6 ms·

How many companies, even small ones, have that kind of support?

by mirceagoia 14y ago

soupboy 14y ago
I've had a pretty good experience with Dropbox and Amazon. And more recently with Dell (surprise!)
- epoxyhockey 14y ago
  Twitter treated me very well with a PEBKAC issue.
  - mirceagoia 14y ago
    Believe it or not, Godaddy has a good customer service as well.
    - damoncali 14y ago
      This shocked me, but I found it to be true not long ago. Who knew.
    - Karunamon 14y ago
      Have to second this. I've never really had any issues with GD's CS. Fast and responsive. Too bad their policies are so horrid :(
    - blu3jack 14y ago
      I do not believe it. I could relate dozens (well more than one dozen) instances of absolutely unforgivably bad godaddy customer service. Their staff are ignorant, their process is incoherent, their documentation is incorrect or misleading, the tools their customer service staff use are broken. I will shoot myself through the hand before I give GoDaddy a nickel. In fact, I would probably shoot myself through the hand if someone told me I needed to call GoDaddy support. For my own projects, I will happily pay the extra 30-40% to a company that is not disgustingly incompetent.
Alex3917 14y ago
CustomInk's customer service is actually too good -- the last time I ordered shirts they redesigned our logo without even asking us first. At first I thought the font wouldn't load so the substituted a different one, but nope, they actually kerned the whole thing by hand and even changed the rounding of the corners on the graphic to match the new font. In the end I had to tell them that no, I actually wanted the original logo that we sent them, but the whole thing was kind of amusing.
kyenneti 14y ago
Servint. I wish I could handle my customers the way they do it.
jasonkester 14y ago
Small companies can afford to do this much better than big ones, since they're often doing it in house. "White Glove" customer support is one of the few things you can do to beat the big guys when you're first starting out. Joel said it best: Remarkable Customer Service, as in service so good that people actually remark about it. http://joelonsoftware.com/articles/customerservice.html http://joelonsoftware.com/articles/customerservice.html
- pacaro 14y ago
  The first software company I worked for (approx 15 employees) had a system where the devs each spent one day every two weeks on the support desk (we also had a full time support person). We probably scored 1/12 on the Joel test[1], but we definitely knew our customers pain points - the insight I gained from the delta between my understanding of a product and a customer's understanding of the same product has been invaluable. [1] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html
vacri 14y ago
Small ones are more likely to offer it, since they need to be able to differentiate themselves to survive. The author of the story tells of his early days on a tiny budget - what's the bet that he doesn't take support calls now that the company took off, particularly 2am calls?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
pbiggar 14y ago
Not to toot our own horn, but we do (https://circleci.com https://circleci.com). We make Continuous Integration for web apps, and occasionally a customer will have a "works on my machine" bug. I've definitely spent a couple of evenings on the phone helping customers out with this, even though it's clearly not our fault. Every page in our app has a "Help" button, our About page has my phone number on it, our error dialog has a button to contact support. We love when people contact us. To be honest, as much as I enjoy talking to customers, this is just good business, for tons of reasons: - people won't pay if it mysteriously doesn't work, no matter whose fault it is - customer development is essential to a startup, and this creates opportunities to talk to customers (when you're done, have a chat, don't just sign off) - when something is wrong with your service, you have a personal connection to people who want you to succeed - so they tell you the problem instead of letting you accidentally lose customers. - customers with whom you have a personal connection become your biggest advocates. It certainly costs money and time to do this, but I don't think I'm going to regret it.

How many companies, even small ones, have that kind of support?

soupboy 14y ago

I've had a pretty good experience with Dropbox and Amazon. And more recently with Dell (surprise!)

epoxyhockey 14y ago
Twitter treated me very well with a PEBKAC issue.
- mirceagoia 14y ago
  Believe it or not, Godaddy has a good customer service as well.
  - damoncali 14y ago
    This shocked me, but I found it to be true not long ago. Who knew.
  - Karunamon 14y ago
    Have to second this. I've never really had any issues with GD's CS. Fast and responsive. Too bad their policies are so horrid :(
  - blu3jack 14y ago
    I do not believe it. I could relate dozens (well more than one dozen) instances of absolutely unforgivably bad godaddy customer service. Their staff are ignorant, their process is incoherent, their documentation is incorrect or misleading, the tools their customer service staff use are broken. I will shoot myself through the hand before I give GoDaddy a nickel. In fact, I would probably shoot myself through the hand if someone told me I needed to call GoDaddy support. For my own projects, I will happily pay the extra 30-40% to a company that is not disgustingly incompetent.

Alex3917 14y ago

CustomInk's customer service is actually too good -- the last time I ordered shirts they redesigned our logo without even asking us first. At first I thought the font wouldn't load so the substituted a different one, but nope, they actually kerned the whole thing by hand and even changed the rounding of the corners on the graphic to match the new font. In the end I had to tell them that no, I actually wanted the original logo that we sent them, but the whole thing was kind of amusing.

kyenneti 14y ago

Servint. I wish I could handle my customers the way they do it.

jasonkester 14y ago

Small companies can afford to do this much better than big ones, since they're often doing it in house. "White Glove" customer support is one of the few things you can do to beat the big guys when you're first starting out. Joel said it best: Remarkable Customer Service, as in service so good that people actually remark about it. http://joelonsoftware.com/articles/customerservice.html http://joelonsoftware.com/articles/customerservice.html

pacaro 14y ago
The first software company I worked for (approx 15 employees) had a system where the devs each spent one day every two weeks on the support desk (we also had a full time support person). We probably scored 1/12 on the Joel test[1], but we definitely knew our customers pain points - the insight I gained from the delta between my understanding of a product and a customer's understanding of the same product has been invaluable. [1] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html

vacri 14y ago

Small ones are more likely to offer it, since they need to be able to differentiate themselves to survive. The author of the story tells of his early days on a tiny budget - what's the bet that he doesn't take support calls now that the company took off, particularly 2am calls?

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

pbiggar 14y ago

Not to toot our own horn, but we do (https://circleci.com https://circleci.com). We make Continuous Integration for web apps, and occasionally a customer will have a "works on my machine" bug. I've definitely spent a couple of evenings on the phone helping customers out with this, even though it's clearly not our fault. Every page in our app has a "Help" button, our About page has my phone number on it, our error dialog has a button to contact support. We love when people contact us. To be honest, as much as I enjoy talking to customers, this is just good business, for tons of reasons: - people won't pay if it mysteriously doesn't work, no matter whose fault it is - customer development is essential to a startup, and this creates opportunities to talk to customers (when you're done, have a chat, don't just sign off) - when something is wrong with your service, you have a personal connection to people who want you to succeed - so they tell you the problem instead of letting you accidentally lose customers. - customers with whom you have a personal connection become your biggest advocates. It certainly costs money and time to do this, but I don't think I'm going to regret it.