Who Do You Call? Free Access vs. Customer Service
By: Jason LevineOne of the great strengths of Experts Exchange is their Customer Service team. This is a crew of dedicated professionals who are available during normal business hours to help users with any problem they have. Sometimes that help involves alerting the Badgers directly to handle a sensitive matter, other times it’s as simple as answering a question or correcting a billing issue. Whatever it is, they assist promptly, professionally and to good effect hundreds of times per day. Daniella Gammon, Experts Exchange Business Accounts Manager sums it up:
“It’s easy to say you listen to customers. The trick is doing something. At Experts Exchange, we turn customer feedback into real, actionable changes that improve the user experience.”
But Experts Exchange customer service doesn’t stop there. The Badgers are the all-volunteer compliment to the Customer Service team. We are the ones who handle complaints about posts or other content-related issues and also are the ones who will evaluate your question and give it a helping hand if you are not happy with the level of response. Every question has a “Request Attention” link in the original thread and that flags the question for the Moderators who will assist as soon as possible. Zone Advisors roam their areas of expertise and fix problems before anyone even notices them. Cleanup Volunteers go through abandoned questions and make sure credit goes where credit is due and gives the users who prefer to search a better chance at finding their complete solution.
Compare this to other Question/Answer sites out there. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Is there a Contact Us page listed in the navigation?
- If you need extra help, is there ANY way to talk to a human being right away or are you told to send an email or make a forum post?
If the answers to those questions are both “no” and you are using that site to get answers to questions where your career could be on the line then maybe it’s time to ask why you are even there? If the question goes unanswered, what is your recourse? Can you get help to get help? This is something that doesn’t get talked about much when discussing free versus paid models although Ian Landsman does address it in his article: “Your Product is Free Because You’re Lazy and Scared.” While not all free offerings fall under his categorization, it is pretty safe to say that great customer service is never planned for, or usually the first cut when times are tough and income is not what it could be. Which is a shame, as good customer service can go a long way into creating loyal, repeating customers.
Whether you are an Expert or an Asker, Article Author or Business Account Manager, there are teams of people standing by to help you resolve your issue at Experts Exchange and that’s something that’s becoming increasingly rarer as more people clamor for free and get exactly what they pay for.
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My favorite is the last sentence “….there are teams of people standing by to help you resolve your issue at Experts Exchange and that’s something that’s becoming increasingly rarer as more people clamor for free and get exactly what they pay for.”
So true that there is no human contact for forums, and free sites whether it’s an IT site, or a a site like Mint.com, if you experience a problem with the site itself, there’s no one available to help and you are SOL.
At EE it’s so different because of the moderator team -who are available round the clock (because they’re volunteers from all over the globe) as well as the Customer Support team who are available almost instantly by phone and live chat. You just don’t find that kind of support from free websites and Google searches.
Thanks 4 the post ;)
You’re welcome. Lack of access to customer service is something that bugs everyone at some point or another when dealing with any company or service provider but I consider it to be particularly insane for a service that provides help to others to have no real way of helping their users aside from the same mechanism which said user is having trouble with. It’s a circular and rather curious approach to service. At least EE has a way to break out of that circle if the user wishes and that’s a huge benefit to the user base.
Really great stuff, Jason. The best part is when you talk about people using a site that does not have customer service that their job depends on. Great point.