You know what I hate most about poor product support?

[Gary Peek]

You know what I hate most about poor product support
from many companies?

Our customers get used to the poor support and assume
ours is no better! Sometimes they don't even contact us.

I sick and tired of our customers struggling with an
issue, or worse, assuming we do not have a solution to
their problem, because the assume they won't be able
to communicate with anyone in our company that can
answer their question, (or perhaps even gives a damn).

How can you get your customers to just pick up the phone
and call you (on a toll-free number no less!) and let you
solve their problem rather than getting irritated that
your product is difficult to use or doesn't have a
particular feature?

(Mainly a rhetorical question/"vent" type posting)

Gary Peek
Industrologic, Inc.

[Mark T.B. Carroll]

Gary Peek <***@mycompanyname.com> writes:
(snip)

Post by Gary Peek
How can you get your customers to just pick up the phone
and call you (on a toll-free number no less!) and let you
solve their problem rather than getting irritated that
your product is difficult to use or doesn't have a
particular feature?

What a good question. I don't know the answer, but I can throw some
ideas around:

My temptation would be to have the product price include a minimal level
of support at some nominal compulsory extra fee, so that they call as
part of getting their money's worth. You don't want to end up too
beholden to them, though.

One way can be to have online fora on your website, boards where people
can post their questions and suggestions and see representatives of your
business give useful or encouraging responses. Then people can see in
searching for information about their issue that your business does care
about after-sales feedback and support. (Some companies get this exactly
wrong, and the message boards are filled mostly with customers talking
to each other wondering WTF they can get any actual help.)

I assume that you've tried including an explicit plea with the
literature that comes with the product that people do exactly what
you're trying to get them to?

Of course, it can help to provide as many ways as possible for them to
get in touch with customer-facing people: snailmail, e-mail, IM, boards,
telephone, fax, whatever, as some customers much prefer some modalities
to others.

-- Mark

[v***@yahoo.com]

Mark T.B. Carroll wrote:
]

Post by Mark T.B. Carroll
Of course, it can help to provide as many ways as possible for them to
get in touch with customer-facing people: snailmail, e-mail, IM, boards,
telephone, fax, whatever, as some customers much prefer some modalities
to others.
-- Mark

I agree that an online message board is good as you will often find
happy customers doing customer service for you for free!