Customer survey results so far

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Dear all

Recently, we sent you all a brief request to take part in a short 2 question survey and we would like to take a moment to thank you all for participating and proving opinions and feedback. The feedback provided has been exceedingly helpful n giving us an insight into how you all think and feel thinks work, and shows us that there is still more room for improvement as it has highlighted some area's of confusion.

So, what we would like to do is reveal the comments made so far, and clarify or respond to these comments for others to see, which may help with some of the confusion.

Our survey is extremely simple and ask's the 2 following questions:

A) Would you like a joint billing and helpdesk or should we keep our helpdesk and billing seperate?
B) Is there any way our helpdesk or billing could be improved on?

Well, so far, 55% of all those who responded have indicated that they would like us to combine our helpdesk into our billing and make everythng under just 1 system, but only a tiny handful of customers have responded so far.

Of those that have responded and given feedback, here are the comments left so far, and our reply to those comments:

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

For me you could combine the billing as there is only me at the moment, however, like a forum, is there no way of allowing certain members to access all and some to only raise help tickets i.e give permissions based on the login?

Currently, we use 2 totally independant systems for our billing and for our helpdesk, these have been kept seperate right from day 1 purely for security so that our customers can manage their billing privately, yet anybody they employ such as designers or coders can obtain help and support via our helpdesk and not have access to their clients billing.

Up till now, there has not been a sufficient system available to handle both, competently, to our high standards, and the ones we have tested have proven to NOT excel in the way they can be used, so we kept these system seperate.

This does require anybody needing to raise helpdesk tickets to register seperately with our heldpesk database, but carries no baring at all on our own departments because for us, we have access to everything, all of the time, its done purely to keep customers employee's away from their billing.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

In my opinion I think everything should be combined into one place. :) Or maybe use a support ticket for everything. Kind Regards.

Thanks, we already use support tickets for all support matters that cant be resolved over the phone or by MSN, such as matters that need screenshots, SSL certificates and more complex matters.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

By combining the two. I think its a great idea, and feel it will make things a little easier.

Indeed, it "might" make things somewhat easier, but we are concerned that the "not-so-knowledgeable" customers may accidentally give out their billing login details to their employee's, and should those employee's ever leave of be fired, they then have access to a customers billing info and the customer may not be knowing enough to realise their billing passwords need changing. Its a fine line between ease of use and keeping things secure, which we are working on.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Not really, staff are excellent. Keep up the great job!

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

I am such a new customer that I haven't had a chance to see the existing set up. Ask me again in 3 months :)

No problem, take some time to look over things at our helpdesk http://www.wesh.co.uk/helpdesk as it contains tons of info and help. Be sure to register too if you ever need to raise a helpdesk ticket.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

see no problems

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

I do no think you have to improve it.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Usually very helpful. If it simplifies your managing of them; I don't imagine that the quality of the service would suffer by combining them...

Thank you :-) Combining them would make things easier for customers, but were reveiwing the functionality and security around having everything under 1 login, which is also the purpose of the survey.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

dont mind either way really as we only have 1 person accessing the admin for the account but might save time if only 1 login.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Not really as the way it is now works fine for me, but if you decide to combine billing and helpdesk this will not effect the way I work with you as at the moment I am a sole developer and have no staff!

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

i think its fine as it is

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

As it stands it is ok for me. As the chairman of the (edited out) I can keep up to date and update certain changes on the site while leaving the technology and major sitechanges to a tame it expert thanks.

Thank you :-) This is primarily the reason for keeping the billing and the helpdesk completely independant all these years, to ensure customers employee's and helpers are kept away from the billing.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Not had too much experience with the system as i am new to this, from what i have experienced so far, keep up the good work ta Makes sense to combine the two departments.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

I don't think anything needs to be improved at the moment. and thankyou or all your assistance and suport

Thank you :-) Your very welcome.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

So long as both work well for the user - we don't really care.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

I am happy to work which ever way is most convenient and cost effective for you guys. I really do not have a strong feeling either way. I am very happy with the way both the helpdesk and the billing system works.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

There's nothing wrong with either.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

The (EDITED OUT) Group is a small organization. We would appreciate on-line billing with an e-mail reminder to an address notified to you.

This is already the case, our billing system sends out reminders for domain name renewals, and web hosting billing is auto-renewable via card, until such time you tell us otherwise, thus doesnt really need reminders sent out, but you could always set an ongoing reminder in your phone, email software or other calendar. Invoices are generated 1 week in advance of renewals too, giving time to react to it.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

I have only used the helpdesk a couple of times, and each time it's been fine. The billing is not a problem either, so can't suggest any improvements.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Ive not long moved over to wesh hosting but so far iam happy the way things are run, i also moved my moms xcart from webfusion over to wesh as well and your system allowed me to ask questions on behalf of my mom's account which helped me speed the install up for her. So from my point iam happy with whats already in place.

