Since about 2015, when we moved away from the development of online stores (WebProduction) and "began to become" the OneBox product company
https://crm-onebox.com/ru/version/, a strict rule appeared in the company: we no longer make custom.
In plain language, it sounds like this: we do not do anything individually and exclusively, and any line of code that will be written by OneBox - the property and copyrights belong only to OneBox.
When someone orders something from us, it is either included inside OneBox (current or next version), or we do not do it at all. Initially, this was only due to the fact that we can only support one version of the product (the latest). After all, if 10 customers order something individual, we will get 10 versions of the product, and this will be a real technical hell (we had it in webproduction).
After a couple of years, it became clear that in this way we capitalize the product well, and this de facto became our model of work:
- a new client for $400 buys everything that was written earlier
- and can order improvements that are included in the product immediately
- thus the product is getting better and better, the business is capitalized
- when we started doing about 80-100 revisions a week, it became beneficial for all parties.
Answering your question "can customers chip in for improvements?".
Yes they can.
Previously, this support forum did not exist and customers could not build communication with each other, but now it is possible. And there are already such tasks.
But, it is also worth telling what will happen next:
In the coming months, we will introduce such a thing as "for everyone who is on cloud plans - any improvements are free *". Yes, there will be nuances, but the main idea is that customers who pay us consistently and constantly - we are ready to make almost any improvements for them (described on the forum) and include them in the next version. Thus, customers can develop the product on their own, paying $20-30/user/month. Yes, you will need to wait for improvement (but it's free) or switch to the orange / red version of the product (not stable).
This model is much more transparent and fair for users: it is clear what the monthly payment is paid for.