Personally, I hate having to call customer service for help
since most of the time you get some guy on the line who clearly would rather be
somewhere fishing or hanging out with his buddies. Even if you manage to get
the guy actively involved in the call, most of the time he can’t help you
anyway, you’re on your own!
It’s even worse in the software industry where you basically
do everything online. You have to rely on emails and phone calls and rarely have
the luxury of somebody actually going to your office. We’ve all experienced it
before, you call Tech Support to get a hand with some software that you just
purchased and it turns out that you always get some automated message, voice
mail or phone menu. Good luck if you try sending an email, you’ll most likely
get a reply in a few weeks and by then you’ll have grown so frustrated with the
software and the unreliable support that you’ll just opt for uninstalling a
solution that you paid good money for.
Well I was sure that this scenario would unfold again when I
was looking to purchase a SCOM add-on named Xian Network Manager 2012 from a
company called Jalasoft. What this does in a nutshell, is that it extends
Operations Manager’s network monitoring capabilities and provides you with an
array of features that SCOM just doesn’t have. As you can imagine, I hit my
first roadblock during the installation, since I wasn’t very familiar with the
product. So I thought, God here we go! I gave Tech Support a call fearing that
I would get yet another answering machine, but to my surprise I got an actual
person on the line. I was then quickly transferred to an engineer who was able
to pinpoint the problem in a few minutes and get me back on track.
A few days later I hit a second snag. I thought to myself,
“no way are these guys gonna be as efficient this time around”, so I gave them
a call just to test my theory. I was in awe when I was greeted by the same
person as last time who again transferred my call to another tech support
expert. I was happy to find out that this guy was just as efficient as the last
one. We quickly set up an online meeting along with some members of their development
team where they personally took a look at my setup and before long, the issue was
fixed and my setup fin-tuned.
All the while, both of the support engineers and developers I
talked to where polite and patient with all of my demands. That’s just
something you don’t find nowadays, and for free. I hadn’t even bought the
software at this point, I was only testing to see if I would go forward with
it.
Well I decided that Xian Network Manager was a good fit for
my organization so I wanted to begin the purchasing procedure which I thought
would be as painful as a penicillin shot. You won’t believe it, but their Sales
Team was just as responsive as their Tech Support staff. I was able to purchase
the software in a matter of hours and received an Invoice the very same day
that I sent my Purchase Order. I was even able to have my environment up and
running with a temporary license until my wire transfer cleared through.
All and all I was so pleased that I just had to write this
article for all the people that feel there is no hope when it comes to Tech
Support. Cheer up!! There are still companies
out there who take pride in offering quick and effective support with a
personal touch.
Robert Seidl- Consultant
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