Thank you :-) This is primarily why our systems are kept seperate, in order for customers helpers to get help and deal with things whilst keeping the billing side of things as simple as possible. We generally find that the majority of people building a website are familiar with ticketing systems and helpdesks / knowledgebase's, whereas their customers who pay for these things are not, so we kept the billing as extremely simple as possible.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

I've had no problems.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

It would probably be easier to combine them but I really don't mind either way. I have no problem with things as they are.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

No. I have been very happy with both and, as always, with the help I have received from all staff at WESH. I feel that the staff is competent and trustworthy.

Thank you :-) That means a lot to us and is appreciated.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

I find it frustrating that i send a cheque in teh post for our monthly bill and i then get chaser emails in my inbox until you receive it. it would be great if could communicate to you that a cheque has been sent and then the emails would stop. Just a small thing i know but a bit frustrating. Thanks.

Were very sorry about this but regardless of payment method, "cleared funds" MUST reach us no later than the 1st of each month, so if you were to post a cheque on the same "date" each month, it wont always arrive in enough time for us to pay it in and for it to clear. We would advise setting up a standing order instead to ensure funds reach us on time, or switch to paying by card instead as this will save you a LOT of extra work, and the annoyance of getting these "payment overdue" reminders.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

I sometimes need to pass on the billing to a client after having set the site up. I do not know how to do that easily. It is probably very obvious and if so just strike this comment from the page. Regards.

Indeed this is exeedingly simple and has already been addressed in our helpdesk knowledgebase under accounts and billing, titled "Transfer payment responsibility to my client"

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Hi, To be honest, I have no preference. I think your service so far has been wonderful.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

I find the Help Desk provides the best ever advice. They will even do tasks for me, that I would normally struggle with. So I cannot praise them enough! Response times are prompt, advice is courteous and pitched at a level that an 'intermediate' skill user can understand. E email is the most suitable way for communication in 90% of cases, so no changes need there. Truth is, if you where to combine the two services, say for reasons of economy, I cannot see any problems from a customer's point of view. (Save unifying the user names and passwords). However, in practice you rarely have a billing issue AND a help desk issue at the same time, so having a single log-in for both would not provide any practical advantage. You log in for what you need at the time! Great service, Kind regards,

Thanks, this is actually an exceptional point, and highlights something we didnt even consider, but it is possible people do sometimes open helpdesk tickets regarding billing issues such as account upgrades or invoice confusion over who is paying their bills or payments made on the wrong credit cards etc etc...

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Good so far

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Little or no opinion. Very happy with all the services we have received from Wesh.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

The ability to email in an issue would be most useful. Can't remember if you "bounce" the form as an email so that one has a record of issue raised in one's Wesh email folder. Incidentally, the option to allow .eml attachments through would hep me. you could add a text saying this is "unscanned" etc.

Thanks for this, but we already do allow helpdesk tickets to be emailed in to our helpdesk, but there are several issues in doing this and for those reasons we do ask that customers use our web based helpdesk where possible.

When opening a ticket, we need to know your cpanel username and which server your account is on, which our web based ticketing system forces you to provide, and sending in an email often results in the bland unhelpful emails like "my email isnt working" with no other info at all, as customers naturally assume we know exactly what email account, what server and there entire setup, when of course, were not yet trained in mind reading lol.

Another problem with just senfing in an email is that with the wide variety of email clients and webmail services, we often find that email replies arrive in a state that is barely readable, is littered with adverts or huge lengthy email signatures that we really dont want to see or just get in the way.

So, by "asking" our customers to use our web based interface, we get only the facts we really need, without any distortion or info that clogs up the message, and of course, it ensures WE get your message immediately, guaranteed!

EML attachments are related only to outlook express stationary, used by VERY few people as its considered tacky and unprofessional looking, and has the ability to also carry a virus, so for that reason, we just dont allow it through, scanned or not, we dont want virus infected files even passing through our systems because the recipients can report our servers as sending malicious emails, resulting in server blacklisting.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Putting them together is definitely the best way to improve them.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Combine, mainly because I am the only peson that uses the system - so combining them would be usful as I wouldn't then have two systems to log into.

Thanks, we know it can be a pain to have to login to 2 systems, but from the usage we see, customers rarely need to open helpdesk tickets often, and this is somewhat of a "very rare occurrance" for most customers, and is why we put so much effort into our helpdesk and knowledgebase, but obviously, there may be times you do need to raise a ticket, which is why we are looking into this issue of combining everything.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Access to the helpdesk and billing could be a little bit more visible / less confusing.

We would REALLY love you to get in touch and tell us who you are, and expand on this if possible because we cant possibly see how in its current state, billing and helpdesk could be made more "visible" as its linked to from every page on our website, its given in your welcome email, and from within your website cpanel too, so we really would love to hear more from you on this as clearly we are missing something important. Please do get in touch with us asap, we'd love to chat about this.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

The "Search Knowledgebase" dialog just below the login dialog is only available if not logged in. As soon as we log in, we can't search. Be useful to always be able to search the knowledgebase from the same dialog, logged in or not.

This is actually VERY deliberate, and was done purely because, if you have felt the need to login to our helpdesk to raise a ticket, then the knowledgebase has already been of no use to you and/or you have not found the answer to your problem, thus you login to raise a ticket, and no longer need the knowledgebase or anything else on our helpdesk as you have clearly run out of idea's by this point.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Actually, I don't mind either way.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

More, and earlier, reminders that web hosting is due to be renewed - ideally, make this configurable from the helpdesk/billing interface so that people can choose frequency, etc.

