4 ms·

24 x 7 phone support for all issues and all business customers (Google Apps)

50 points by cleverjake 15y ago

gerggerg 15y ago
Sounds like a weak effort to respond to an actual customer service problem with vague statistics, meaningless slogans, and one less than shining anecdotal review. Plus, I don't know why a company as big as google thinks it's ok to only provide mediocre support to only business customers. It's not like all the free product users are doing something wrong, or even aren't benefiting google. We all know it's a numbers game these days and it's the free users who give google the numbers. What ever happened to "asking for help"? What ever happened to answering the distress signal?
- cleverjake 15y ago
  >>Plus, I don't know why a company as big as google thinks it's ok to only provide mediocre support to only business customers. In Levy's 'In The Plex' it boiled down to Page not really thinking the cost of support came close to the benefit.
  - elithrar 15y ago
    > In Levy's 'In The Plex' it boiled down to Page not really thinking the cost of support came close to the benefit. And let's not forget, the cost of support, even email-based, is huge. At Google's scale, with the number of customers they have, it would be significant. Plus, this way, they can drive customers towards using Search to solve their problems (hopefully).
- notatoad 15y ago
  how is 24/7 phone support a "weak effort"? it's exactly what everybody has been asking for.
  - ditojim 15y ago
    exactly. google also needs to drive cases to resolution quickly and not just answer the phone, but i think it is safe to say they are constantly working to reduce the time to resolution across the board.
paolomaffei 15y ago
Does this work if you only wait till you have a problem to upgrade to the paid Google Apps version?
- tommi 15y ago
  I see no reason why they wouldn't provide you with the support service after you've upgraded. But do take notice that the upgrade process itself might fail if you have problems. Therefore, it's a big gamble to only upgrade after problems appear.

50 points by cleverjake 15y ago

Sounds like a weak effort to respond to an actual customer service problem with vague statistics, meaningless slogans, and one less than shining anecdotal review. Plus, I don't know why a company as big as google thinks it's ok to only provide mediocre support to only business customers. It's not like all the free product users are doing something wrong, or even aren't benefiting google. We all know it's a numbers game these days and it's the free users who give google the numbers. What ever happened to "asking for help"? What ever happened to answering the distress signal?

cleverjake 15y ago
>>Plus, I don't know why a company as big as google thinks it's ok to only provide mediocre support to only business customers. In Levy's 'In The Plex' it boiled down to Page not really thinking the cost of support came close to the benefit.
- elithrar 15y ago
  > In Levy's 'In The Plex' it boiled down to Page not really thinking the cost of support came close to the benefit. And let's not forget, the cost of support, even email-based, is huge. At Google's scale, with the number of customers they have, it would be significant. Plus, this way, they can drive customers towards using Search to solve their problems (hopefully).
notatoad 15y ago
how is 24/7 phone support a "weak effort"? it's exactly what everybody has been asking for.
- ditojim 15y ago
  exactly. google also needs to drive cases to resolution quickly and not just answer the phone, but i think it is safe to say they are constantly working to reduce the time to resolution across the board.

paolomaffei 15y ago

Does this work if you only wait till you have a problem to upgrade to the paid Google Apps version?

tommi 15y ago
I see no reason why they wouldn't provide you with the support service after you've upgraded. But do take notice that the upgrade process itself might fail if you have problems. Therefore, it's a big gamble to only upgrade after problems appear.