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What happened to "asking for help"?

alwinhoogerdijk.com

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Re: What happened to "asking for help"?

#11

Post by gaustin »

wccrawford wrote: post #2

The problem is the normal response to their questions. Most companies, or even just people, will respond negatively to bug reports, especially if they aren't good reports. This has trained the users that they shouldn't bother asking. Instead, they do what gets them results: They complain publicly. See, you can't ignore them if they're speaking publicly. Everyone else gets to see the problem and response, or lack ther…

It's also quicker, easier and more effective than navigating most companies' support tools. I don't want to spend half an hour or more registering, confirming and entering a bug report that will most likely be ignored.*

* A company taking reports seriously in a visible way is a rare occurrence in my experience.

Re: What happened to "asking for help"?

#12

Post by marquis »

We provide immediately an invitation for our users to interact with us, such as having a 'click to call' button on our login site at all times and having start page that asks them to contact us. Before we made it obvious that we actually have a great support team, there was certainly less interaction and our users have responded well to these changes. Can you put a splash screen on your app that makes it clear that you're available to help?

Re: What happened to "asking for help"?

#14

Post by jroseattle »

Google -- that's what happened. They enabled crowd-sourced customer service.

The chances someone else has already encountered a similar problem? Good or better.

The chances someone else already commented online about the problem? Good or better.

The chances somebody else posted about how to address the problem? Good or better.

The chances of a Google query's response time being better than direct customer service? Whatever the maximum of "good" is.

Combined with most companies lack of decent customer service, it's obvious it has come to this.

Re: What happened to "asking for help"?

#16

Post by beder »

We just had this problem. Someone posted a 1-star review on the App Store saying:

> I create puzzles under the username: [---]. The editor is designed to allow you to upload an increasing number of puzzles as a reward for earning high ratings on those puzzles you've created so far. However, if the rating drops, the puzzles you can upload may actually drop. This is lame and unfair. Numerous times I've trashed a puzzle with the intention of replacing it with a new one, only to find that I am now not allowed to upload a new one because my max number of uploads has dropped. Fix this and I will give you 5 stars. Otherwise I will stop uploading puzzles altogether.

The annoying thing is, he's absolutely right. We didn't think of this use case, and we're fixing it right now (it should be rolled out within a few days). But it's so frustrating that he felt like he had to threaten us ("otherwise I will stop uploading puzzles altogether") and didn't even think to contact us first.

And what's more, he decided that our game deserves 1 star, even though he's clearly played it for many, many hours, and presumably has really enjoyed it.

Re: What happened to "asking for help"?

#17

Post by anothermachine »

wccrawford wrote: post #2

The problem is the normal response to their questions. Most companies, or even just people, will respond negatively to bug reports, especially if they aren't good reports. This has trained the users that they shouldn't bother asking. Instead, they do what gets them results: They complain publicly. See, you can't ignore them if they're speaking publicly. Everyone else gets to see the problem and response, or lack ther…

If you didn't bother to ask for help, how do you know they wouldn't have helped?

I bought a book from No Starch Press, and I hated it. (Possibly due to my own fault.) I wrote to them to complain, and they refunded my money and told me to throw away the book.

Re: What happened to "asking for help"?

#19

Post by qjz »

They’re addressing other users, asking “Is anyone else having this problem?” What’s that about? How is finding other with the same problem going to help you?

Sounds like the user hasn't ruled out a configuration error or buggy device and is simply looking for a solution. This is due diligence before reporting a bug (along with reading the documentation, of course).

Re: What happened to "asking for help"?

#20

Post by TheAmazingIdiot »

beder wrote: post #16

We just had this problem. Someone posted a 1-star review on the App Store saying: > I create puzzles under the username: [---]. The editor is designed to allow you to upload an increasing number of puzzles as a reward for earning high ratings on those puzzles you've created so far. However, if the rating drops, the puzzles you can upload may actually drop. This is lame and unfair. Numerous times I've trashed a puzzle…

I, on a few occasions, have went the nice route by firing off an email (or phone call) about problem and have it deleted or a form letter sent back. In essence, my problem was ignored.

In that case, I went on Google and linked my name to a nasty complaint. Lo and behold, they called or emailed back and solved it if I removed the negative feedback.

Time and time again, if I complain publicly and become a cost sinkhole I get results. If I am a sheep, I get nothing.

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