BC Support: Chat vs Phone support

Report · Jul 06, 2012

Hi All,

As you know, the channels we use to access the BC support are the forums, chats and cases. There have been many discussions in the past related to this and the fact that we don't provide phone support.

Please allow me to explain why we consider chat the way to go and the best solution for supporting the partner community:

1) Chat is very easy to acces. Click Help & support in the Partner Portal/Admin Console and you are now just a click away from reaching us through chat. Besides this, you can now access chat here, right from this post.

2) Chat offers approximately the same level of communication, engagement and feetback as the phone does.

3) Chat offers immediate response as phone support does.

4) You can have access to a chat transcript for further reference, while you can't obtain a copy of your conversation on the phone.

5) We must share with you screenshots, KB docs and step by step instructions. We couldn't do this over the phone.

6) It's hard to troubleshoot websites over the phone. Working with long URLs is hard, pointing out elements in a screenshot is impossible and talking about something like #content-nav{border: 1px solid #A456B7} over the phone would be a nightmare.

Please let us know what you think. Feedback is appreciated, as always.

Thanks,

Vlad

Report · Sep 06, 2012

The reason you get directed to the forums is because it is likely someone has already had a similiar problem or question. If not, there is plenty of very knowledgable BC Partners and BC staff that monitor the Business Catalyst forum.

What sort of Business Catalyst questions do you have? I couldn't find any BC related posts started by you. I'd be glad to answer them if I can.

Does it really matter if it is an Adobe support that gives you the answer you need or an experienced user?

Report · Sep 06, 2012

As you know, I got your reply to my question, and replied with my questions.

It seems to me, a novice at web-stuff, that there should be a way to ask a question or a number of questions, either in an e-mail (where you have time think), or by phone where you can easily confirm or not, your understanding of the answer.

I'm not crazy about typing on the fly... support comes on chat and I ask everything except what I logged on to ask.

Anyway, thank you very much for your help.

Chris Deitz

cdaa@aol.com

Report · Sep 06, 2012

As you know, I got your reply to my question, and replied with my questions.

I think I answered most of your questions on the Cloud forum now. But to be honest, for anything to do with the BC end of things it is best to ask here. Even Dreamweaver and Muse integration you will likely get an answer on this forum a lot faster than the other ones. A lot of passionate users on this one.

Report · Sep 06, 2012

HI there,

Like Brad mentioned you are posting in the BC forums and you have no posts at all asking for advise or help on the forums related to BC. Just the RSS feed post.

You also mention emailing Adobe support etc. If you have a BC related issue sounds like you have not gone and made a ticket? OR used live chat?
Like Brad said, you are directed to the forums as under the FAQ section and just with a quick search there are a heap of questions and answered questions about BC on here.

At a guess as you have not actually asked the qustions you have I would say your wondering what BC features you get with your creative cloud account?
Have you looked for information to help with your questions?

Report · Sep 06, 2012

Hi Liam: I am really don't know where I asked the questions. I never e-mailed anyone, because I couldn't find a place to e-mail to. I have learned quite a bit about finding answers this afternoon from nice folks like you who responded to my rant. Sorry about that. Just so frustrated by not being able to talk or e-mail anybody.

Thank you very much for your response.

Report · Sep 07, 2012

I just wander what the question is that you wanted to ask...

Report · Sep 07, 2012

I have had them pretty much answered by a number of folks on the BC board. My questions had to do with exactly what services and options come with BC web hosting. One fellow said that BC was a better product than any he had used before, so that was a nice recommendation. I am going to sign up for partnership and hosting today.

Thank you very much Mario for getting back to me. I appreciate it!

PS: As I'm sure you know, when I called some of your web-hosting competitors (GoDaddy, etc.) I got someone on the phone who explained everything about what they do in detail. Answered all my stupid questions (I'm new to web business). And gave me options on different products. I was delighted to have someone I could say: "So the X does this when Y happens. Is that correct?" They would verify, or explain my error immediately. The experience was very user-friendly. Your system, especially for a newbie is hard. I looked for my answers for 2-days and in some instances found the answers, but I still needed clarification because of my inexperience with everything web related. I got so frustrated and angry that when I saw the post about "chat vs talk", I exploded with a rant. Sorry about that.

