I used to work in the media. We would get special treatment because companies knew we were opinion influencers. We didn't know it was happening, but the license key or other information would be their tip-off to provide us with VIP service. Quite often that prevented us from giving accurate information to our readers.
If you are a company offering products/services, this service is great because it lets you give the media, investors, etc. that special treatment that you might not ever give a "normal" customer. That can let you cover up for inadequate customer support, products and procedures that aren't quite ready, etc. Heck, you could even hide or show parts of the site based on the VIP status, so for example those VIPs would think some extra-pay service was part of the free offering.
Maybe I'm looking at the worst-case scenario here, but a company that decides to use this service is going to be tempted to give those people special treatment. Perhaps they can make some more money by letting schmucks like me pay to get on the VIP list so they'll treat me nice too.
Totally agree. Some people are just not normal Joe users. It totally makes sense to give a bit of a pop to those in your VIP list. Also gives something for these extra Joes to inspire to. This dynamic totally exists in the real world so its nice to see it starting to happen in internet land too.
Just curious, but do you think this gets creepy at any point? Is this your expectation if you sign up with your company's email for a service you're reviewing?
Only a few publications like Consumer Reports actually buy the stuff they review, everyone else goes to the vendor and asks for a review copy or free membership. If their support team asks for license info or if it's linked to your email (even not a company email) it's easy to tag that license as deserving special treatment. Sometimes you suspect it's going on but there's no way to avoid it, especially when there's some sort of "preview" arrangement before the public even gets to see it.
If you are a company offering products/services, this service is great because it lets you give the media, investors, etc. that special treatment that you might not ever give a "normal" customer. That can let you cover up for inadequate customer support, products and procedures that aren't quite ready, etc. Heck, you could even hide or show parts of the site based on the VIP status, so for example those VIPs would think some extra-pay service was part of the free offering.
Maybe I'm looking at the worst-case scenario here, but a company that decides to use this service is going to be tempted to give those people special treatment. Perhaps they can make some more money by letting schmucks like me pay to get on the VIP list so they'll treat me nice too.