 250,000 Australian small businesses.”
The survey also doesn’t differentiate from on-premises software and cloud software. While Canstar Blue comment on pricing for the cloud, it is possible that the respondents for MYOB and Intuit may not be cloud customers, but have that software on-premises. Xero does not offer that solution and therefore this is not just a vote for Xero but also for cloud-based solutions.
Australia is a key market for Xero and many of its developments such as Xero Tax are aimed at that market, this is doing the cloud SaaS company no harm at all.
Conclusion
This is a welcome survey for Xero and will no doubt fuel even greater growth across the country. MYOB will need to look in detail at the responses and work out how they can win back customers. If this is a trend being seen one would expect them to drop their prices soon to at least match Xero’s.
Intuit meanwhile will need to rethink their strategy for the country or risk becoming the forgotten accounting solution in Australia, possibly even dropping off the chart in the next few years.
Crap. And honestly “are their lessons”? You cant even spell the Kings’ English and you think that you ought to be taken seriously. This kind of ill considered poorly thought out survey really gives me the squirts. And you never even mentioned Reckon. Truly poor form.
Kevin, thanks for catching that editing mistake.
As to the survey, perhaps you should take that up with Canstar Blue and Colmar Brutan. We simply reported on the Canstar Blue press release and had nothing to do with the commissioning of the survey. According to the Canstar Blue website the requirements for any company to be listed in the survey result is a minimum of 30 responses. I’ve pasted the details of this below.
Ian
Canstar Blue commissioned Colmar Brunton to survey 801 small business owners and decision makers (i.e. the main decision maker for a small business) across a range of categories to measure and track customer satisfaction with products and services related to their business. The outcomes reported are the results from customers within the survey group who own and have used accounting software – in this case, 454 people.
Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included. Results are comparative and it should be noted that brands receiving three stars have still achieved a satisfaction measure of at least six out of 10.