Updates & Feedback

[Edward Collins Jr.]

Okay, 

So while I appreciate every single thing that Invision Power Services has done in the past, present and ultimately, the future. I would like to just suggest one piece of advice. I understand that you guys work hard on tickets and bring us wonderful projects, I would just like a warning when tickets or site admins are going to be working on my tickets in the future. The reason being is because my site went down without warning or update on regarding what was going to happen. I understand that you guys have a load of tickets, but not informing your customer of certain events that will be happening with their accounts is completely uncalled for, and a bit rude in my opinion. Now, don't get me wrong. I have been with IPS off and on for a while now and I do appreciate all of the products and services that can be offered. I really do. You guys have done a stellar job.

As far as giving updates and asking more questions to help a customer, this can be worked on because handling something like this without warning where as I am on a self-hosted license is something that needs to be looked into. I would very much appreciate a "hello, we are going to be working on your site now" message. I am not saying that should be done for any single little thing, just more as when I am properly prepared. I was unable to do a backup because no one told me they were going to be working on my site and I hate to say it, but I was a little blind sided by the whole thing. I appreciate them working on the site though, but this whole experience could of been handled a bit better. 

Thank you. 

[AndyF]

Its a good idea in theory and iirc I used to do this when I was working support tickets a couple of years ago. The 'problem' really is if you reply saying something along the lines of "We're going to be working on your site now" (or say "30 minutes") , there's no real guarantee that the client will see this or the accompanying email.

I do see what you're saying however and if its potentially an invasive procedure (by 'invasive' I mean that the site being worked on may experience errors during 'work' or be offline etc) then moreso but the issue I see is ensuring the client will see the notification of intended works.

I'm not sure its practical (a staff member would be able to say better really) to schedule a certain time for works in most cases as there are a lot of other factors to consider such as perhaps the issue needs further investigation by a T2 technician or even a developer to take a look...

[Woodsman]

I would like to agree with you Chris if this were a perfect world with text book circumstances and opportunities for the techs to follow. But as we know from experience its not like that in our world as we know it. I am not going to be that guy and tells you to deal with it they got to you when they could crap. But I will say they will and do normally try to notify you in the ticket, automated ticket response (email) and a standard email depending on the circumstances and severity of the ticket...

One thing we all need to remember is 1st  The human factor the staff here are all Human and try to get through your situation as quickly and efficiently as possible. 2nd If it can fail it will. By this I mean not all situations are the same out of the box so they may have questions and maybe quite a few before understanding how to go about fixing a problem....  And from what I have found in the past is another human element called human error. Now I am not saying you or it has to do with your situation but I have seen this many times over as an electrician and a forum tech and administrator.

Could they have given you more time? I can't answer that I am not on their end to see the load they are under. In some cases they can be in and out without you knowing they were even there yet. Then there are the times like @AndyF stated  where a developer has to take the wheel. It all depends on circumstances In a perfect world they would give you at least an hour window before hand and an exact time of departure... But for as perfect as this may sound we know it is just not that easy.

Lastly Preparation. When submitting a ticket be prepared to answer their questions with the most accurate information you can. Have your site prepared and ready for them incase of any unexpected down time. Keep vigilant of ticket responses and emails... By keeping yourself involved makes it more easy and effective for you as well as the tech.

 

[Edward Collins Jr.]

Thank you everyone for your comments  I appreciate them a lot. It gave me a better perspective on how to handle a situation like this. 

[Ocean West]

11 hours ago, Woodsman said:

When submitting a ticket be prepared to answer their questions with the most accurate information you can. Have your site prepared and ready for them incase of any unexpected down time. Keep vigilant of ticket responses and emails... By keeping yourself involved makes it more easy and effective for you as well as the tech.

my experience IPS has always came thru however when your in the thick of it and frustrated it can seem like your barely a blip on the radar. One thing that got my ire up was when i would be asked a question and my response was responded by several other individuals and only required reading back to catch up but having to answer the same questions or recap the issue. Especially if you responded immediately and then it took hours or days for a reply. Sometimes it feels like sending a transmission to Mars. 

If in the future if there was a way to engage with Tech Support on a interactive method - Slack - or something similar where you can tackle the issue in just a few minutes where as the combined time to write emails back and forth and the delays in response time only fuels frustration - other times during the idle time between messages you may stumble across something that seems to remedy the issue and then you get a terse message back that they can't replicate the problem because it got resolved - sadly wasting valuable time for staff. 

[Woodsman]

11 hours ago, Ocean West said:

my experience IPS has always came thru however when your in the thick of it and frustrated it can seem like your barely a blip on the radar. One thing that got my ire up was when i would be asked a question and my response was responded by several other individuals and only required reading back to catch up but having to answer the same questions or recap the issue. Especially if you responded immediately and then it took hours or days for a reply. Sometimes it feels like sending a transmission to Mars.

If in the future if there was a way to engage with Tech Support on a interactive method - Slack - or something similar where you can tackle the issue in just a few minutes where as the combined time to write emails back and forth and the delays in response time only fuels frustration - other times during the idle time between messages you may stumble across something that seems to remedy the issue and then you get a terse message back that they can't replicate the problem because it got resolved - sadly wasting valuable time for staff.

I Agree to alternative methods of communication after a tickets first reply and being handled. Something like Slack or comparison would be an excellent feature like the old phone days. And yes the time delay between client and Tech A, Tech B, can also be frustrating for both the client and staff. I've been on both sides of the fence on this one as well... But all in all Well thought out to the point communications do go a long way keeping sanity on both sides. And this goes for both client and techs. We have a few great people here that are quite awesome keeping on top of things to get issues fixed rather than a band aid job like we all have seen through out the internet.... Actually the biggest reason I am hosted on an unmanaged server.... When the Ship hits the fan I am right there getting my issue fixed without waiting for some irresponsible desk jockey irrelevant come backs. And I will bet my last dollar you know who some of these so called host are.

And Yes there have been plenty of times with my ISP where I had their issues centralized before they ever got to my door. (Hope there are no AT&T and Time Warner people here). Frustration again can be minimized with good communication. And if that don't work I still have my Dakota and Ram to make the necessary adjustments and the proof is in my Gallery

Another is if and when you find a solution pass it on to the techs.... 1. so they can see an issue is resolved. and 2. if it is an odd situation they can take note of it for further reference.

 

[Lindy]

We appreciate you taking the time to share the feedback. We are working on new customer service initiatives, so this comes at a good time. While we can't really give you a window to let you know "we will be working on your site in 20 minutes" -- we can certainly do a better job of letting you know that work is in progress, so if you see something funky transpiring, you'll know why. 

Regarding other points in the topic -- a big part of our new initiatives is being more efficient with our client interactions so rather than saying "Does this occur when you XYZ?" I'd like to see more "Does this occur when you XYZ? If so, please try ABC." I've been on the receiving end of waiting  for customer support replies that were ultimately seemingly (though I know not intended) just replied to in order to get the request off the agent's screen. That's definitely not the goal at IPS and while our continued growth and subsequent support volumes often lead to long days, we never want a client to feel as though they're being rushed through the system. There's always room for improvement and... we're on it.

Finally, as for interactive support - we've offered such in the past and while many would think it speeds things up, it really slows things down in our world. While working your incident may be seemingly quicker, the time required for a technician to stare at the screen while the client tries this, tries that or garners more information that isn't readily available to the client (i.e.: "hang on, I'll livechat my host!") slows the entire process down for everyone. We would prefer to make the client system more efficient -- you should never be waiting for days between mere replies. 

Thanks again for the feedback.