#reply
>>Then you hung up before you got to a representative. We can't take the
>>blame for that….
Au contraire, mein herr! (WC Fields or Mae West – I forget…)
There is nothing that I heard in any of the top level menus that lead me
to believe there would be a warm body at the end of any of the chains.
As for your contention regarding the availability of FAXes, I guess you
just don't get out of the city that much.
Regarding the work load, that is a managment issue. A good management
team would figure out the cost of support for each product sold and
incorporate that into the price. Don't you think that is a silly argument
becuase we sold so many of them we decided to not to support them? Your
burn-out cynism and "us vs them" mentality is showing. You should want to
talk to your customers, becuase that makes them repeat customers and
affors you a chance to find out what they might want/be willing to pay for
in product features.
Putting in a phone menu with commonly asked questions with canned answers
is a qood way to reduce the volum of frivolous calls and RTFM calls.
('Course improved manuals would do that too, like if the hardware products
came with manuals of the quality [not necessarily the volume] of ImageFX
fewer "I don't get what this is telling me" calls would be generated).
And a callback system allows you to be much more effiecient than a direct
call-in, answer In real-time system. It gives you a chance to do a little
digging, define questions you need to ask to zero in on the problem,
devise a test procedure for the person to do to see if it is an RMA
thing… and if it is a BB/KB/Floppy drive/ADos thing, you ignore it or
put it at a low priority.
And still you cling to the false idea that EVERY detail you might need as
a Tech support can be supplied on the first contact. Now, lets see, be
honest. When you were answering the phones, how many times did your first
response after Hello this is Gary (it is you, it is you, is it not) did
you ask a question of the users. Whenever I called, you guys always asked
several questions about things, many times, so esoteric to the problem
that I would not have guessed they had a bearing on the situation. For
instance, when the Faaastprep Low level format was wiping out the "GVP
Ricoh Removable" drive cartridges and rendering them useless I gave
details of the messages I got, the order of the operations I tried,
everything I had hooked to the card and all the stuff run from my SS. The
first question asked was what rev mother board I had?!? The next question
was how long was the cable. Then there was did it have 25 conductors in it
or only 18? I never would have guesse you needed that informatin based on
a problem that manifested itself after FaaastROM changes and Amiga O.S.
upgrades. You see, there is no 'checksheet" for the "everything' to give
you on a first contact. Problem solving takes discussion, not lecture.
Discussion is a two way phenomenon. You have confirmed that GVP's goal is
to not have discussions by taking one party away from the table.
>>How can an order be placed unless you talk to a human…?
A touch tone phone, a credit card and a menu of products. Isn't that what
is at the end of that chain? You had me fooled, evidently, since I sure
thought thats where I would end up.
BTW, many organizations rotate engineering staff through tech support, or
have tech support people who just take the V/Email/Faxs and distribute
then to an "appropriate" engineer to work them. The idea is that no small
group of people shoulder the entire burden of dealing with the after sales
support. It also helps engineers and designers better understand thier
market.
Anyway, my 2cents to you isn't going to change it, so, let me just say
good luck and hope it works for you andnot against you (you as in GVP).
'Course, the C= situation may make this a moot discussion anyway.
wmc – via Autopilot!