Hey team,
This is as much a concern or request from a creator as it is from a customer. Right now, the cost to upgrade my campaign to one that allows me to have team members is extremely steep, and simply very hard to rationalize. The 4 percent increase in cost is just…a lot. And, really, its benefits aren’t worth the price hike.
I have no interest in a Dedicated Partner Manager, which simply sounds like a fluffier term for better customer support. Unless there is a detailed guide that explains what that Manager provides for me, the only reaction I have for the benefit is a resounding “I don’t need it”. I’ve gotten to where I am because I can handle my page and my content, and I’m sure that a lot of other creators feel this way as well.
These managers are obviously the major cost to you as a company, which I totally get, and is why the 4% increased cost is needed. However, the other benefit, the team accounts, is strictly a digital switch that needs to be turned on. For that reason, I have a very hard time understanding why I need to spend hundreds more each month to get a team-accessible account.
I believe that the following is a better pricing plan that will attract a lot more creators to jump on the feature and make incremental upgrades:
- A fee of $50 a month per additional team member on your Pro account. We can add or remove members as needed.
- We can upgrade our Pro plan to a Premium one for an extra 2%, instead of 4%, that lets us pay our team members directly from our Patreon earnings: allowing them to take a percent of monthly earnings or a flat amount. This would also let us give our team members more exact limits on what they can and cannot do on the account.
- Call the current Premium plan the Executive plan instead, which comes with the partner manager person from your team. And be very clear about what that involves, because right now, it’s super vague.
I would love to have team members. I would love to pay them each month directly from my earnings. But paying 4% to you each month for a simple upgrade feels exploitative, and doesn’t make me want to upgrade because I feel taken advantage of.
I’m proud of Patreon for making great changes lately and trying to keep up with the fast pace of the digital world. I’m very grateful that I can be a creator full-time because of the platform. I want to see it continue to grow and succeed, and while I do not mind you taking percentages of my income to support yourself, I do want to feel as though my plan costs are earning me services that are relevant to me.