I want to be a "Preferred Customer"

[thecoalman]

I know over the last 4 or 5 years I've had to open maybe 20 tickets, within the last 3 or 4 years grand total is about 3 or 4. Think I may have had stretch of more than a year with no ticket.

I want "preferred customer" status.

Possibly you might have something like this but how about throwing us customers that aren't a constant hassle with tech support a bone by bumping our tickets. I'm sure you get plenty of "how do I set up an email account" tech requests and I don't see why my ticket that needs attention promptly should be sitting around in line behind the idiot that can't RTFM. You don;t even have to tell me I'm a preferred customer, just do it.

[the_ancient]

That is one of my peeves,

All of my tickets (which are very very rare) take 2 -3x longer to get processed because I have to wait for a Lv1 tech to look and figure out they cant help me, then a level 2 tech to look and most of the time figure out they cant help me only to then be put in to the que for Level 3...

I need to be able to just go to Level 2 or 3 from the get go

[gohighvoltage]

Well, I can see why they have a set process in this. Most problems can be resolved with a level 1 tech, but if they allowed people to just jump to level 2 and 3, everyone would be selecting level 3 techs, thinking they would get faster service, but it only delays things longer.

I remember at a job I worked, we all had to screen the calls for the manager, because everyone always asked for the manager, when all of us regular employees were more then capable to handle the request. Generally people will always select or ask for the highest rank, and this only overwhelms that person/department with nuisance requests.

Every industry has a set process, and I can definitely see why everything has to be properly screen and sent to the proper channels.

[thecoalman]

Well, I can see why they have a set process in this. Most problems can be resolved with a level 1 tech, but if they allowed people to just jump to level 2 and 3, everyone would be selecting level 3 techs, thinking they would get faster service, but it only delays things longer.

I'm not asking for a change in what level of tech is assigned to the ticket, I want it to go right to the top of the queue with others assigned preferred customer status. Again looking over my past tickets there is very few of them, it's unfortunate they dropped the points given out for not using the ticket system because I'd have a stack of them. If I have an issue it's going to be something I've tried to solve myself and is beyond anything I can do. I'd rather solve it myself instead of dealing with support. Certainly a long time customer that isn't a PITA deserves some preferential treatment, Yes?

[gohighvoltage]

I'm not asking for a change in what level of tech is assigned to the ticket, I want it to go right to the top of the queue with others assigned preferred customer status. Again looking over my past tickets there is very few of them, it's unfortunate they dropped the points given out for not using the ticket system because I'd have a stack of them. If I have an issue it's going to be something I've tried to solve myself and is beyond anything I can do. I'd rather solve it myself instead of dealing with support. Certainly a long time customer that isn't a PITA deserves some preferential treatment, Yes?

I can see your point, but, do you know of any other industry where that is acceptable? For instance. Can you imagine if you were having lots a problems with your new car, and you get pushed to the back of the line, cause people who don't have many problems get priority over you?

[thecoalman]

Well if my car is leaking oil all over the place and there is 20 people in line wondering how they open the door because they are too stupid or lazy to find out themselves..yes I'd have a problem with that.

[Ron]

Great car analogy.

How about if the L1 techs could actually be able and empowered to attempt to fix the issue? Or a combination of these approaches.

Maybe if customers who submit tickets they should be able to handle themselves get a secret "demerit" from the techs that is time demarcated and time weighted and when a thresh hold is reached their tickets are automagically de-prioritized, and customers with no demerits are automagically prioritized.

Maybe that way you could differentiate between customers with real issues and ones with chronic laziness.

Then again, this approach would require an employee to design the system and write the code with no guarantee of success. At the moment they seem to have their hands full with day to day operations.

[gohighvoltage]

Wow, such harshness. Whatever happened to "there is no dumb question". Everyone has a different level of knowledge. No company with good customer service, dignity and basic standards would demerit a customer for asking a simple question. If a business were ran like what you are suggesting, it would surely fail.

I have customers call me all the time, and a question that may seem "simple" to me, may be devastating to them. Like I said, everyone has different knowledge and skill level. Hopefully you can help someone learn something new and not have that issue ever again.

[the_ancient]

Well, I can see why they have a set process in this. Most problems can be resolved with a level 1 tech, but if they allowed people to just jump to level 2 and 3, everyone would be selecting level 3 techs, thinking they would get faster service, but it only delays things longer.

I remember at a job I worked, we all had to screen the calls for the manager, because everyone always asked for the manager, when all of us regular employees were more then capable to handle the request. Generally people will always select or ask for the highest rank, and this only overwhelms that person/department with nuisance requests.

Every industry has a set process, and I can definitely see why everything has to be properly screen and sent to the proper channels.

Basic User Questions are Handled by L1 tech,

Installation of New Modules, Software Upgrades, Major Server Errors, Hacking Problems, etc etc etc are not handled by L1, which is 99.9% of my requests

[thecoalman]

Wow, such harshness. Whatever happened to "there is no dumb question".

Nothing wrong with dumb questions but they need to go to the back of the line. I have no patience with incompetence when it starts to effect me especially if it's costing me money.

