Subject: Re: [OT] Tech support commentary
From: Chuq Von Rospach (chuqui@plaidworks.com)
Date: Sun Oct 21 2001 - 12:01:44 MDT
On 10/21/01 10:43 AM, "Brian Watson" <bcwatso1@uiuc.edu> wrote:
> Get a mac. :)
Even mac's need tech support. Just a lot less.
> Tech support is great for the newbie questions/general problems that
> we all have had at one point or another, but the tech support lines
> usually aren't equipped to deal with more specific questions.
Depends. Depends on the support group, on the question, on the technology. I
sure wouldn't generalize like this.
> I find that forums of users/developers of programs help get more
> "advanced" issues resolved more quickly and thoroughly than through a
> tech support line.
And fostering stuff like that's been a big part of my job since about 1996.
But ti's a mixed blessing, too.
In reality, you need support for both the common ('easy') stuff, and the
really obscure, nasty stuff. The stuff in the middle, user forums and
self-help stuff works well, if it's fostered and managed properly. But those
forums aren't all that good at the gritty, one-off, weird stuff, and aren't
very good at the tough, "need to call engineering" kind of problems.
Now, some support orgs aren't good at that, either, but that's a failure of
that organization, not an inherent failure of support.
The big problem is that to do support right is brutally expensive, and
people hate paying for it. Doing support mostly-okay is merely moderately
expensive, and people hate paying for that, too. So no matter how you run
your support org, you basically can't win. No matter how you run it, and
what your success rate is, people will hate paying for it, and the few
failures are all people hear about, because happy folks never post to mail
lists saying "god, these guys rock". So the public perception of ANY support
list is biased by the reality that all most folks hear about are when the
system doesn't work -- and even if it's the user's fault, they'll blame
support (who can't argue back...)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Sun Oct 21 2001 - 11:13:17 MDT