Social media is a great way to get these companies that aren’t serving clients to lift their game. We have seen social media contribute to the over turning of dictatorships – why not use it more to put pressure on service providers who give us crappy products and service and then won’t listen. Social media and forums like this least gives them the opportunity to respond because its not always the fault of the company.

In my old life I was a forensic business analyst in corporate and was called in when the technology had caused serious major problems. 100% of the time it wasn’t the technology = it was technology being used badly.

The most common causes were (assuming they had actually purchased the right system to fit their purpose in the first place):
1. Bad training on the systems when they were installed
2. Ongoing lack of training for staff in the proper use of the technology
3. People thinking they knew more about the technology than they actually did (super users who weren’t!)
4. Bad systems and processes for getting data into the technology
5. Installing work arounds to make the technology do something it was never designed to do
5. Bad staff morale
6. Management constantly cutting or retrenching the people who DID know how to use the technology
7. All the above in the technology suppliers company!

In 100% of the cases it was a people problem not a technology problem causing the issues but no one ever wanted to go that far down the burrow.

I believe in small business – use the best you can afford or hire the best you can afford to set it up and run it if you can’t and invest heavily in getting the initial set up right.

In the past 8 months I moved my office from PC to MAC and my CRM from 1shoppingcart to Infusionsoft. The difference is remarkable and I’m still wondering what Apple put in their staffs tea each morning to make them SO amazing. But it came at a cost and had many additional costs I hadn’t factored – time being the greatest.

1SC had served me well for years but those templates I’m sorry – so web1.0 and they lost me the day they started to charge for support – I’d minimally used their phone support and raised a couple of tickets – if you can’t provide that for free or at least build it in my monthly fee – pah I say! Bottom line though – it was no longer fit for purpose.

Infusionsoft was a beast of a thing to get my head around with support staff who have gone above and beyond for me and its now working and on a daily basis delighting me with just how much more it can do. Initially I thought 1SC had a better shoppingcart until I actually set up a digital product from woe to go and OMG there are so many more options than I ever dreamed possible. Their master classes not only teach you the functionality – they teach you how it can work better in your business.

Thing is though most people don’t have my skill base or determination to figure things out so these companies have us by the “short ands” and it is a massive task to move away from your CRM or any of the other systems we depend so heavily on. So name and shame or name and fame is our only defence when everything else doesn’t work.

When moving do lots of research, watch what the big guns are using, invest in way more training than you ever think you will need – hire people who actually know and have set one up from scratch before.

Then don’t be afraid to name and shame those who don’t get it right whilst also remembering – its usually “user error” at the root of the problem if the solution you have purchased is fit for the purpose you want to use it for.

I find that there are usually three possible culprits when a client is frustrated with their tech systems… 1. not taking the time to acquaint themselves with how the tech-thingy in question works… 2. over-economizing… don’t want to spend another $24 per month (that could possibly save hours of time each month)… or 3. being overly attached to old ‘corporate’ ways of doing things (being wedded to using MS Outlook for email is a good example).

Of course – it could be that they are just using the wrong tools for the job. The client doesn’t obsessively test-drive every new gadget and toy out there (like I do – heh!) and may not be aware that there are better services available that may solve the problem.

Sorry for the lengthy comment – just a subject close to my heart!

I have a certain frustration with the broadcast/newsletter feature of a certain popular eCommerce system. I suspect it might be the same system that caused your rant today. They have recently made some really great updates to other areas on their system, but the broadcast/newsletter feature is a total hindrance. So much so that I have more than once thought about moving to another system. The thing is, I love so many of their other features and I love that everything is in one place, but there are times….

Anyway, I share your frustration when technology doesn’t do what we expect it to do or support us in the way it claims to.

Boo Hiss!!!