Here's ONE way to improve your Customer Service Effectiveness...

Dear Acronis...

I have a suggestion that would possibly help reduce complaints and the number of actual difficulties your customers experience with your software.

It is simply this... When someone purchases an upgrade or new version, make sure they receive the most current build available at the time of purchase.

I'll give you my situation to support this. I purchased an upgrade to TI 8.0 the night of 9/27/2004. I have a dialup internet connection, so I did the download of 22+MB overnight. The file finished sometime around 5:00am. When I installed TI 8.0 and began working with it, I discovered problems in setting a specific archive size for my backup. I learned after some effort in searching this forum and posting my symptoms that my problems stemmed from a bug in build #763, now cured in current builds. Well, I mistakenly assumed I had the most current version because I had just downloaded it YESTERDAY, right?? WRONG!! The most current version, after checking your update page is build #771, which to my surprise has been available as an UPDATE since September 2, 2004...

My question is why can you not make your most current version build more readily available for download at the time of PURCHASE?? Updates are great and I'm thankful for them. However, Instead of getting a "FRESH" product, I downloaded a STALE version full of bugs. On top of that, I then had to turn around and RE-DOWNLOAD another 22+MB product to fix the problem...

Tell me... Would you be a little upset if you bought a perishable item from the grocery store with a current freshness date on the outside, but when you unwrapped it, you discovered it was really a MONTH past expiration and had been repacked as "NEW" and crawling with bugs?? I think you would.

Getting the RIGHT version the FIRST time would have saved me much inconvenience and would have gone a long way toward boosting my confidence in your product. Certainly SOMEONE in Acronis could make #771 available on the download servers from Element 5 (or whatever) between 9/2/2004 and 9/27/2004?? I understand there must be some "lag time" between when updates become available and when you can get them out as finished products, but a MONTH? (And don't tell me everyone else takes TWO months... If your new Chevy breaks down, it is of little comfort and even less HELP to know that Fords break down more often... You'd still be STUCK )

Hey, you guys have THE premier backup product out there! I've tried many different combinations of hardware/software backup "solutions" (pft!) There always seems to be SOME sort of problem that severely limits their use and effectiveness. Heck some of them just plain don't even WORK AT ALL! Acronis TI 6.0 saved my BACON last week when Win XP decided to GUT itself after SP2 installed. I was able to restore from a 11/2003 TI 6 backup and save most of my stuff. I lost everything from 11/2003 through last week. Mainly emails... If I would have had TI 8.0 then, I would have been up and running in minutes from the previous nights full backup append without a single byte gone! So, your product is the BEST, bar none. Just give us great customer service and stay on top of things and the masses will sell your product FOR YOU. This forum (and anywhere else Acronis is discussed) is where you are made or broken... When two competing products are otherwise equal, GREAT SERVICE (or lack of it...) is what sets them apart. (In some cases, I'd buy in INFERIOR product that had EXCELLENT SUPPORT!)I've seen posts in here about people not getting responses from Support and no follow up... In this day and age where we have email, voice mail, user forums, automation and the like, there is just NO EXCUSE for people falling through the cracks.

If you want to see a great example of how to handle customer service inquiries... Check out how APC handles their customers. I had problems with a couple of their power backup units that were ATTROCIOUS. The problem involved MONTHS of back and forth communication and they even sent me six different units during the whole ordeal to try to resolve the problem. I was dismayed by gross defects in their normally superior products. I now have the greatest respect for their company because they STAYED WITH ME during the process and finally DID resolve the problems. I continue to recommend their products to others. However, that could very easily have gone the other way. Bottom line: Don't blow people off and treat them with respect even when they sometimes don't deserve it. Others are watching...

Thanks for listening!

 

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Anothe good idea would be for them to respond to support requests.

 

Same thing just happned to me, dl'ed 09-28-04 just o find out that i had to upgrade today (09-29-04)

 

We have 25 licenses for True Image and are seriously looking to move to a replacement product, as in the business environment, support is everything. We cannot afford to be without PCs for weeks on end - reference a PC corrupted by installing Disk Director 9 4 weeks ago (to replace Partition Expert & OS Selector). This in turn has caused a delay in the distribution of our new software release as we cannot test it on all platforms - the PC with 4 different operating systems has been completely wiped out and although we have backups we cannot boot the PC to restore them. We still await some assistence from Acronis.

I just wish that this forum had been available when we bought and I could have seen the number of similarly frustrated users.

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel - are there any signs of improvement? I would love to hear from anyone who thinks that there is. It would cheer up a very disgruntled company of users.

 

One of the most frequently stated complaints about using free, Open Source software is that support is hard to come by. This company and their product is a prime example that buying software from a company that supposedly offers support is no guarantee at all that you can ever get that support when you need it.

I don't know offhand of any comparable Open Source products for Windows PC backup, but my Linux PCs do run free software (Mondoarchive) that does everything True Image does and that software runs flawlessly and support for it is quick to come by.

Just keep in mind that commercial software isn't always the best solution, no matter what the media and your managers tell you.

 

The support issue is definitely a raw nerve with many. It is probably THE pivotal relationship builder/destroyer between a company and its customers. Any particular organization with ignore this fact at its own peril. In my experience, every company seems to have a definite "attitude" about how they treat their customers. The best (smart!) ones are very open and willing to communicate and give their customers many options for delivering "feedback" about their products. They understand that dealing directly with "problems" head-on is one of the best ways to BUILD good relationships with their customers. They do NOT view customers' complaints (or their CUSTOMERS) as something to be avoided. However, the worst ones almost always try to force their customers to go through a seemingly endless series of roadblocks and gauntlets in the apparent hopes that the customer will be come exasperated and finally give up. I continue to shake my head in dismay over this worthless approach to dealing with problems.

It is also important to treat ALL customers as important. Whether a customer has ONE license or 25 (like Angela!) or 2500, a customer should STILL have access to effective means of communication with the company that sold and produced the product. There should be no reason to allow anyone to fall through the cracks. No company is perfect and there are going to be mistakes and dropped balls. People understand that. There just should not be a discernable pattern to it... It should be the exception, not the rule.

As far as Acronis is concerned, I am very happy with their product. I have not had any MAJOR issues of support that have put Acronis to the test on customer service. I have seen some of the posts from Acronis Support and it seems they are at least attempting to address problems. I would suspect they are perhaps understaffed in the CS area. Most companies fail to allocate adequate resources in the CS area because they see CS as a liability (money drain) rather than an (income producing) asset. The irony is that CS really only becomes a money drain if it is neglected.

TO ACRONIS-The important thing for you to do is to STAY WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS! When a customer informs you of a complaint or has an issue with your product (OR service...), stay with them through the entire process. You're not going to make everyone happy, but you will have a better chance of retaining customers and ensuring repeat business if you turn bad situations into good ones. I don't remember the exact numbers, but a happy customer will probably tell about three other potential customers about you. A disgruntled customer will probably tell about 10-20! Bad PR is easier to get and tougher to get rid of.

Hang in there folks! Remember you catch more flies with honey! I know for many TIME is of the essence in resolving issues, but they DO have an awesome product! Just try to work with them as much as you can before bailing out!