Metacard support

[Richard Gaskin]

Alex Rice wrote:
 
> Although the thread is about the metacard project, here my observations
> about the use-revolution list. I guess it is NOT an ambivalence about
> the metacard project, rather support problems in general.
> 
> IMHO there are lots of threads on the use-revolution list that need
> feedback from runrev staff, but they often go untouched.
> 
> Looking at my use-revolution mail folder there are 4061 messages. There
> are only 82 messages from runrev.com. After removing broadcast
> announcements from runrev.com (multiple copies because I'm subscribed
> to multiple lists) then the number is down to 67 messages from
> runrev.com. 42 of those are from Tuviah.
> 
> This amounts to only ~ 1% of the messages are from Runrev staff!

At the risk of sounding like an apologist, they've only recently begun to
expand staffing to match the rather appreciable growth they've been
experiencing.  I suspect that by the time staffing is brought up to match
the growth, the "standard" behavior Wilhelm observed will resume being the
standard.

I've seen this pattern before with many companies in early stages of growth.
In many ways, managing growth in any company is a more complex problem than
even the startup phase.  It'll either pass or the company dies.  Either way
it will resolve itself. :)  In RunRev's case I expect the former.

>> As with most user-to-user discussion forums, while it's always
>> appreciated when Heather, Goeff, Jeanne, Kevin, or others posts
>> there I don't believe they have an obligation to do so.
> 
> In the recent past I've been on mailing lists hosted by apple,
> omnigroup, and realsoftware. I haven't counted, but I estimate that
> posts by staff members on those lists ranged about 5-10% of total
> traffic. That makes a big difference in the feel of the list. The apple
> and omnigroup lists were not even product-related, just general
> programming-on-mac-os lists. Just the fact the lists are hosted @
> runrev.com - I would expect more activity from the staff.
> 
> Recently people complained on the use-rev mailing list about getting no
> response from support at runrev.com. These are people with, presumably,
> current Runrev licenses.

Not getting timely support that has been paid for is an issue, but not one
likely to be corrected on the MC list.  I would encourage you to write
Jeanne on that.

FWIW, the Adobe, Macromedia, and at least one Apple list (the HI-Dev list,
before it was shut down for disturbing political reasons) have a policy of
being user-to-user; the vendor may chime in, but there is no obligation to
provide support through those forums.

But it is certainly a very good idea for everyone, perhaps for the vendor
more than anyone else:  every single question answered in a public forum
saves ten private communications on the same topic.

I opened a user-to-user forum for WebMerge several months ago and my support
costs relative to sales have dropped appreciably.  Part of that is
attributed to the smart, helpful people who post there, and part of it is
that I can address support issues for everyone at one time by posting there.


> Maybe Scott Raney exhibited great tech support, but no matter how I
> look at the current support situation, it doesn't look good, even for a
> small company that's having growing pains.

Scott was a god with responsiveness.  Never seen anything like it before,
doubt I ever will again.  It takes a certain almost OCD-like quality that on
my most obsessive day I only meet halfway.  Yet even in my
merely-halfway-to-Scott-level obsessiveness, I get strong feedback that
tells me its worth the effort, like this email that came in today:

  Thank you very much for your help. It's a shame some of
  the software companies larger than yourselves don't model
  their customer service, support and product quality on
  FourthWorld - I'm not even a customer quite yet, and I
  feel completely secure about your company and software.

Scott inspired a new level of support commitment here, and it has tangible
benefits.  Hopefully as RunRev increases staff size they'll catch the
obsession with similar results.
 
> OTOH a surprisingly high number of posts to use-rev were from yours
> truly. So I guess I should zip it now :-/

Why do we need Rev folks when we have you? :)

-- 
 Richard Gaskin 
 Fourth World Media Corporation
 ___________________________________________________________
 Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com
 Tel: 323-225-3717                       AIM: FourthWorldInc