Tech Support Anthologies: Remarkable Customer Service
The entertaining and intriguing Joel Spolsky wrote a recent article on remarkable customer service. He ain't kiddin'. I've made use of Fog Creek CoPilot in the past. In the space of the twenty-four hour day pass, I was able to help two different chorus guys, and install a VNC server for each while I was at it lest we need to connect again.
Yesterday seemed like another good opportunity for CoPilot. Yet another Chorus guy was having issues, this time with PDF reading, which meant he could no longer read the Chorus newsletter. I signed up for a CoPilot day pass, now half the price it was the first time I used it. Chorus guy downloaded the helpee application and ran it, but wasn't able to get a connection to the Fog Creek servers for reasons we still don't fully understand. After we gave up, I called my uncle and offered to help him install Google Earth, hoping to get some mileage, any mileage at all, out of my $5. He turned out not to be very interested. Harrumph, I thought, as the twenty-four hours ticked down.
At lunch, my cell phone rang. What's that, you say? Computer trouble? Hooray, I thought, an opportunity to get my money's worth! I then checked the time . . . my twenty-four hours would be up in fifteen minutes, and I was twenty minutes away from the townhouse. Waa! ddmerillat suggested that I ask for a refund. After all, Joel wants his customers to be satisfied, right? I went home and talked my friend through downloading and installing a VNC server.
I just went to the CoPilot site to see how to get my refund. To my amazement, the home page said I still had time left on my twenty-four hour day pass, even though I'd bought it about thirty hours earlier. Joel anticipated this very situation and implemented the perfect solution: Fog Creek won't collect payment or start the twenty-four hours until the connection has been established. I never got connected, so I haven't even spent the five bucks yet! PayPal says it's only a pending authorization, and CoPilot's documentation seems to indicate the authorization will automatically vanish in three days. The system did the right thing with no human intervention. I count three ways that delighted me and exceeded my expectations, and that's all for an instance in which I couldn't get the darned thing to work! Can you say "remarkable customer service"?
PS: after Chorus guy and I talked, he stayed up into the wee hours mucking with his computer and got Adobe working again!
Yesterday seemed like another good opportunity for CoPilot. Yet another Chorus guy was having issues, this time with PDF reading, which meant he could no longer read the Chorus newsletter. I signed up for a CoPilot day pass, now half the price it was the first time I used it. Chorus guy downloaded the helpee application and ran it, but wasn't able to get a connection to the Fog Creek servers for reasons we still don't fully understand. After we gave up, I called my uncle and offered to help him install Google Earth, hoping to get some mileage, any mileage at all, out of my $5. He turned out not to be very interested. Harrumph, I thought, as the twenty-four hours ticked down.
At lunch, my cell phone rang. What's that, you say? Computer trouble? Hooray, I thought, an opportunity to get my money's worth! I then checked the time . . . my twenty-four hours would be up in fifteen minutes, and I was twenty minutes away from the townhouse. Waa! ddmerillat suggested that I ask for a refund. After all, Joel wants his customers to be satisfied, right? I went home and talked my friend through downloading and installing a VNC server.
I just went to the CoPilot site to see how to get my refund. To my amazement, the home page said I still had time left on my twenty-four hour day pass, even though I'd bought it about thirty hours earlier. Joel anticipated this very situation and implemented the perfect solution: Fog Creek won't collect payment or start the twenty-four hours until the connection has been established. I never got connected, so I haven't even spent the five bucks yet! PayPal says it's only a pending authorization, and CoPilot's documentation seems to indicate the authorization will automatically vanish in three days. The system did the right thing with no human intervention. I count three ways that delighted me and exceeded my expectations, and that's all for an instance in which I couldn't get the darned thing to work! Can you say "remarkable customer service"?
PS: after Chorus guy and I talked, he stayed up into the wee hours mucking with his computer and got Adobe working again!