Thanks for this, we really would love to hear from you asap on the reasons for this? Web hosting by its very nature is auto-renewable until you tell us otherwise, thus reminders are not needed as our primary method of payment is with a card which we auto-debit on renewal, so unless something goes wrong, reminders are not needed, but we do invoice you a week in advance, and allow 14 days after the due date to rectify any payment problems, so we dont currently see the need to keep badgering customers with reminders, when most customers already have perfectly good mobile phones or email applications where they can set themselves reminders of things.

You can login to your billing at any time to view your renewal dates for anything you have with us if your not sure too, but again, do get in touch as there is clearly things we havent thought of or reasons we cant bring to mind as to why this would be required.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Hi One login for the billing and helpdesk would be a bonus (one less password to loose!) otherwise no improvements are necessary. All the best J.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

I seem to remember the password is displayed in plain text - I don't mean when it is keyed in, I mean when it is displayed as part of account info. This is not good - I should able to bring up my account details without the password appearing. I should not have to worry about using this screen in private - after all I can enter my password with other people looking at my screen and it is masked by asterisks. That's the only thing I can think of at present - otherwise happy with the service so far. best rgds G.

Thanks G, this is done purely to help those who loose passwords, once you have your password, you can store it securely on your PC somewhere as the section where you would view your control panel password is only available to those who are viewing the other private information about their account anyway, so ideally, you wouldnt want to be viewing this info with others watching anyway.

If we starred out the password, then customers who loose their cpanel password will have no way to reset it, or go check it and make note of it, but thats why its all carried out within an SSL encrypted section of our website too, so as to maintain your privacy and security.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

I am fine with it as it is but then I am probably not a very demanding customer. I can see the point of combining the two services into one point but am also happy to go along with it as it is, M.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

no, always been happy with the service and support response times.

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Its a little confusing for first time users. Its a bit like turning up at the Tescos deli counter and standing around for 10minutes before you realise you are meant to have one of those stupid tickets. And then, where are they and what do you do with them? Maybe an explanation on how to proceed with getting a problem resolved may help and an explanation as to why we have to have tickets.

Thank you :-) This is already highlightd in the web hosting welcome email that also contains your account details, but obviously we cant force customers to read "everything" as most just grab the login details and like everything else in life, "who bothers to read the manual" anymore? We all just want to plug-in and get on with things.

We did already cover this issue back in January 2006 during a re-write of our knowledgebase articles in an article on our helpdesk main page called: What support do you provide

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Fine as it is...so far!!

Thank you :-)

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

For me, the point is not the potential combination. The only single thing I dont like about Wesh (who I am 100% happy with) is that I can not reply via email. If I have to raise anything with you I happily log on to you systems, weather or not they are combined is totally unimportant. I raise my issue and the question is logged. You then reply to me email inbox, but I then cant reply using my email client, but have to re log into your systems every time. This really bugs me and burgles loads of my time. (-You asked. Top service (-:

Thanks for this feedback. As highlighted earlier, you "can" reply by email, but all too often we find that each customer has different email clients, long winded email signatures or, thanks to google and hotmail, their emails are littered with adverts, or srtip out essential info along the way.

Our own replies are not "emailed to you" from us, these are sent out automatically by our web based helpdesk as a "curtesy" to let you know that we have replied to your ticket, and what the reply was, so should not be seen as an "email reply" but more of a "notification" and what was done.

By ensuring customers login and reply online, we guarantee to get their reply immediately, and their entire reply only, no advets, extended signatures, delayed replies from mail servers elsewhere and other such things.

Another reason for this also, and it may sound stupid, but we do get a LOT of customers making the mistake of using their hosted email address, to register with our helpdesk when they are having email problems, and so, they dont receive our email replies, nor do they even receive the intitial opened ticket notification at all, so doing things by email for people is just asking for problems and leave's an awful lot of potential for excuse's of "I didnt get your email", thus everything is logged in a ticket via the web interface.

So, again, we are sorry that its a pain in the backside, but we really do want to eliminate all possabilities of excuse's, slow replies or no replies due to not even receiving a customers request in the first place.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

don't know, never used it.

Thanks, funny you should say that, as around 80%+ of our customers have never used our helpdesk as they just havent needed to, they either telephone with short queries or can easily find everything they need on our website.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK:

Though a combined system would be easier for me I understand that some companies with separate departments would probably prefer the billing and helpdesk to remain separate for security reasons. On the domain list I'd like to see whether auto renew is enabled without having to click the right hand link to check.

Thanks, and for your domain names, EVERY domain name is set to auto renew, unless you specify otherwise, but we agree, this may be very useful for some to see the renew status of their domain names so will put this forward for integration.

So, there we have it, so far, this is the feedback we have received, and we sincerely hope to receive lots more, but do appreciate the time taken by everybody to provide feedback. If you havent already filled iin our survey, then please do check your email inboxes and/or spamboxes for our unique URL to the survey, or do ask us to send it to you again.

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