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A very clever post by CEO Richard White to differentiate UserVoice from Get Satisfaction - and he is right that the two products are different. However I don't

by dotBen 16y ago

A very clever post by CEO Richard White to differentiate UserVoice from Get Satisfaction - and he is right that the two products are different. However I don't agree that customer support doesn't work - it depends on the vertical, type of product and price point. In the UK we have a new mobile phone carrier that is totally customer support driven - you don't get the level of customer service you would normally get but the prices are significantly cheaper (aimed at teens and students who have little money but enjoy hanging out on social platforms).

absconditus 16y ago
The level of support provided by carriers in the US is typically atrocious, but I do not understand how this works. I generally only calling with billing issues. What kind of support are customers providing?
- dotBen 16y ago
  They provide the SIM only with you providing the device (don't forget outside of North America most countries are all-GSM and so every cell phone sold is SIM-compatible). Questions asked and solved by the community include: "how do I get this to work with my iPhone", "what are the APN settings to get data access", "how much does it cost to send a text when abroad" that kind of thing. You can see it in action here: http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Ask-the-community-got-stuck/bd-p/QA1 http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Ask-the-community-got-...
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
aaronblohowiak 16y ago
How would that be differentiated? You can monitor and reply to issues as an official company rep on GetSat.
nickbarnwell 16y ago
As a soon to be poor student very likely to be studying in the UK, what carrier might this be? All I can think of on the low end are Tesco and 3, and both those have decent CS.
- CraigRood 16y ago
  I do believe Ben is talking about Giff Gaff (giffgaff.com)
  - dotBen 16y ago
    Yes, it is GiffGaff. I am a fairly happy Sprint customer here in the US but when I return to my motherland I put a GiffGaff SIM in my GSM phone as they have the best prices for data access bundles.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
rrwhite 16y ago
There will always be exceptions to any rule and GiffGaff seems like quite the exceptional case (They’re even paying customers to do support. This is really cool). Here’s a checklist for whether your company is an exception to this rule: - Do you have a HUGE customer base? - Do you have a very stable product? - Do your existing customer service channels inflict pain upon all who come in contact? :) So if you’re Comcast or AT&T then sure give it a shot (but I think you’d be better off just fixing #3). This is also why almost all the vendors of this type of technology target large enterprises. For the other 99.999% of businesses on the web and pretty much anyone here on HN I’m confident saying that not only does customer-powered support not work but it’s detrimental to your company’s future.

by dotBen 16y ago

absconditus 16y ago

The level of support provided by carriers in the US is typically atrocious, but I do not understand how this works. I generally only calling with billing issues. What kind of support are customers providing?

dotBen 16y ago
They provide the SIM only with you providing the device (don't forget outside of North America most countries are all-GSM and so every cell phone sold is SIM-compatible). Questions asked and solved by the community include: "how do I get this to work with my iPhone", "what are the APN settings to get data access", "how much does it cost to send a text when abroad" that kind of thing. You can see it in action here: http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Ask-the-community-got-stuck/bd-p/QA1 http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Ask-the-community-got-...

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

aaronblohowiak 16y ago

How would that be differentiated? You can monitor and reply to issues as an official company rep on GetSat.

nickbarnwell 16y ago

As a soon to be poor student very likely to be studying in the UK, what carrier might this be? All I can think of on the low end are Tesco and 3, and both those have decent CS.

CraigRood 16y ago
I do believe Ben is talking about Giff Gaff (giffgaff.com)
- dotBen 16y ago
  Yes, it is GiffGaff. I am a fairly happy Sprint customer here in the US but when I return to my motherland I put a GiffGaff SIM in my GSM phone as they have the best prices for data access bundles.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

rrwhite 16y ago

There will always be exceptions to any rule and GiffGaff seems like quite the exceptional case (They’re even paying customers to do support. This is really cool). Here’s a checklist for whether your company is an exception to this rule: - Do you have a HUGE customer base? - Do you have a very stable product? - Do your existing customer service channels inflict pain upon all who come in contact? :) So if you’re Comcast or AT&T then sure give it a shot (but I think you’d be better off just fixing #3). This is also why almost all the vendors of this type of technology target large enterprises. For the other 99.999% of businesses on the web and pretty much anyone here on HN I’m confident saying that not only does customer-powered support not work but it’s detrimental to your company’s future.