On Mar 31, 2010, at 12:35:29, Markus Müller wrote: > Inspired by a recent blog posting by Manton Reece ( > http://www.manton.org/2010/03/fast_customer_support.html) I started thinking > of how I could improve customer support. > > I‚m curious, how are you handling support? Via a simple email inbox, do you > have some kind of email ticket system (I think fogbugs comes with one) or are > you using a web app like GetSatisfaction, TenderApp,∑?
I consider customer support very important. I try to encourage people to use my forums, so others can chime in, and so people can search for answers to questions that have come up before. I also have a FAQ list. When people contact me via my feedback form, they get an automated acknowledgement, but I don't use a ticketing system. My feedback form has an option for the customer to indicate how urgent their query is, and if they want an answer. If they do want to be contacted, I reply usually within minutes of receiving it. If I'm busy with work that I don't want interrupted, I sometimes quit Mail for a few hours, but I always make a point of checking it soon afterwards, so people don't have to wait long. I maintain "inbox zero", replying to queries as soon as they come in, so they don't pile up. > Which leads me to my second question: How are you handling support when you > are on vacation? Do you make sure every hotel you stay in has WiFi or do you > hire a support person for the duration of your trip? I usually make sure I have WiFi. Last week was an exception: I went on a cruise, and didn't want to pay the exorbitant internet rates on the ship. So I just put a banner on my site saying that I was on vacation and I'd reply when I got back. Which I did. There were less messages than usual, so many people would have held off. I don't think that hiring a support person for the duration of the trip would be a feasible option, unless they were already an expert in the products, since they wouldn't be able to provide helpful answers. -- David Sinclair, Dejal Systems, LLC - [email protected] Dejal blog - http://www.dejal.com/blog/ Cocoa code - http://www.dejal.com/developer/ Twitter - http://twitter.com/dejal/
