Congrats to MadCap for being a "Best Web Support" winner

[LTinker68]

MadCap Software was announced as a winner of the "Best Web Support" for a small business (http://www.asponline.com/awards.html). Apparently web support covers MadCap's support website, their knowledgebase website, and this forum, so that means we users helped them win! Way to go guys! (where's the little hand-clapping emoticon?)

[MikeKatz]

Congrats to everyone! I can certainly attest to the fact the support all round, including here, is top-notch.

[SteveS]

...where's the little hand-clapping emoticon?...

Clapping.gif

[CharlesJet]

MadCap Software was announced as a winner of the "Best Web Support" for a small business (http://www.asponline.com/awards.html). Apparently web support covers MadCap's support website, their knowledgebase website, and this forum, so that means we users helped them win! Way to go guys! (where's the little hand-clapping emoticon?)

Wow. Glad I did my series on their tech support. I didn't even cheat and ask someone at MadCap if they'd won!

Congrats, Var and team!!

By the way, I'm proud to announce that my post on the 22nd was purely coincidental; I didn't know they'd won and had been working on an analysis of the Tech Support site in reference to its Web 2.0 usage and clean interface.

Web 2.0 Tech Support: Part 3
The rest of the posts are tied into this article and I moved up the part 4 post to this morning since I found out!

Hey TS gang, now would be a good time to break open the sake...

[RamonS]

Congratulations! I always reference the awesome MadCap support when I talk to other companies who have horrible support. I always tell them to look at what MadCap does. It just cannot get much better and others seem to notice and give out awards.

[KevinDAmery]

Careful - next Richard will be changing his tag line to "Support God."

[Richard Ferrell]

I like it!!, Thanks for the idea


Richard Ferrell
Technical Support God
Madcap Software
-----------------------------------
Check out MadCap support New Website
http://www.madcapsoftware.com/support/

[forfear]

hahaha


i used to think the only best examples of best web support would be efforts by the super large software companies...the microsofts, IBMs and dells.. looks like small to medium sized companies that we have a really good fighting chance too! an encouragemet to the rest of us...

[CharlesJet]

I like it!!, Thanks for the idea

Don't forget Ping pong ruler as well...

[forfear]

here's a little something that goes against the grain...i thought it rather pertinent to post this at this point...
this must be what they eat and do all day over there ....to be number one

"....Be willing to say no to your customers When it comes to feature requests, the customer is not always right. If we added every single thing our customers requested, no one would want our products."
http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch14_Tough_Love.php

"Feel The Pain
Tear down the walls between support and development
In the restaurant business, there's a world of difference between those working in the kitchen and those out front who deal with customers. It's important for both sides to understand and empathize with the other. That's why cooking schools and restaurants will often have chefs work out front as waiters so the kitchen staff can interact with customers and see what it's actually like on the front lines.

A lot of software developers have a similar split. Designers and programmers work in the "kitchen" while support handles the customers. Unfortunately, that means the software chefs never get to hear what customers are actually saying. That's problematic because listening to customers is the best way to get in tune with your product's strengths and weaknesses.

The solution? Avoid building walls between your customers and the development/design team. Don't outsource customer support to a call center or third party. "

http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch14_Feel_The_Pain.php


Congratulations again!

[KevinDAmery]

hahaha


i used to think the only best examples of best web support would be efforts by the super large software companies...the microsofts, IBMs and dells.. looks like small to medium sized companies that we have a really good fighting chance too! an encouragemet to the rest of us...

Actually, you usually get better support from small companies. The reason is twofold: first, small companies can't afford very many people, so the product experts end up doing support, and second, because it's a small team everyone has a personal interest in the company doing well (so the doors stay open and the checks keep coming... oh yeah, and so that the product you believe in has a future).

The one drawback of this model is it doesn't scale well--it's one thing to have 1-5 product experts on staff, it's another thing altogether to have to employ 100 of them. So, in large companies, support is handled by junior personnel who frequently never even see the product (just a database with the pre-canned solutions to "everything"). That is, when it's not handled by an outsourcing company, of course. Either way, you're dealing with someone who doesn't have the knowledge baked into their DNA and for whom providing support is "just a job" - and a low paying one at that. For the support people in a company like Madcap, though, support isn't just a job: it's your baby. No one in the call-center support model gets a sick feeling in their stomach when it looks like a customer has a problem that will make them miss a deadline, but for small company support that's exactly what happens.

So it's really nice to see when that level of dedication gets recognized. Thanks, Rick and Neal and Ryan! (And anyone else I may have missed....)

[RamonS]

The one drawback of this model is it doesn't scale well--it's one thing to have 1-5 product experts on staff, it's another thing altogether to have to employ 100 of them. So, in large companies, support is handled by junior personnel who frequently never even see the product (just a database with the pre-canned solutions to "everything"). That is, when it's not handled by an outsourcing company, of course. Either way, you're dealing with someone who doesn't have the knowledge baked into their DNA and for whom providing support is "just a job" - and a low paying one at that. For the support people in a company like Madcap, though, support isn't just a job: it's your baby. No one in the call-center support model gets a sick feeling in their stomach when it looks like a customer has a problem that will make them miss a deadline, but for small company support that's exactly what happens.

And therein lies the power of support, even for a company. Nobody else other than support knows the product and the customers better than support. No other department is that strongly involved in customer retention. No other department in a company than the support department produces well-trained subject matter experts. At the company I work for now all our business analysts, project managers, and some of the trainers started in support. Especially business analysts get the best training from support. They already have the skill to be able to understand customers and talk to management and developers on their level.
Also, the supporters are the ones who take the heat first when anyone else in the company screwed up. Trainer explains something wrong, sales guy makes a bunch of promises, or developers and QA just didn't get the features and quality in that is needed, support picks up the ball and is in charge to make things well again.
So support is not only an internal training department that produces top of the line talent for other departments like sales, training, development, QA, support is also a department in charge of a core competency. Depending on the company and product, it is not uncommon that companies make at least as much if not more on services than what sales bring in. And services are a great way to build up annuities, sales are a one time deal. In order to have customers renew service contracts support needs to be awesome.
Looking from a customer perspective, after being done with the sales reps, the remaining interaction during the customer-company relationship happens mainly at the support level. In our support department here the effort is not just to be reactive, but also maintain proactive and keep contact with all customers. If a customer didn't call in for half a year support makes a call and asks if everything is working out OK. And it isn't uncommon that this outreach generates more service sales for tutoring by trainers, renewal of service contracts and in some cases even additional sales.
I don't understand how companies that have substantial service revenues - or companies that care at least a little bit about their customers - can outsource the support function. I also cannot understand why developers get paid way more than support and QA. The real gods are in support. And for that it doesn't matter if it is a small or a large company.

So it's really nice to see when that level of dedication gets recognized. Thanks, Rick and Neal and Ryan! (And anyone else I may have missed....)

Yes, well deserved indeed, because MadCap's support does support how it is supposed to be.