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May 2013

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Quote

"I don't want to hate but that's all you've left me with,
A bitter aftertaste and a fantasy of how we all could live,
No regrets, they don't work,
No regrets now, they only hurt,
Sing me a love song,
Drop me a line,
Suppose it's just a point of view,
\But they tell me I'm doing fine,
If I could just stop hating you,
I'd feel sorry for us instead"

—"No Regrets" - Robbie Williams

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Mike Pope

David Penton - SQL

Jason Haley - .Net

Susan Warren

Rob Howard

Scott Guthrie

Mitch Denny

Ben Miller

Elizabeth Grigg

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How to clean the toilet

Monday, 25 April 2005 | I'm gonna BLOG about YOU!

[ Personal Rants | General ]

It happens every time I have EXCEPTIONAL customer service. And isn't that the factor that makes the difference in most comparable products. It all boils down to people. Quick response when frustrated with a product brings a certain type of joy that is incomparable. Quite likely good customer service makes such an impact because we have all spent countless hours of our lives on hold, only to get a rude, incompetent person on the other end who has never used the product. I don't use the term "exceptional customer service" lightly. It must have all of the factors - patience with what may often be just a user error, competence with the product in question, timely response; because whether they are patient and competent if they do not reply in a timely manner then your initial frustration only grows. Of course when we speak of exceptional customer service I must preface this with the fact that the product must be supportable - in other words it must be an exceptional product to warrant a mention in this blog.

ASP.Net Email is a phenomenal product. Aleviating many of the automation nightmares we often encounter when dealing with mass mail. We utilize the product for retrieving XML files (sent from Yahoo) to a mail box to parse them and push them into our SQL. The support team has stuck with me through 2 server moves (mailenable and smartermail) and the response time is AWESOME. They offer support lists as well as individual support at no cost and I can't say I have been more pleased with a product for quick install, quick configuration and seamless integration.

Threat Sentry - from PrivacyWare is another one of 'those' products that has changed my peace of mind. It is an intrusion detection system that smoothly integrates with IIS and notifies me when hackers are testing my security. Not only does it notify me via email but it blocks them based on criteria I have set up. The support team again merits an EXCEPTIONAL rating and I can't praise it enough.

A Tale of Two Gates - Automated gates... while this might be a limited audience I have to tell you guys about my recent 'gate experience'. My mother has an automated gate for 2 years. She has had more downtime then uptime and replaced the mother board TWICE. So when I put in a wrought iron fence and decided to spring for an automated gate it was a clear decision that whatever gate I went with it would not be the brand she chose. I got lucky and wound up with an US Automatic gate. Saturday morning my gate stopped working - okay this happens for a variety of reasons - the motherboard has a reset switch, testing lights that trouble shoot the problem, various DIP switch settings to manipulate the gate, etc... I downloaded the manual (Grateful that it was available to download because I have no idea where my originial copy is - ALL manufacturers should offer PDF downloads of manuals!). I then proceeded to trouble shoot according to manual instructions. Nothing! So for kicks on Saturday morning I emailed the support team from the website. 15 minutes later someone calls me - at home - on SATURDAY morning! He spent an hour on the phone with me until we identified what we believed was the issue (a bad charger - resulting in a bad backup battery). He then told me HE WOULD check back with me. I had different priorities for Saturday so when he called I was not around - I had decided to deal with it on Monday. Guess what? 8:00 Monday morning HE CALLED me again. You just don't find that kind of support from most manufacturers and of course once we were ready to get off the phone I paid him the highest compliment "I'm gonna BLOG about YOU!"

posted at 07:14 AM | comment | permalink