4 ms·

Why would you want to call me?

11 points by baha_man 18y ago

ibsulon 18y ago
Why? 1. Sometimes, issues require more interactivity, especially for an individual inexperienced with the product regardless of the technical aptitude in general. This is more crucial in issues regarding offline apps, but let's consider an online app. You'll likely need the account name and browser edition. If it's repeatable, you should have the general idea. However, should I spend time reducing it to its essence? What exactly is support going to need for help? I may not even be able to tell if it's a simple or complex problem! 37 signals is lucky to have a well-informed customer base, though.
dhotson 18y ago
Probably the best phone support system I've seen was where if the wait time was going to be more than ~5-10 mins, they would call you back when they were available.
noonespecial 18y ago
Some people simply need to be told to check the power cable and reboot. Many people in your company are capable of giving these instructions and not much more. Some people simply need to be told "use regedit and change DMAmode to 3". There are a few people in your company capable of giving this instruction at the right time. The secret is protecting that latter group from the former. (In both cases). I've found that in most of my dealings with phone support, its the escalation method that is broken. As much as I hate to say it, Microsoft's contract support is actually extremely good at getting this right. I usually get from "reboot" to "regedit" in less than 30 minutes, and they usually fix it.
edw519 18y ago
OP has obviously never dealt with Amazon Merchant Services, which has an automated email support system with x number of stock answers. It handles everything that could possibly go wrong...except for my problem. Think about how illogical this is. They're saying, "We've thought of everything." Well, if you really did think of everything, then why do we even need support? Sometimes you just gotta talk to a human about something not in your script. One customer of mine got so frustrated that he emailed Jeff Bezos, threatening to remove all his business. Funny thing, the phones worked pretty well the next day when 6 different managers called him back.
Hexstream 18y ago
Telephone = Synchronous, Email = Asynchronous. Asynchrony really helps with the performance of a system ;)

11 points by baha_man 18y ago

Why? 1. Sometimes, issues require more interactivity, especially for an individual inexperienced with the product regardless of the technical aptitude in general. This is more crucial in issues regarding offline apps, but let's consider an online app. You'll likely need the account name and browser edition. If it's repeatable, you should have the general idea. However, should I spend time reducing it to its essence? What exactly is support going to need for help? I may not even be able to tell if it's a simple or complex problem! 37 signals is lucky to have a well-informed customer base, though.

dhotson 18y ago

Probably the best phone support system I've seen was where if the wait time was going to be more than ~5-10 mins, they would call you back when they were available.

noonespecial 18y ago

Some people simply need to be told to check the power cable and reboot. Many people in your company are capable of giving these instructions and not much more. Some people simply need to be told "use regedit and change DMAmode to 3". There are a few people in your company capable of giving this instruction at the right time. The secret is protecting that latter group from the former. (In both cases). I've found that in most of my dealings with phone support, its the escalation method that is broken. As much as I hate to say it, Microsoft's contract support is actually extremely good at getting this right. I usually get from "reboot" to "regedit" in less than 30 minutes, and they usually fix it.

edw519 18y ago

OP has obviously never dealt with Amazon Merchant Services, which has an automated email support system with x number of stock answers. It handles everything that could possibly go wrong...except for my problem. Think about how illogical this is. They're saying, "We've thought of everything." Well, if you really did think of everything, then why do we even need support? Sometimes you just gotta talk to a human about something not in your script. One customer of mine got so frustrated that he emailed Jeff Bezos, threatening to remove all his business. Funny thing, the phones worked pretty well the next day when 6 different managers called him back.

Hexstream 18y ago

Telephone = Synchronous, Email = Asynchronous. Asynchrony really helps with the performance of a system ;)