Frustrated with Customers !
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You seem to forget that dealing with customers is part of running a business. If you're just interested in programming then you should probably think of getting employed somewhere. Having said that, I understand it can be frustrating when customers don’t 'get' it and are confused about basic terminology ('download' instead of 'install') but at the end of the day they are interested in your software because it helps them in one way or another (you don't mention in your post what your software is about). They just want to get it installed, use it to do whatever they need to do with it and move to something else. Anything which prevents them from doing this (be it their fault or not) will not make a successful experience. You should probably try to think of making this process as smooth as possible. First of all, does it really need to be sent by post? Why isn't it possible to download the software directly from your site (in fact it’s probably what they expect and that's why some use the word 'download' instead of 'install' when they contact you). Installing a piece of software from a CD is more uncommon now than, say, 10 years ago so you really go against the flow (and more importantly against their general user experience). You say 'Sometimes they just mean that they are having a hard time getting it registered with the code I give them'. Again, do you really need to do this (giving then a code), couldn’t you send them a file by email (with a specific extension). They would just have to double-click on it, your software would read it and extract the code for them automatically. This way the user wouldn’t have to do anything (simply copying and pasting can be tricky for some...) . Another option would be for your software to connect to your web server when it's launched and check if the user has paid or not and if so download the licence code automatically. I'm not saying this is the way to go. I'm just saying there are different options you might want to think about. Basically every time a user complains about something even if it is trivial and shouldn't even be an issue ask yourself if what they're trying to do is really necessary and cannot be automated for them. The less a user has to think the better....
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Your experience just confirms what I have long believed: Most businesses would run much better without customers. 8)
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Your experience just confirms what I have long believed: Most businesses would run much better without customers. 8)
It's just a rant..I get frustrated even though I handle the customers with kid gloves. That's what the lounge is for, otherwise I would be pulling my hair out. I am sure there are customers who have their rants for customer service people too :) I love my customers, I love my customers...my new mantra.
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This is just a rant. I provide a CD that I ship to customers to evaluate the software before buying. So it's a try before you buy thing. 30 days, no credit card required.Really, it's free to evaluate it. I have it clearly posted that there are NO refunds because of the try before you buy period but I do offer remote and email support for a full 90 days. Sounds fair to me. Still, occasionally I get people who email me at 5 minutes to midnight that if I don't help them in the next 30 minutes that they want a refund. By the time I see the email the next day it's long past that 30 minute window. I am nice. I offer to assist them. 9 times out of 10 that's all they want. But it irks me that they have to put in the "I will ask for a refund" statement before even giving me a chance to help them. I don't usually give refunds, but if I have a customer who is a real PITA or one that I know will become a PITA I sometimes do give them their money back, just not to have to deal with them. Also, they make these statements that " I can't download your software". When they mean "I can't get the program installed". They have the CD in hand, so downloading is not a problem. Sometimes they just mean that they are having a hard time getting it registered with the code I give them and OOOPS! they have the caps light on or some small issue. Sometimes they even have the wrong program installed and are trying to register the wrong one. Or they demand I call them, even though they know i don't have phone support. Remote yes, email yes. I have to explain to them that remote support is much better than phone support. I have used remote support and they think that the program files folder is in the control panel. So they keep installing and uninstalling the program over and over and over. Ok, rant over. :rolleyes:
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You seem to forget that dealing with customers is part of running a business. If you're just interested in programming then you should probably think of getting employed somewhere. Having said that, I understand it can be frustrating when customers don’t 'get' it and are confused about basic terminology ('download' instead of 'install') but at the end of the day they are interested in your software because it helps them in one way or another (you don't mention in your post what your software is about). They just want to get it installed, use it to do whatever they need to do with it and move to something else. Anything which prevents them from doing this (be it their fault or not) will not make a successful experience. You should probably try to think of making this process as smooth as possible. First of all, does it really need to be sent by post? Why isn't it possible to download the software directly from your site (in fact it’s probably what they expect and that's why some use the word 'download' instead of 'install' when they contact you). Installing a piece of software from a CD is more uncommon now than, say, 10 years ago so you really go against the flow (and more importantly against their general user experience). You say 'Sometimes they just mean that they are having a hard time getting it registered with the code I give them'. Again, do you really need to do this (giving then a code), couldn’t you send them a file by email (with a specific extension). They would just have to double-click on it, your software would read it and extract the code for them automatically. This way the user wouldn’t have to do anything (simply copying and pasting can be tricky for some...) . Another option would be for your software to connect to your web server when it's launched and check if the user has paid or not and if so download the licence code automatically. I'm not saying this is the way to go. I'm just saying there are different options you might want to think about. Basically every time a user complains about something even if it is trivial and shouldn't even be an issue ask yourself if what they're trying to do is really necessary and cannot be automated for them. The less a user has to think the better....