Again, thank you for getting back to me.

Chris

Report · Sep 08, 2012

Hi Chris

I am glad you have found the answers to your questions, but I am sorry it took you 2 days for it.

If you have questions about BC product, features etc, you should contact our sales team by submitting a contact form or using the chat : http://www.businesscatalyst.com/contact There is no silly question, and we want the things to be as clear as possible for our customers.

On BC main page http://www.adobe.com/products/business-catalyst.html you should find links for our blog and the help & support.

If you need to create a case or chat with a technical support engineer, you should use the "help & support" button from your site admin,enter your AdobeID & password again if required , and then from the support page you should chose "create a case" or "chat with support"

Please ask your all BC's questions using these contact channels.

Best regards,

Aniela

Report · Sep 09, 2012

Dear Aniela:

Probably, because of approaching deadlines, etc., I never read what I should have to know exactly how your support services worked. I have since learned. Thank you kindly for your help.

Chris Deitz

cdaa@aol.com

Report · Sep 06, 2012

Hi

It can be frustrating looking for answers on Creative Cloud and the free BC websites the first time. If you are asking about how to upgrade to another BC hosting plan, it has been a bit confusing for new users. If you are familar with other hosting providers you would expect to find that information easily, but if you can hang in there you'll find BC is actually better than anything you may have used before. We have handled a few inquiries from Creative Cloud users (some using Muse) wanting to get on the other plans.

I'm sure there are other excellent Adobe BC business partners on the forum that could provide you with hosting and excellent support. You can even look at our Adobe BC offering at http://www.dotsilo.com.

Adobe BC business partners may be able to offer you more individual support if you need that.

- Simon Darby, Dot Silo

Report · Sep 06, 2012

Thanks a lot Simon. Good to hear that testimony! Even if the support is different from what I'm used to, I think I'll do the hosting with BC.

Report · Sep 18, 2012

I'm replying to this post because I had similar experiences with Adobe - TWICE. First - it took me over a week to get them to sell me Creative Cloud when it became available because of a glitch in their systems when it came to my account. Then it happened again since I've been trying to upgrade to BC Marketing and then eCommerce plans. I've read the rest of Chris' thread and it seems he's cooled off a bit. I'm not ranting right now, but i have tried at least 3 different times to upgrade and give up every time because Adobe makes it so hard to buy BC from them.

I'm encouraged that Chris feels better, but the very reason I'm turning to a solution like BC is because I don't have time to figure everything out for myself - even with the help of forums - when I just want a simple, reliable system to launch my new product. Forums are wonderful for those who use them. But for someone who's just considering BC, forums are not the best place to turn.

For example, the first thing I clicked on when I came to this forum today was a post about outages. BC was down for 2 days!!?? Does that mean my site was down too and I didn't know about it?! It's very disconcerting when I come to the forum yet again to see if i can get answers to questions before i buy and I see veteran users outraged that they and their clients were down and there was no notification. Really!!?? Is that what it's like to work with BC?

Like Chris, I WANT to buy BC. Right now I'm so nervous about this vital decision that I'm not sure what to do since I have been planning to use BC when I reached the point I'm at now. If anyone has words of encouragement about BC, it may be worth the struggle with Adobe to make the purchase in spite of their aversion to telephones.

Thanks for any help you can offer...

Report · Sep 18, 2012

BC was down for 2 days!!??

It wasn't. The sites never went down.

Does that mean my site was down too and I didn't know about it?!

No. Sites never went down.

It's very disconcerting when I come to the forum yet again to see if i can get answers to questions before i buy and I see veteran users outraged that they and their clients were down and there was no notification. Really!!??

