Broadly speaking, there are two types of people in the world. Reasonable and angry.
Reasonable people show sound judgement, make rational decisions and usually make logical decisions even when unhappy. They make good friends.
Angry people, on the other hand, lash out at the world, are prone to rash decisions and can make really bad enemies.
Here’s the key point. Reasonable people can be turned angry a lot easier than the other way round.
I recently discovered that my new PC had frozen for no apparent reason. After a little snooping, it appears that Norton Internet Security 2011 was the cuplrit.
Evidence #1:
At this point I was still reasonable. Software issues happen.
Evidence #2:
So far so good, until…
The support website was where it started to go wrong. I won’t bore you with the details, but I was soon calling a local (UK) phone number for further support.
After my call was connected to a place a very long way from the UK, I spoke with someone from whichever company Symantec outsource their support to. He sounded like he knew what he was doing, so I (grudgingly) gave him control of my PC.
The nutshell version: he was clueless. He floundered around my system with no real idea what he was doing, and at one point had to be stopped from making changes to my Windows Registry. Not a setting for Symantec software, but a general Windows security setting.
I find it genuinely terrifying to think what damage he might have caused. This is a person who repeatedly demonstrated the most appalling lack of knowledge about basic Windows procedures.
When I asked to be transferred to a supervisor, I received someone equally inept. Someone who quite literally believed that clicking Cancel was the same as clicking Okay.
Here’s where I’m going with this.
One of the overheads of selling software is providing a reasonable level of support.
People only use support when they need it, and more often than not they will be unhappy and tense when they do.
If the support you provide your customers is shoddy, they will turn from reasonable to angry, and you will lose them for life.
The moment I read a trusted review that leads me to believe there’s a better product than Norton Internet Security, I’ll buy it. And I’ll never, ever purchase from Symantec again.
See how reasonable people can turn angry?
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