Nic, my all-around support guy, has been here almost a year now.  He has done an amazing job and I don't mind saying he really goes above and beyond to make sure our customers happy.  If you contact us through our primary support channels (email or our help desk) you know that you can expect a response in just a few minutes.  Only when he needs information from someone else does that cause a delay.

This morning I was greeted with the following FAQ question posted by someone on Snowcovered:

Where do you do your Product support? Your use of your own Forum is very poor. The latest question was 10/18 and I for one posted a question a week ago and it is not even showing. I do think you have a good product but your support, especially because your product is a FORUM, leaves questions in my mind of who will I get help from. Who is going to update the product? And please don't give me the "Ask Questions Here". You have a public forum. Either close it down and point all of your customers here or support it.

 Not a good way to start the morning.  I replied in less than 20 minutes with the following:

I definitely appreciate your comments. We have several avenues for product support which are detailed on our contact page, product documentation and various forums. Primary support can be handled through email (support@-------.com) or by creating a help desk ticket on our site. We also have a section of private forums for our customers. We do not handle support questions on our public forums for several reasons. We have a pinned post on the public forums that explains this.

I do see that you obtained Active Forums through the Flatburger promotion. On 11/30 we provided you with access to our customer forums where you can also access our community support forum.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,
Will
willm@-------.com

The customer then emailed me shortly after with a few stronger comments to which I also replied, once again defending our support process.  The part that truly shocked me is that we offer direct email support, help desk and phone, but this customer couldn't understand why our forums weren't our primary support mechanism.  The customer later replied with the following:

I have had several DNN module vendors provide abysmal support from their website forum and claim that they do it all from Snowcovered.  It is hard to tell for sure what mode of support is used from vendor to vendor.  To be honest as a new DNN convert I have spent to much on too many poorly supported DNN Modules.  Even the DotNetNuke forum will often let questions go unanswered. 

Will, I have revisited your website to see where I went wrong.  It is clear to me that you have a much better approach to support that I was aware of.  You are absolutely right about my support preferences as a customer.  I hate software support forums.  I much prefer phone support first and then email as a second option.  I see you also are using your ActiveCases to manage service tickets.  I had even used it!

 I consider myself fortunate that this customer actually contacted me with his original question.  I am sure that there are others just like him that jump to the same conclusion.  This customer pointed out how he came to his original conclusions and I have to agree that what he noticed is valid.  Only we can see how many support issues we are handling each day.  Even though we may have a full day working with customers, this isn't reflected in our own forums.  I can now see how this new customer perceived that we did not support our products, when that couldn't be further from the truth.  Over the next few days we will make some changes to the site to better communicate support options and product news.  We will also do a better job responding to pre-sales questions that are asked on our General Discussion forum.     

Now to answer the original question: How do we support our products?


Product Support

1. Email: support@.....com
2. Help Desk
3. Community Support Forums
4. Phone - Subscription customers

Pre-Sales or General Questions

1. Email: sales@...com
2. Phone
3. General Forums

Please do not use the Help Desk on Snowcovered for support.  If you do create a help desk ticket over there you will immediately receive an auto response message providing you with details on how to contact us. 

Active Modules is a live and well, working as quickly as possible on new products and feature enhancements to our existing product line. 

As always, I welcome your comments.

Thanks,
Will