Didn’t vote because I think this poll should allow multiple selections. All of the top four “yes” options look good to me, and I don’t want to pick one over the others.
Didn’t vote because my answer would be neither good or bad about the scenario presented. I’ve been on both sides of the table. As a customer I’d expect any tech support person to automatically pass my problem on to someone better suited to solve my problem. So if that happens, I just feel that the support team is just doing their job. The main thing a customer wants is to feel that he/she is not being neglected and his/her problem is being addressed. Of course, also provide a date/time when the problem is expected to be fixed.
Ultimately it isn’t where the defect is, it’s the fact that the end customer is getting decent updates on the progress. You could hide your developers behind a massive iron curtain and have them pass notes to tier 1 so long as the case progresses and the customer sees/experiences evidence of that progress.
Put the developer on the phone once or twice and neve call back, or show any kind of progress towards resolution and it wont matter - they’ll hate you.
I am a customer of a medium size software firm. I know they recognize my problem as serious when the escalate it and I appreciate it. Especially if I am under a deadline. The company let me down in a big way when we were doing an upgrade and I was very, very frustrated as the result could have affected us globally.
The main part of their problem is that they insist that all issues communications be via email so they can easily log it. This is exacerbated by the fact that the front-line help desk folks must rotate their minds from problem to problem as in, spend 20 minutes composing an email that asks me to zip certain files and send them. When I do, they are now working on someone else’s problem and may not get back to mine for 2-3 hours. When they do, I get another e-mail asking a minor question.
The next day, they come back with instructions and ask me for the results. And so it goes.
I just want to scream “Pick up the phone, call me! Let’s solve this!”
I recently requested they close an issue twice. They kept asking for files and tests from one of our writers after I told them we had created a workaround and didn’t have time to spend on the project. Not that I don’t appreciate their desire to get to the root of the problem - but I would appreciate it if they understood we have to meet our own deadlines at the same time.
I’m a SysAdmin. Usually when I call a help desk one of my primary goals is to bypass the tier one guys as quickly as possible. I don’t know all the answers, but I generally know the products in question as well as or better than the phone jockeys. I’ve had more than one ticket transferred to development and more than one patch written for me. So getting to a developer and having them take me seriously is always a win in my book.
This kinda stuff is lethal to a software vendor in my world. I have a ton of customers who have little problem paying for support plans but when the support plans are emails and callbacks in 24 hours, it is almost totally worthless to me. I am an onsite service, when I am at a customers location, its usually because they cannot work until this is resolved. If I cant have an answer inside an hour, I am usually spending hold time looking for another software solution.
I had a customer whos Point Of Sale software provider will not send out disks or allow downloads in any way. The only way to get their software installed/worked on, is to send them a computer, they will fix it/install it, and ship it back, for $500. This is for a pretty simple straightforward POS app for a drycleaning place.
Oh and a new copy of the software is $5600
As a (now unemployed) software developer, I expected that issues of any significance (i.e., not minor UI glitches) would be brought to my attention immediately, after TS had thoroughly gone through the usual PEBCAK procedure and base-level debugging.
I’m a little biased because I develop software but:
There is a toolset I use that is pretty darn good. More importantly though, if I have an issue they always keep me informed. They say that they can’t reproduce it, can I give sample code that does. They also say that they are definitely willing to make sure the product does what it says it does and will keep working until it does.
It is this support that keeps me going back to them and makes me recommend them to anyone who needs similar tools.
Pretty much this.
The distinction between “support” and “development” doen’t really mean anything to me, frankly. If you need to seek help from others in your company, that’s fine, but the fact that it’s a “developer” doesn’t do anything to impress me.
That’s not a negative comment by the way. It sounds like you’re dedicated to fixing problems and communicating honestly with your customers. That’s the important bit.
I guess it depends who tells me. If a call centre told me that I would think it was bullshit.
In the scenario you paint, I would be glad it was escalated, though disappointed it hadn’t been recognised previously.
I’m a unix/linux admin. Any company that shows evidence of actually caring about software defects, and takes as aggressive action to resolve them as you outlined would quickly end up on my short list of preferred vendors. Of course, just telling me that you’ve escalated it to dev isn’t that much evidence, but keeping up with communication, and actually getting results (hey look, a patch) would be.
Communication is really key. I often need to explain to various levels of management where we are in problem resolution. Telling them that it’s with your company’s dev team is good for a few hours, maybe a day; being able to tell them that you found the bug, are coding, are testing, etc., really makes a difference.
Good tech support from any size software company isn’t that common, and is always welcome. It sounds like the culture of support you’re creating will be a solid foundation for your company to build from.
I’m a financial analyst for one of the world’s largest tech support companies. Escalating from phone jockey to basic support to advanced support to developer is a standard part of our phone support process. Our customers are generally sys admin types, so I assume it would be an open process telling them they are being kicked to the developer.
As long as your developer is actively working the case, and not just a guy you tossed the hot potato to, it’s a good deal, and customers should be appreciative of the effort being put into their case.
I really like this scenario. I’m a lawyer, not a programmer (or a bricklayer, Jim!), but I’ve got enough technical experience that I’m likely to understand a higher-level explanation of the problem and your approach to it - and if I can’t, I can always ask you to dumb it down a bit. I’d also appreciate that you’ve got the actual dev team working on my problem.
It usually takes me a few weeks to deal with people like you. I am the person answering the phone but I am also the highest level support person here. So, if you want to kick it up to a higher support rep (and I can’t talk you out of it) you get my manager, who is just that, a manager, you will quite quickly get sent back to me so we can resolve the situation.
(After a few weeks, this clears itself up when they realize that I do, indeed, know stuff.)
I chose the second one. I like it when I know that I’m speaking to someone who has the ability to admit defeat and bump my problem up to someone who can actually help, rather than stick to a script no matter what.
Of course, it follows that I’d expect the issue to then be resolved quickly 
I voted no - other reason, because I would expect that I’m being sent the bedbug letter.
I voted yes - I voted the first ‘yes’ but the others apply equally.
But it would also make me sigh and be resigned to getting new software.
I voted number 3. I’m a developer at a small software company, and I’m usually the person the support folks come and ask when there’s a weird problem. I’d just hope the person it’s been referred to is as good as me.
I reported a problem to our on site support tech yesterday. His response was that the Boise office was aware of the problem and was working on it. I told him the thought of Boise working on anything did not give me a great deal of confidence.
I thought he was going to bust a gut laughing.
Does that answer your question?
:dubious: Because the devs there aren’t very good, or because it’s the city of Boise?