atreides@caladan.UUCP (System Administrator) (01/03/90)
In a recent article omh@cs.brown.edu (Owen M. Hartnett) writes, in reply to an article from rewing@Apple.COM (Richard Ewing) re Apple support, or lack thereof: | Frankly, speaking, there is no way that the current setup could | ever "maximize service to the customer." I agree, and have always felt that Apple have tried to fob off the burden of support, and lacked the intestinal fortitude to put money (the real key here) behind a good product support service! | Guy Kawasaki used a running joke in his talks: You want customer | support? Call 996-1010 (or whatever the main Apple number is) [Many appropriate comments about Apples 'visionary' (1/2 :-) dealer support network, deleted for brevity] Apples dealer network has NEVER been support oriented.. that's why they are dealers.. they sell computers. Support sucks money from a dealer just as easily as it would from Apple. The only difference is that the dealer network is not Apple, and could not possibly have the techinical knowledge that could and should be grown at Apple. | Answer the user's calls. Expedite the channel of support | instead of inhibiting it. If a customer has a problem, follow it up. | Think of the PR benefits, they'll pay for those 50 people fast! Sure, | you'll get a lot of calls like "What is the Finder?" but, once you've | answered them, you'll get a satisfied user who'll tell other ones. I agree, but unfortunately I think you have seriously underestimated the commitment that Apple would have to make if they were to undertake direct support. Support is a money pit, it always has been, and unless you sell your support to your clients it will continue to be a money pit. Apple realised this many years ago and much to their clients chagrin, have been staunchly defending thier continual bald faced ignorance of what thier customers want for years! Although Microsoft may not be the "ideal" example of product support (and I shall not use it as such), they have a staff of over 300 product support people to answer calls and mail! Apple would need at LEAST this level of commitment to support it's customers well. I wonder how many they have in dealer support now? It takes years to build a good product support network and Apple are years behind in this field. The bottom line is that no single person at Apple has the balls it would take to commit Apple to a profit loss centre of this kind. If there was, it would be done! | >believe it or not, Apple's support organization does exist, and has | >a specific way to access it. Make sure your dealer remembers | >how and when to use it. I've even had to remeind certain dealers | >of its existence. They can forget! | The above statements typify the quality of the support channel. Total agreement!. What a statement.. "They can forget!".. sheesh.. well I guess Apple just leads by example! | Owen Hartnett -- Stuart Burden root@caladan.uucp root@caladan.wa.com
bchurch@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Bob Church) (01/07/90)
> > Although Microsoft may not be the "ideal" example of product support (and > I shall not use it as such), they have a staff of over 300 product support > people to answer calls and mail! > One way in which user support can be supplied is through users groups. It's not easy putting together and maintaining a users group. Microsoft was *very* supportive during my three years as a Users Group President. On the other hand, Apple supplied us with several pounds of ads and a few video tapes each month. Microsoft supplied demonstations of their software and even door prizes. This gets people to meeting and also makes it worth being an officer and putting in your time. Apple and Claris, on the other hand, never even returned my calls. Bob Church att!oucsace!bchurch P.S. If there are any Microsoft employess reading this I'd like to say thanks for all the help over the years.
omh@cs.brown.edu (Owen M. Hartnett) (01/08/90)
In article <971@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU> bchurch@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Bob Church) writes: >> >One way in which user support can be supplied is through users groups. It's >not easy putting together and maintaining a users group. Microsoft was *very* >supportive during my three years as a Users Group President. On the other hand, >Apple supplied us with several pounds of ads and a few video tapes each month. >Microsoft supplied demonstations of their software and even door prizes. This >gets people to meeting and also makes it worth being an officer and putting in >your time. Apple and Claris, on the other hand, never even returned my calls. >for all the help over the years. Actually, Apple is very good with user groups. I moderate *two* Macintosh user groups and they've been more helpful than could be expected. As a user group, you can get login to Applelink and there are a host of Apple programs (not to mention the willingness of Apple employees to give a demonstration, lecture, or even, just come down from the audience and take potshot questions from the users.) On the other hand, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one Apple doesn't return calls to - for a while there, I thought it was only me. :-) -Owen Owen Hartnett omh@cs.brown.edu.CSNET Brown University Computer Science omh@cs.brown.edu uunet!brunix!omh "Don't wait up for me tonight because I won't be home for a month."