Understand your customer

I'm not sure you folks at Acronis understand who your customer are, nor do I think you understand what they are looking for, because it transcends just the purchase of a software utility.

In most cases I would imagine your customer is someone who has just recently either lost everything on their system, or didn't lose all of their system but lost some very important information on their system or they thought they lost everything but then either recovered it or it was just a false alarm. Whatever the case, they have become terrified concerning the loss of their data.

So they are looking not only for a tool that will prevent them from losing data, but a level of confidence far beyond what they expect from any other software. They want a comfort zone not more FUD.

So far I think you (and other backup software companies) have lost sight of this. Perhaps you do have thousands of other users who are quite satisfied with how your software works, but then again who really knows. It also doesn't really matter to us, because it is our ox that is being gored right now.

Because you are genuinely responsible for the integrity of the backup of software and data, you should be held to a higher standard when it comes to reliability and support. For example, if a person has a fire, they call 911 and fully expect a firetruck to arrive ASAP. They are not expecting the fire dept to decide that this is a call they want to ignore, they expect a timely response.

If you want to be in this arena but are not prepared to handle the support or cannot afford to handle the support, don't just ignore everyone. Either raise your prices and change your marketing model or get out of the business. I would hate to buy one of these new "home" defibulators and then discover on the day that I really needed to use it that it didn't work. And then discover that the mfg had decided to use cheap parts or poor QC simply because they couldn't afford to compete any other way.

I have had so many problems just getting the backup portion of your software to work that I have zero confidence in it's ability to restore.

I might also add, that I know many people would be willing to pay for the ability to talk to an experienced tech person when it came time to do a restore. It most cases, they are scared, unsure of what to do and are willing to pay to talk to someone to make sure they don't make a mistake while doing a restore. They might not call you, but just knowing a real person is available would add a great deal to their comfort level.

We will know within 12 to 18 months whether your business model of ignoring supposedly just a handful of miscreants will allow your company to survive or not. You've even got a great review from PC Mag to help grease the rails for you, but that can also be one of the worst things that could happen to you. If you can't provide adequate support for your customer now, what will happen if the PC Mag article brings thousands of users to your doors and you can't handle them. It's happened to many other companies who weren't prepared for that kind of growth.

There is a little company out there called CoffeeCup software and they have numerous software tools for sale. None of them are in the "life and death" arena that you are in, yet they are always able to respond in a very timely manner. There is another company called IMD that has a product called UltraEdit. Again, not getting quick support from them will cause no consternation from any of their users. However, you could not ask for better or more timely response. They are fast. They have also been in business for a few years and although their editor can compete with editors in the $300+ range, they only charge $30.00. UltraEdit is a well respected product.

You've got product problems and major support problems. You need to take your blinders off and do an honest evaluation of what your company is doing (or not doing) and make some changes.

 

AMEN. Well said.

 

Ditto! Couldn't have said it better!