Sharing the personal insight on getting the right consumer support.
Anjan Dhar , 05 March, 2014
"Exact Consumer Support at the right time can save anyone from a deadening frustration."
I believe almost everyone round the globe has felt the genuine requirement for a good consumer support at some point in their life. I have felt the need many times and suffered few frustrating responses from the consumer support.
I was always wondering that, do they not love the product for which they give the support? Sometimes it also occurred to me that the support person was not well versed with his products. As the reply was something other than I asked for. Why such response? Are they placed forcefully to reply? All these mind consuming thoughts kept swarming in my head for a very long time, without any possible reason for their existence.
Until a year ago, I came in contact to the other end of the support chain at Ready Bytes. It was the first time I was amongst the people who were associated with the services directly. It was then that I realised that the support system is a chain linking both the ends. I also realised, the efforts to hold the chain in place has to be implemented from both the sides (consumer as well as support side). Ready Bytes has a reputation of good support at the JED and I discussed my age old doubts from the developers over here. Here are few points that I wish to share with everyone on this planet.
How to get the fastest support with best results?
Search support forum for exact responses.
Itâs one of the smart ways for the subscribed users to save their precious time. Just before posting your support query, a quick search for your issue can present you with the exact situation any individual had faced earlier. Now all you need to do is read the solution present before you, that may have been given over days in the first place.
Yeah, itâs boring and tedious task. I also hate to go through all the documents and manuals before jumping up on my new gadget or a piece or software. In general I try to learn the functionalities while experimenting in the real time. But, believe me if you get stuck at any point a quick peek on the specific document can save you hours of time instead of waiting for a support engineer to help you personally.
Any confusion in the documents? Let the team know fast.
Our globe is a multicultural mix n match. A word of fun on a corner of earth can also mean an insult or indecent remark to another at another place. So, it becomes quite an enormous task to keep in sync the language used worldwide. So, it is advisable and appreciated if you point out any confusion in the support documents you came across while reading. This process is also far quicker that sorting out the issue right from the scratch.
Notice the active hours.
Everyone knows that the earth is separated into different time zones, but many times we seem to forget it in the hours of our need. One should keep a note of this basic principle to avoid any unwanted frustration.
Compatibility.
One of the easy ways to save the time is to check for the product compatibilities beforehand. It means to check the specifications required to run any extension whether itâs the PHP, Joomla or javascript version.
Different forums for different issues.
This mistake is something I have personally committed many times earlier. It gets quite tricky when elaborating our issues at the support forum. I used to get overwhelmed with emotions while describing my troubles and bombard a specific support official with all my queries. Whereas the smart way is to separate different issues over different forums. That way its very much possible that more than one individual will attend to your different forums and get you resolved quick.
Try giving the best details in the support forum.
More details could be given
I do not stand to mock anyone but to discuss what the above form misses. In the above form the issue is told but the important parameters are left out like
PayPlans and Joomlaâs version
Error Messages.
After posting an issue a genuine reply is expected from the support staff, but in this case the reply will be an another post asking the above mentioned details. Meaning further delay. In case of Joomla you can also enable the error reporting from the backend and send the error messages generated. All the details allows us to improve, mature and give robust replies in a single go.
A good support query
Always have a test site.
I remember an very old proverb, âPrevention is better than cure.â This can be rightly implemented here. Everyone should have a test or a copy of their complete website. All the testings or fresh installations should be performed on the test site first . If all is well then move it to the live site. Yes, this takes time but saves you from the emergency situations and the panic requirement for an immediate support.
Also, our support policy allows you to use the sub domains, of the registered domain. So, why take the risk?
Should Override instead of direct modification.
This step is strictly for the joomla users. Many times we feel the urge to customize the website templates as per our needs. In the process of beautification we go on coding and developing but each time we update any extension the modifications are reverted to the original files. To escape this fate we should override instead of direct modification.
Support for the third party apps, from third party only.
A very common mistake that wastes most of the time. For an example: A third party app integrated to PayPlans is used by an individual. He faces an issue, contacts us. We inspect and recommend to address the issue to the third party developer. But the client keeps insisting PayPlans developers to sort it out. It is not the right thing to do. It looks logical enough right now but we miss this point most of the time and get delayed.
Feature requests not on support form.
The sole task of a support form is the compilation of troubleshooting replies, not the compilation of feature requests. Feature request can be posted via contact us form of a company or itâs specified area but not on the support form. As you will be writing your ideas painstakingly but they might get missed over the time at the support forum.
Social media support should be avoided.
Same as the above point social media is not a place to discuss the personal technical issues. Most of the time people get tempted to discuss the issues on social media but it is not a healthy practice as those support can never be compiled for anyoneâs reference plus it is not safe to exchange the sensitive data and credentials on an open environment.
Active subscription required.
The growth of any company depends completely on your interest. If the services are outdated and not required no one will pay for it. But, if you need a service then please have a legitimate subscription. Your funds always serves as a motivation and a resource to continue the research and development unhindered. Never ask for free help.
So, these were some of the observations I collected from our developers who give support. Yeah developers, we at Ready Bytes do not believe in different support section. We strongly believe that, "The person who created an extension will be far more better in giving effective support than a different support staff ".
If you have any questions or any ideas that skipped the observation here, donât hesitate to let us know below.
