Who Should Close a Customer Support Case?
Posted in Customer Service on 04. Aug, 2009
As an Internet marketer I deal with a lot of different tools and software – and unfortunately as a result have to raise more than my fair share of support cases.
I have always thought that it is standard practice that the customer has the opportunity to approve or confirm their support case being marked as resolved.
Lately I have been working with Infusionsoft on a couple of client projects and have noticed a very different process in their support team. It seems that largely any response the support team gives to a case comes with it an automatic “resolution” of that case.
Most recently I opened a case stating that the ecommerce portion of Infusionsoft could not be used in Australia because the built-in invoicing system is not capable of incorporating the basic Australian taxation requirements for an invoice. A minor technical issue – but a major problem for any business using Infusionsoft to sell products within Australia.
I received a fairly quick response to the case but the recommended solutions were less than satisfactory. I was told that I could 1) go and ask other Australia Infusionsoft forum users what workaround they are using for this problem, and/or 2) raise an “improvement request” via the “Ideas” website (I checked and there was already a similar request from another customer currently ranked 47th in the “Ideas” priority list).
What was interesting is that my support case was then immediately marked as resolved – as if suggesting that going and seeking out my own solution should be plenty of advice for me to sort out the problem without having to pester the Infusionsoft support team any further.
Surely a truly customer service oriented business (of which Infusionsoft most definitely is not) should, within reason, allow the customer to decide for themselves if their case has been satisfactorily resolved.
Nathan,
I appreciate your interest in improving our service through being transparent; but this issue that you raise is not standard practice in resolving tickets. I also strongly disagree with your assertion that we’re not customer service focused, but am curious about how you concluded that.
The suggested changes you have raised in question are not “simple changes,” and require substantial development resources to modify and complete changes in the code, the database logic and fields themselves. We know that our international product capabilities are limited, and we apologize about that. We never intended our software to be an international hit; we recommend for successful implementations to consult with a certified implementation coach in one’s region so they can obtain the best support and service.
Our disposition of cases is purely discretionary of the individual support representative. I will share your feedback with him and the support manager to improve your experience. With respect to your case, suggesting you take your question to the community is a reasonable solution since we are not in a position to consult on regulatory, regional, government compliance matters with our software. In addition, the suggestion found on Infusionsoft Ideas reflects the actual need by our users to have it changed; 47 isn’t a bad spot for it to be, and will likely be under product management’s review soon.
I’ll be transparent and let you know that our ticketing system will go one of three possible routes: How-do-I/FAQ; Bug/Problem; Design/Defect. Your question fell into How-do-I/FAQ more than it did asd a defect, since we never had the ability to do what you’re asking.
As I emailed you privately, I have raised your concern to our product management team for further review. Claiming we aren’t customer support focused is an exaggeration at best. We’re growing and obviously have a few issues in meeting the needs of International users — but we never claimed we did.
Regards,
Joseph
Thanks for your comment Joseph.
I have passed all the information back to my client and ultimately it is up to him to consider whether he was sold a product that is unsuitable for his needs – and if so, what he should do about it.
During the sales process the Infusionsoft sales person knew that business was based in Australia but neglected to mention that Infusionsoft’s “international product capabilities are limited”.
For me, the failure was in the way the product was sold. We would not have considered using Infusionsoft as an ecommerce solution had we have known that it could not deliver on the most rudimentary functionality.