Sites never went down. Our email provider OpenSRS had an outage - http://www.opensrsstatus.com/service/email-service/email-cluster-b/

We have also kept our users informed at http://status.businesscatalyst.com/

We have been let down by our email service provider twice in one week, which is really unfortunate, as we chose best of the best when we moved our email service from in-house to them. They had a very good record and for a year we never had any incidents, which is why we chose them... Anyway, this issue was completely beyond our control and the whole team here felt helpless seeing these posts come in and we couldn't do anything about it.

Report · Sep 18, 2012

Mario, it should also be pointed out that even though the email provider was down, no one lost any mail. Any mail clients would have gotten when it was down did still get there.

No clients missed any sales and site interaction such as form submissions still worked as sites were still 100% operating and any sales or interactions they may have had were still recorded in the admin live feed.

I would rate last week's outage as a minor inconvienence. Today's outage I would rate as barely noticable - I don't think I missed any mail at all on the one account I personally have on BC mail. And both outages I never even got one call from the clients that I do have on BC.

Report · Sep 18, 2012

Dear aih:

I feel your pain. I still haven't made up my mind on a "hosting" service. It really bothers me that I can't call anyone. I realize that that is probably an effecient way to handle customer service from Adobe's side of things, but it's not reassuring to me at all.

Because ot the problem I had, I have been researching other hosting places. It is hard for me to determine what's best, as I don't know all that much about website building, etc. I've been in the advertising and marketing business a long time, (I used to hire web design outside)but the nuts and bolts leave me unsure of myself. One thing I have noticed is that every one of the other companies offers phone support, some 24/7. But I will probably still go with BC because of the ties to Muse, which I use.

They have eased my mind a bit with all the e-mails offering to help. But it sure would be nice to call and ask a simple question. Even if it's just to reassure myself that I'm doing the right thing.

Others have posted that they have no problem with Adobes CS system and they get their answers quickly, etc. I hope that's the case after I start with BC.

I still am uneasy about going live with my site (that's still being worked on) I have a domain name that I bought from GoDaddy now I have to figure out how to do that. I would bet that the answer is in FAQ.

In any event, I really don't know what the best option is. Everyone tells you they're the best, and it's oh, so easy. I think I'll try to get the site up tomorrow, and see what happens.

Good luck to you.

Report · Sep 19, 2012

My 2 cents on downtime, and bc support. I have servers with a few other "big name" hosting providers, along with domains registered on gdaddy, dotster, some others, with dns hosted on all variants in between, the fact is all of these services have down time when you least want or expect it. Welcome to the interwebs!

When these "disaster/end of the web hiccups" happen, the gut reaction is jump ship! we're all doomed! The fact is No one can offer 100% uptime, and most other hosts wouldn't even acknowledge these little hiccups even if their forums blowup with issues. BC is a professional tool, for professionals. Also as mentioned, nothing was lost, just delayed, most users probably didn't even notice, and BC tech was up front the entire time with updates.

How you take these issues and handle your clients is up to you, not BC. If you can't handle a client when these tech hiccups happen, then you've fogotten to explain these things up front, or misinformed them of the service you are giving, so it turns into a nightmare explaining after the fact. We've all done that.

As for hosting etc, the hosting and full package that BC offers for an admin is without comparison, and the biggest benefit I feel lucky for is when the client first logs into their admin login, and they discover how easy it is to "use" their new site, that in itself makes BC the handsdown choice.

Granted i have gotten the feeling a few times in chat that i felt i might have known more about BC than the tech support did, but I take that as a plus, and get down to the real issue or solution in the forums which is mainly users who are using the system as well.

Report · Sep 19, 2012

Thank you for your post. It makes me feel better about the "hosting". I am not at a point where I can afford to become a paid partner, and am wondering if that is going to make a huge difference on how well I can serve my clients? It would be nice if Adobe would allow you to pay it monthley or quarterly. I'm just starting out building this new company, and funds are low. I guess I'll see.

Again, thank you very much for your input. It helped me considerably.

Report · Sep 19, 2012

Chris -

It seems like we're very much in the same boat with a similar background. I was greatly disappointed when Adobe's promises about inDesign exporting solid html5 didn't pan out. Then I tried Muse and pretty much liked it for its ease of use. It still doesn't always do what it's supposed to, but I'm finding ways to work around. So - first Adobe makes it easy. And then they make it hard.