When you've been on the OWNER side and are responsible for paying the bills and collecting the monies you tend to be much more tolerant of problem customers like described here. If on the other hand you’ve always been employed you're much more likely to be less tolerant. It’s a tough issue with no easy or simple fix. In the end the world as well as IT Support would be a lot better for all if all involved were more tolerant and not so quick to take out their frustrations on others especially when the person you're taking your frustration out on is the one you need to help you. It would however be of use to have some method of filtering out the less tech savvy customers from the more competent ones so that those who do things like not plug in the computer before calling for support can get directed to a low level tech while the customer who knows how to build a computer from scratch gets connected to a support person who’s not going to ask the dumbed down questions like “:Is your computer turned on”.
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This is just a rant. I provide a CD that I ship to customers to evaluate the software before buying. So it's a try before you buy thing. 30 days, no credit card required.Really, it's free to evaluate it. I have it clearly posted that there are NO refunds because of the try before you buy period but I do offer remote and email support for a full 90 days. Sounds fair to me. Still, occasionally I get people who email me at 5 minutes to midnight that if I don't help them in the next 30 minutes that they want a refund. By the time I see the email the next day it's long past that 30 minute window. I am nice. I offer to assist them. 9 times out of 10 that's all they want. But it irks me that they have to put in the "I will ask for a refund" statement before even giving me a chance to help them. I don't usually give refunds, but if I have a customer who is a real PITA or one that I know will become a PITA I sometimes do give them their money back, just not to have to deal with them. Also, they make these statements that " I can't download your software". When they mean "I can't get the program installed". They have the CD in hand, so downloading is not a problem. Sometimes they just mean that they are having a hard time getting it registered with the code I give them and OOOPS! they have the caps light on or some small issue. Sometimes they even have the wrong program installed and are trying to register the wrong one. Or they demand I call them, even though they know i don't have phone support. Remote yes, email yes. I have to explain to them that remote support is much better than phone support. I have used remote support and they think that the program files folder is in the control panel. So they keep installing and uninstalling the program over and over and over. Ok, rant over. :rolleyes:
I've seen a signature around here:
SELECT * FROM [Users] WHERE [Clue] IS NOT NULL------------------------- 0 row(s) returned :) You shouldn't take silly people to seriously, make them to comply to your rules. -
This is just a rant. I provide a CD that I ship to customers to evaluate the software before buying. So it's a try before you buy thing. 30 days, no credit card required.Really, it's free to evaluate it. I have it clearly posted that there are NO refunds because of the try before you buy period but I do offer remote and email support for a full 90 days. Sounds fair to me. Still, occasionally I get people who email me at 5 minutes to midnight that if I don't help them in the next 30 minutes that they want a refund. By the time I see the email the next day it's long past that 30 minute window. I am nice. I offer to assist them. 9 times out of 10 that's all they want. But it irks me that they have to put in the "I will ask for a refund" statement before even giving me a chance to help them. I don't usually give refunds, but if I have a customer who is a real PITA or one that I know will become a PITA I sometimes do give them their money back, just not to have to deal with them. Also, they make these statements that " I can't download your software". When they mean "I can't get the program installed". They have the CD in hand, so downloading is not a problem. Sometimes they just mean that they are having a hard time getting it registered with the code I give them and OOOPS! they have the caps light on or some small issue. Sometimes they even have the wrong program installed and are trying to register the wrong one. Or they demand I call them, even though they know i don't have phone support. Remote yes, email yes. I have to explain to them that remote support is much better than phone support. I have used remote support and they think that the program files folder is in the control panel. So they keep installing and uninstalling the program over and over and over. Ok, rant over. :rolleyes:
