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I have to agree with martey here: the way you did support is fantastic, creating a fake persona is not. People like honesty and hate being fooled. If your custo

I have to agree with martey here: the way you did support is fantastic, creating a fake persona is not. People like honesty and hate being fooled. If your customers found out about Alla, I think they would be very upset. Especially the ones who asked her out!

peterarmstrong 15y ago
That would have been really funny at a .com I was a developer at: our support persona was the CEO's dog's name...
biggitybones 15y ago
At the end of the day I don't think customers care whether it's a script, person or alien solving their problem. All that matters is a great experience and a resolved issue.
- evanhamilton 15y ago
  So if I told you that I wasn't a person but in fact a 15-person team who posts comments across the web, you wouldn't be weirded out? :P
tomkarlo 15y ago
Using a pseudonym for customer support is a fairly accepted practice. Unfortunately, when it's your job to deal with a lot of customers you're inevitably going to have some that are unhappy with your response, no matter how well you do your job or how great your company is. If you deal with enough customers (thousands) over time, some of those unhappy customers are going to try to track you down outside of work and make your life difficult. Customer want honesty from a company / service and good customer support. They want to be able to reach the contact they talked with before again, at the same name / extension. I don't think they generally care very much if the name they're given is the operator's legal name, so long as there is a consistent response from the pseudonym. Especially if you have an easy to Google name (you're not "John Smith"), using a pseudonym for customer support means you can leave your job at the office at the end of the day and not worry about risk to yourself or your family.
- evanhamilton 15y ago
  I'd argue that a pseudonym is /very/ different from having all support responses come from a a fake person. "tomkarlo" could be a pseudonym and I'd be fine interacting with you...but if I find out that "tomkarlo" is actually 12 employees at Microsoft posting on boards across the web, I'd be very upset.
dblock 15y ago
Now, 15 years later I totally agree. I definitely had all of the intentions of fooling clients into believing that I had a bigger company than I actually had - inventing personnel speaks for itself. I wouldn't do it again.
- alphamale3000 15y ago
  Do your clients really need to know the size of your staff? The most intriguing part is about the BVI incorporation and the cash withdrawals in Geneva. Do you plan to elaborate on that in a further post? Is it worth the trouble?

peterarmstrong 15y ago

That would have been really funny at a .com I was a developer at: our support persona was the CEO's dog's name...

biggitybones 15y ago

At the end of the day I don't think customers care whether it's a script, person or alien solving their problem. All that matters is a great experience and a resolved issue.

evanhamilton 15y ago
So if I told you that I wasn't a person but in fact a 15-person team who posts comments across the web, you wouldn't be weirded out? :P

tomkarlo 15y ago

Using a pseudonym for customer support is a fairly accepted practice. Unfortunately, when it's your job to deal with a lot of customers you're inevitably going to have some that are unhappy with your response, no matter how well you do your job or how great your company is. If you deal with enough customers (thousands) over time, some of those unhappy customers are going to try to track you down outside of work and make your life difficult. Customer want honesty from a company / service and good customer support. They want to be able to reach the contact they talked with before again, at the same name / extension. I don't think they generally care very much if the name they're given is the operator's legal name, so long as there is a consistent response from the pseudonym. Especially if you have an easy to Google name (you're not "John Smith"), using a pseudonym for customer support means you can leave your job at the office at the end of the day and not worry about risk to yourself or your family.

evanhamilton 15y ago
I'd argue that a pseudonym is /very/ different from having all support responses come from a a fake person. "tomkarlo" could be a pseudonym and I'd be fine interacting with you...but if I find out that "tomkarlo" is actually 12 employees at Microsoft posting on boards across the web, I'd be very upset.

dblock 15y ago

Now, 15 years later I totally agree. I definitely had all of the intentions of fooling clients into believing that I had a bigger company than I actually had - inventing personnel speaks for itself. I wouldn't do it again.

alphamale3000 15y ago
Do your clients really need to know the size of your staff? The most intriguing part is about the BVI incorporation and the cash withdrawals in Geneva. Do you plan to elaborate on that in a further post? Is it worth the trouble?