It isn't so much the lack of phone support for technical issues.

The real problem for me is that as much as I want to upgrade my CreativeCloud to BC, every time I write to sales expressing my concerns about taking my already live CC site, I hear that it can't be done yet. The I'm told it can be done, but no explanation how.

Like you, I've never experienced such disinterest in a company making a sale. I want to buy. I've tried repeatedly. I don't get answers to questions I ask clearly in my emails. And then, when I ask to be called to discuss the upgrade, I'm told what I already know: Adobe Sales doesn't use telephones!

No phone support for tech? OK. No phone for sales??!! Ridiculous!

Perhaps I over-reacted when i saw the post about outages. I'm relieved to see that it's not so, but that could have been answered properly in a phone call with sales and I might be onboard by now.

Perhahps I shouldn't try to do it all myself since I already have so much to do bringing a new product to market. If any BC partners would like to contact me to tell me why I'm wrong about BC -- or offer me their services for tech support, my ears are open.

I see so much potential with BC and have now read about the new goodies coming on Sept 25th and I want to be part of it, but this is such a big decision that I can't afford to make a mistake.

I'm begging to be convinced that BC is the way to go, but it seems nobody in Adobe Sales is up to it if it requires a phone call for real back and forth Q&A.

Again - wide open to suggestions and assurances and would like to upgrade -- certainly before Sept 25th.

Many thanks

Report · Sep 19, 2012

The web side of things is like trying to learn a new career. There is a lot to it, and being a one-man agency I do everything also. When I had my shop in Chicago, I had 20 freelancers who I could call and hand something off to if I was too busy. Now that I live in the woods 70 miles from Madison, WI, I don't know anybody. Nor at this point can I afford anybody. (I was retired for a couple years before the economy "went way, way south".

I still think they are making a huge marketing/sales mistake by not taking calls, ESPECIALLY when someone is interested in BUYING SOMETHING from them. They're #1 in most of their categories, and they don't think they're immune to a backlash because of what could be conceived as arrogance. I think they're wrong.

But it is what it is. I'm gonna give it a shot. Biz Cat Rich's reply was encouraging. I can always switch if need be,

Luck.

Report · Sep 19, 2012

Hi Luck,

While not a complete solution to your problems, why don't you join the BCSandpile - a weekly online meeting and group for partners helping other partners. Within the one session you have access to a wealth of partners who live, breathe and work with BC every day. You can come with any question you have.

Many of these partners are solo operators and find it a great space for support and information.

Here is when you sign up.

http://www.bcsandpile.com/business-catalyst/join.htm

Its free.

regards

Ursh

Report · Sep 19, 2012

Thank you very much for the information. I will join up as soon as I post this. I'm feeling better about everything with the contacts I have had from people like you. Thanks again.

Report · Sep 20, 2012

No worries - look forward to seeing you there.

Report · Oct 08, 2012

Sorry BC. My client who could afford a webCommerce 10 user subscription plus packages for additional emails chose not to go with you because you do not offer an option for phone support. I believe an option for phone support should be available for BC. You lose.

Report · Oct 11, 2012

Vlad,

I'm Ok with Chat support - if I actually got support. I could mail you a transcript from 10 minutes ago where it is very evident the support person wasn't reading anything I typed. I have a case that's over 30 days old that I'm convinced nobody has read any post - because I keep getting asked the same question over and over again.

I love the BC platform, and many of it's highlights make it an easier sell for me to small to medium sized businesses. But your support needs to VASTLY improve to justify the cost.

Carts

Report · Oct 11, 2012

Hi Jeff,

I looked into your last chat and the case you raised on September 24th. On the case I will ask a senior support engineer to take a look and help out if possible.

Regarding the last chat, I see there was a misunderstanding that I'd like to clarify privately. If you'd like to talk about this, can you please send me a private message with your phone number? I'd like to better understand the support related issues you faced, in order to be able to fix them.

Thank you in advance,

Vlad