[the_ancient]

Nothing wrong with dumb questions but they need to go to the back of the line. I have no patience with incompetence when it starts to effect me especially if it's costing me money.

You mean you do not want to wait 4 hours for help because support has 1,000 "How do I access Cpanel", "What is POP3", "Do I have to pay postage for eletronic mail" questions......

lol

[gohighvoltage]

You mean you do not want to wait 4 hours for help because support has 1,000 "How do I access Cpanel", "What is POP3", "Do I have to pay postage for eletronic mail" questions......

lol

While that is pretty funny, do you really think support is loaded with questions like you suggest? I highly doubt it. I can definitely empathize with both of you and what you are concerned about, it is a valid concern. The issue really is that, no good company, will start profiling their customers. You cannot treat one customer like a step child because they have simple questions, over another customer that has a more serious issue.

Now, I agree that if you have an urgent issue, like, your server is down, etc, that it should not wait until all the simple questions get answered. I do know for a fact that Jaguar's support system is undergoing some proactive changes, and I even have experienced great response to both kinds of situations.

I don't know if you have any experience with other hosting supports, but, they ALL operate just like Jag. I have been through several hosting companies, and even a big box like godaddy, and the support was AWFUL. Jag has always provided great support.

No support system is perfect, none, but as long as the company makes an effort to support its clients, then we must appreciate that aspect. There is nothing in life that is perfect or instant.

If you are a plumber, and your work van breaks down. Does the manufacturer helicopter a mechanic to your location and instantly fix your van? No. You have to call a tow truck, then wait for the tow truck, then you have to get it towed to the shop, then if the shop is busy, you have to wait for them to diagnose it, then fix it, if they have the parts, and then you have to go get it once it is done. All these hours or even days, is loss of money, time and business.

Computers / Servers / Software, etc are no different. Nothing is 100%. As a business owner, yes, I get upset if my server goes down, that is a normal reaction, and for just cause, but can I expect to be placed in the front of the line in front of other customers, no. How do you know that there isn't 100 other customers with serious issues being worked on? ya don't.

There is no doubt I can see your view, and I agree with you, if my server was down, and I had to wait for people asking questions about "pop3", I would be pissed, but do you honestly think that is the reality of what is going on? I doubt it seriously.

I do know that the people at Jaguar are listening and improving, so I am sure they take all of your ideas in consideration.

[thecoalman]

You mean you do not want to wait 4 hours for help because support has 1,000 "How do I access Cpanel", "What is POP3", "Do I have to pay postage for eletronic mail" questions......

lol

...or one of my all times favorites someone calling support because the cup holder on the computer was broke....... figure it out.

[Gwaihir]

no good company, will start profiling their customers. You cannot treat one customer like a step child because they have simple questions, over another customer that has a more serious issue.[..]

I don't know if you have any experience with other hosting supports, but, they ALL operate just like Jag. I have been through several hosting companies, and even a big box like godaddy, and the support was AWFUL. Jag has always provided great support.[..]

I do know that the people at Jaguar are listening and improving, so I am sure they take all of your ideas in consideration.

Haven't been with another host in years, but I do know what JagPC support used to be like and I can tell you things have not been improving, nor are JagPC people listening to their community like they used to.

Support used to be lightning fast: more often a ticket was picked up in 5 minutes than in 30, even though it wasn't marked as priority. Support generally used to do what was necessary to resolve the matter, i.e. take action when needed, or toss it up a level, rather than by default construct a first response to practically everything of just stuff from the manual, even when totally not applicable, and dress it up in a sauce of many polite empty words.

Only on a rare occasion did one run into a (usually new) tech that just deflected things. If that happened and you reported it later, that tech would be told that at JagPC it was no shame to send tickets through to level 2 and mandatory if a client asked explicitly. As long as you made sure to post your non-urgent (but more complicated) requests like "can x be installed" during Texas office time, such tickets went to senior techs right away anyway, so this wouldn't even be an issue.

Now compare that to today. Urgent support seems to be available only after posting your ticket number on the forum. Constructive critisms is either drowned in empty words or the person posting it is made to look bad for criticizing wonderful JagPC (or both). Need I go on?

Anyway, for a solution (at least a partial one): In my opinion, support techs should be judged (negatively) by the number of times a client needs to get back to JagPC after reporting an issue, not (positively) by the number of tickets they are able to "handle" without involving level 2/3, or the number of replies they manage to produce per hour. You shouldn't have to filter and label clients, but you can't treat all our tickets like they are probably from nitwits who need help to RTFM either. You need to do proper triage on tickets coming in and send the urgent ones to people focussing on them at once and the difficult ones to levels that can handle them.


N.B. Note for some of the new breeze JagPC staff: the above is serious feedback, written with care in hopes that it is actually take to heart. Great if you can do that. I'd love to read a concise post of what concrete actions you've taken and what results we can hope for when. If you can't, well pity, **** happens. But, do me the courtesy of NOT posting a long empty thank you with sweet visions not in any visible way rooted in reality. Tx!

[JPC-Les]

We've actually done this before were we give extra weight to longstanding clients in the support queues and it caused problems and overall quality suffered and everyone noticed.

Thanks for the feedback Gwaihir, it is noted and we appreciate it.