TunnelBear: Website Evaluation

With the internet becoming more and more engrained in society, extra precautions must be taken to ensure our online security. Virtual private network (VPN) services are becoming more desirable because they ass an extra layer of protection when surfing the web (Nair & Nair, 2016). TunnelBear is one of the many companies taking advantage of this demand by offering a relatively cheap and easy-to-use service, with stylish and intriguing graphics.

Market Segment: Male and female ages 18 – 55. The use of these artistic and friendly graphics is attractive to both younger and older customer segments as well as those not familiar with online services, widening their customer yield.

The website role is service-oriented with a huge focus on building a relationship with the customer. It does this by offering a free trial version before customer pay the membership fees. TunnelBear also conducts a lot of post-sale communication with their customers in order to build a positive relationship.

Comparing TunnelBear’s homepage to that of a close competitor (OpenVPN), it is clear to see the differences in how the two companies market themselves.

TunnelBear seems far friendlier, easier to use and welcoming. Whereas OpenVPN market themselves as far more technical. TunnelBear’s slogan is ‘’Really really simple privacy apps’’, this is keeping in touch with their simple and easy-to-use and welcoming philosophy. In comparison, OpenVPN’s slogan ‘’Your private path to access network resources and services securely’’.TunnelBear are fairly active on social media with a Facebook and Twitter profile posting regularly and replying to customers ‘’within a few hours’’. TunnelBears lack of an Instagram page is concerning considering it is the current fastest growing social media platform with over 1 billion monthly users (Southern, 2018).

Benchmarking TunnelBear’s social media presence with that of the industry leader, CyberGhost, it is clear that they are lacking. CyberGhost boasts a decent presence on every major social media platform which is definitely a contributing factor to their success.

Mapping a typical customer’s journey is critical to modern firms as it allows them to improve a customer’s experience when dealing with the company, from discover through to post-sale engagement (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016).

Alex:

• 22 year old
• Student – cost is an issue
• Involved heavily with social media
• Looking for VPN for safer internet surfing

Amy:

• 48 year old
• Office worker
• Some knowledge of internet
• Has been asked to find VPN service for her work – cost not an issue

Customer Journeys:

Alex:

• Found out about VPNs on social media
• Researched further on mobile – where he found TunnelBear
• Assessed TunnelBear’s pricing structures and compared with competitors on desktop
• Being a student, he utilised ‘free trial’ version on desktop
• Post-sale engagement saw Alex answer customer feedback via desktop
• Receives promotional material via mobile device

Whilst having a generally positive experience with TunnelBear, Alex was unable as present to afford a full membership however will most likely continue to use the free trial and may become a paying customer in the future.

Amy:

• Found TunnelBear via social media advertising
• Researched VPNs and assessed TunnelBear’s pricing structures along with competitors via desktop
• Utilised chat support to help decide on correct pricing structure for her
• Trialled free version via desktop
• Purchased membership as she was happy with the free trial service
• Took part in customer feedback on mobile
• Received promotional material on desktop

Amy is TunnelBear’s ideal customer. After finding them through social media advertising, Amy utilised the free trial version, which impressed her along with TunnelBear’s stylish website design enough to make her a valuable paying customer.

Negative:

• Price comparison with competitors
• Research alternatives

Positive

• Assess pricing structures
• Help deciding on right pricing structure
• Free trial
• Purchasing membership
• Satisfaction feedback
• Receiving promotional material

References:

Lemon, K.N. and Verhoef, P.C., 2016. Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), pp.69-96.

Nair, S.J. and Nair, T.G., 2016, August. Resource extension techniques in enterprise architectures through cloud connectivity. In Inventive Computation Technologies (ICICT), International Conference on (Vol. 2, pp. 1-4). IEEE.

Southern, M. (2018). Instagram Has 1 Billion Monthly Users, Now the Fastest Growing Social Network – Search Engine Journal. [online] Search Engine Journal. Available at: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/instagram-1-billion-monthly-users-now-fastest-growing-social-network/258127/ [Accessed 10 Dec. 2018].