Where has the Customer Support Gone?

I am proud to be a part of the SaaS (Software as a Service) industry most of the time, but not when it comes to discussions about customer support. Lately, I have been shocked and appalled by what some companies deem 'customer service,' and am angry for all the customers out there who have wasted countless hours of their lives listening to cheesy hold music for the sake of trying to figure out what is usually a simple issue. Whatever happened to the mentality that we are here to serve our customers? Where would we be without them?

Barriers to Customer Support

Here's how I see it: The industry is just simply getting lazy and greedy. Not only will most companies make you wait for a response, but many are also now charging you for support. You read that correctly - charging you for support. Some support costs are even in the neighborhood of $150 an hour. This is how they treat you AFTER you buy their service? I don't think so.

In addition to the major problems with charging for service, many of these same companies make it impossible to talk to a real person. Instead, you talk to a machine, or you submit an email ticket. We've all been there, and when you are having an issue with a business-critical program, you need answers at that moment, not in four hours. These days, the automated phone call is all too common – and so is ending up on the phone with someone you can’t understand. Everyone has seen the clever ‘This is Peggy’ commercial from Discover. We’ve all been on the other end of a frustrating customer service call. Check out the website GetHuman.com, which provides a listing of the numbers you can call to reach an actual person at major companies. How sad is it that there needs to be a website like this?

So, what's the solution? It's simple - make a commitment to your customers. Novel idea, right? As an industry, we all need to take a more vested interest in our customers. With the services many of us provide, we are an integral part of our customer's day-to-day business, so we should be there for them whenever they need us. We should be showing them that we value and respect them as a customer, and will do anything to keep their business.

Here's how we do it: All of the customers who have purchased our SphereWMS offering are like gold to us. We make sure that we touch-base with customers on a regular basis. And, when there is a problem, 80 percent of issues are solved within 2 hours. We survey our customers after every ticket closed. From that survey, we ask if they would refer us - 98.6% responded yes. We understand how important it is to you, and so it is important to us. Learn more about SphereWMS and our commitment to service.