:laugh: Glad I'm not the only one! I have several customers who require hand holding and can't seem to follow the simplest of directions. (hate to see those numbers come up on the caller id!) They have become accustomed to having me remote into their systems to help them with everything. My rant would have to be the volumne of support documents, web pages, etc. that largely go unread, or customers that just click through multiple warnings that they are about to delete all records shown, and then wonder where all of their data went!!! or they want to report an error, but can't remember what the error message was, or what they did to cause it. My favorite though, is when they get a new workstation and simply copy the program files from the old workstation and just can't understand why the program will not run. (techs especially do this)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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This is just a rant. I provide a CD that I ship to customers to evaluate the software before buying. So it's a try before you buy thing. 30 days, no credit card required.Really, it's free to evaluate it. I have it clearly posted that there are NO refunds because of the try before you buy period but I do offer remote and email support for a full 90 days. Sounds fair to me. Still, occasionally I get people who email me at 5 minutes to midnight that if I don't help them in the next 30 minutes that they want a refund. By the time I see the email the next day it's long past that 30 minute window. I am nice. I offer to assist them. 9 times out of 10 that's all they want. But it irks me that they have to put in the "I will ask for a refund" statement before even giving me a chance to help them. I don't usually give refunds, but if I have a customer who is a real PITA or one that I know will become a PITA I sometimes do give them their money back, just not to have to deal with them. Also, they make these statements that " I can't download your software". When they mean "I can't get the program installed". They have the CD in hand, so downloading is not a problem. Sometimes they just mean that they are having a hard time getting it registered with the code I give them and OOOPS! they have the caps light on or some small issue. Sometimes they even have the wrong program installed and are trying to register the wrong one. Or they demand I call them, even though they know i don't have phone support. Remote yes, email yes. I have to explain to them that remote support is much better than phone support. I have used remote support and they think that the program files folder is in the control panel. So they keep installing and uninstalling the program over and over and over. Ok, rant over. :rolleyes:
My experience has been that there are certain people who are not happy unless they can find something to complain about. This can apply to individuals as well as companies. I have a client who feels they must come up with a new complaint at every status meeting. Things like "the background should be bluer" make it to the top of their punchdown list. Getting the app to work correctly is sometimes secondary. But then it becomes apparent that they don't know how the app should work. We've had them call up and complain about a certain option has appeared on a menu and we have to then locate the e-mail where they insisted it had to be installed or the application was unusable. Usually to save face they insist it be removed. More development time down the drain. And no, we are not billing them for time. Some salesman quotes them a fixed price (without consulting development to find out how much it would really cost) and we end up eating the development costs. Salesman smugly explains he is keeping their business (and takes a commission). No responsibility for him. It will be development that takes the blame for it being late or nonfunctional from the almost non-existent specifications. The worst was when they insisted we had to provide this massive reporting system or they would take their business elsewhere. Management rolled over and gave it to them for free. Took months to develop. Sometimes they use it four times a month. Mostly it is used once every four months. But still they come up with "issues" that need to be addressed immediately with it.
Psychosis at 10 Film at 11
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My experience has been that there are certain people who are not happy unless they can find something to complain about. This can apply to individuals as well as companies. I have a client who feels they must come up with a new complaint at every status meeting. Things like "the background should be bluer" make it to the top of their punchdown list. Getting the app to work correctly is sometimes secondary. But then it becomes apparent that they don't know how the app should work. We've had them call up and complain about a certain option has appeared on a menu and we have to then locate the e-mail where they insisted it had to be installed or the application was unusable. Usually to save face they insist it be removed. More development time down the drain. And no, we are not billing them for time. Some salesman quotes them a fixed price (without consulting development to find out how much it would really cost) and we end up eating the development costs. Salesman smugly explains he is keeping their business (and takes a commission). No responsibility for him. It will be development that takes the blame for it being late or nonfunctional from the almost non-existent specifications. The worst was when they insisted we had to provide this massive reporting system or they would take their business elsewhere. Management rolled over and gave it to them for free. Took months to develop. Sometimes they use it four times a month. Mostly it is used once every four months. But still they come up with "issues" that need to be addressed immediately with it.
Psychosis at 10 Film at 11