Hi Michael,
> Sounds like a few sour dealers out there terrified > of users actually doing things themselves.....
Nah, actually the other way around, we long for users who can do things right themselves. Just for history, the debate goes back a lot further than 6 months, more like 5-6 years. Over the past years some users complained very loudly that Panasonic had no right to require training to get their software, and they expressed that us dealers were just ripping off customers. The same dealers who are always passing along free advice on this list every day.
Most users on this list are quite savvy and can figure out things with a little prodding and appreciate good help, only a few ever got nasty. Most dealers/installers on the list are also quite happy to help others solve quirky problems, we learn from everyone's questions. The reality of the telecom world though is that the savvy end users are the minority among system users. The ones here on this list are the ones who decided to search it out. Out of about 350 to 400 TD customers of mine, I've only had about 4 who ever asked about being able to program it themselves, and after trying, only 1 continued but he now has enormous respect for my skills and calls me regularly for assistance.
My experience is similar to yours. I gave out the maintenance tool once to a customer who is also a friend for over 30 years.
He probably uses it once or twice a year and still calls me for assistance.
I've gone both ways on small-item service. I had one customer that insisted that I drive to his location twice a week and call each
department to see what assistance they might need. Geeze, ya fool. What do you think they make telephones for? It was in the 12th
year of one of those county official things and all the county commissioners that I started with had retired, so I did too. Oh, they
let me write the maintenance agreement for my successor, but that's another story.
I feel guilty going to a customer to change a jack, or even to reprogram a phone. I have one customer who calls every time they get a MAJOR
power outage and we actually reprogram his entire system over the phone (123211 8x24). I have yet to charge him and we have this down to
about 30 minutes. I just read it off the cheat sheet I have and then I ask if they need more phones or any other maintenance. His one referral
a year is more that I could ever get from a 30 minute phone call service call and certainly less annoying that flying or boating to his site for a
30-minute service call.
Of course there's a down side to that too. I remember about 12 or so years ago I told a customer to just force delete a subdirectory on his
computer voice mail system. He did the wrong one and my insurance company paid him $5000 in 1992 dollars for business interruption.
Needless to say, I had to find another insurance company, but my new one was very specific about completed operations :-)
The TDA is going to open up an entirely new way of doing business and I'm sure that it will work out in the end. Becoming TDA certified represents a
larger investment than the TD series and requires a larger commitment to Panasonic that in the past. Maybe Pana is trying to tell you to get a TAW if you
want to do it yourself and a TDA if you don't. Not many large customers want to program their own phones anyway and there's always remote maintenance.
Carl Navarro
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