RE: Customer Service

["Shores Mark" <shores@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Sean,

I have also had trouble getting Innovative to respond to some of our service
calls.  One time I had to send a strongly worded e-mail which made them
"escalate" the call.  I sometimes send them e-mails on currently open service
calls asking for a status report, but that doesn't often get results.  One
thing I think the company can improve on is returning phone calls.  When we
were having trouble getting our Bursar In/Out module to work, the technicians
promised a return call after checking into some things.  They didn't follow
through.

However, I agree with what Eric Rhee said:   better results are possible when
you call the Help Desk rather than e-mail. When I have worked with a
technician over the phone I've had pretty good results getting things fixed.
Also, they're on pacific time, so I have had better luck getting someone in
the afternoons since I'm on central time.  Maybe it's hard to for them to
find & retain good technicians?

Mark Shores

 


-----Original Message-----
From: innopac-admin@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:innopac-admin@xxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Dave Wiseman
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2003 2:12 PM
To: innopac@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Customer Service


Sean,
I have been on both sides of this situation, both as a frustrated software
customer (not with III), and as a CS rep. for another
(nameless) ILS.
You have received some good advice here.

What will work least well is besieging the helpdesk with lots and lots of
calls, particularly about trivial things, this will ultimately only increase
your frustration as the number of calls mounts.  

Escalation of truly important issues will get them resolved, but you are
going to have to take charge of it. You may need to honestly prioritize your
problems, and try to get them resolved that way. 

Have you talked with someone in management at Innovative? If not, scheduling
a meeting (conference call??) might be a good idea, this will give you a
chance to get all your cards on the table, and will give Innovative a chance
to get your project back under control. If you are able to schedule such a
call, you need to go into the meeting with an eye toward actually getting
problems solved, rather than spleen-venting (as satisfying as that may be).
It sounds like, from your description, that some internal happenings at
Innovative may have had a hand in your situation, it happens, and it's
usually fixable.

Innovative knows (I'm sure) that it's more profitable to keep (happy)
customers than to find new ones, and I promise that you'll find III's support
is as good as any in the industry, and much better than many.

I say this without knowing a single thing about your real situation, so like
all advice, this has to be taken for what it's worth. I can tell some stories
though...

Dave Wiseman


-----Original Message-----
From: innopac-admin@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:innopac-admin@xxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Sean
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2003 11:11 AM
To: innopac@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Customer Service

Hello all,
I am a first time poster to this group, and I was wondering if any other
installations have experienced the unacceptable level of customer service
that our installation has received.  Our complaints with Innovative, to
Innovative, have gone unresolved or otherwise ignored for the past 4 months.
We have several open calls to the Help Desk for critical software issues that
have been opened for months, with no response from Innovative regarding their
status.  We have been an Innovative turnkey installation for over 11 years,
and recently upgraded both our hardware and software.  We were assigned a
project manager 6 months ago, and that was basically the last we heard from
him.  A co-worker discovered that our Implementation Project Manager had
actually quit weeks ago, although Innovative never informed us of this.
Overall, Innovative's customer support is pathetic.  Only when I am in
contact with an actual Help Desk technician do I feel an issue is nearing any
sort of resolution, so we have resorted to opening calls for every issue,
from the most trivial on up.  This seems to be our only solution for getting
problems into the hands of the people who will actually fix them, and even
then timeliness is not guaranteed.
 
Does anyone have any comments to offer as far as the pros and cons of
software-only vs. turnkey sites?  Any other customer support nightmares with
Innovative?  Are we the only installation treated this way? The valuable
dollars this Library District pays to Innovative for monthly fees related to
our turnkey system could be put to much better use by paying someone who can
actually get the job done.
 
Thank you for your input, and thank you for bravely reading my wordy tirade.
 
Regards,
 
Sean Park
Network Administrator
Coos County Library Service District
1988 Newmark, Tioga 104
Coos Bay, OR  97420
spark@xxxxxxxxxx
 


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