Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

Or…how to lose two customers in four days.

Doing business on the Web is great. BUT, some companies take the living/breathing the web stuff way too far.

Example: WebFaction. I recommended the company to a client for hosting. We are now on day FOUR of trying to get her email working. What could have been a 15 minute call has turned into a flurry of back and forth emails and no resolution.

As a former Director of “Worldwide Help Desk Services” for Unisys, I’m painfully familiar with the costs of phone support. But, not offering it in this case is likely going to lose Web Faction at least two customers. (My client and I talk to a LOT of people - on and off the Web.) And, we’ve eaten up a lot of Sean’s time (the fella who provides support for Web Faction out of Las Cruces - so the company must grok some of the basics of remote support…) I asked him to call my client and got the response “we don’t provide phone support.” Great.

After some digging, I found the CEO of Swarma in London who owns Web Faction. Sent him an email via Linked-In.

Now, it’s up to WebFaction. Can they recover? Do they even want to? Stay tuned…

Oh - and WebFaction? I hear they’ve got this new-fangled thing called “online chat” and some radical thingie where you can access other PCs remotely. Golleee!

Monday Update: Richard, one of the co-founders of WebFaction, responded to my email to the support address on their web site. Iit seems the problem is fixed. WebFaction claims it was a Comcast problem (they block the specified port).

Two things:
1. WebFaction should post re such known problems - and have a standard fix, written in non-tech language, step-by-step. (And, if your problem is you can’t send email - it makes it really difficult to communicate with them via email…)

2. Richard, although apologetic, didn’t provide any personal contact information (including - sigh - a phone number.) And, he said the situation appeared “under control” - that if there were further issues he’d call my client. (How about calling her anyway? Take two minutes and might be a good service recovery.)

I have to compare this to Scott Westerman, Regional VP of Comcast - who passes out his direct line, email, and Twitter info with great abandon, including starting a Q&A forum at Duke City Fix. I forwarded Richard’s email to Scott this morning and he’s already responded (within about 5 minutes) that he’s on it. I have no doubt that he is - I’m not sure the man ever sleeps (or stops smiling.)

Wednesday Update: No response to my email of Monday. I also invited Richard to post a comment here - nothing. And, no call to my client. Guess we’ll be looking for a new hosting service for both this site and that of my client. Any recommendations from my readers? Hello? WebFaction?

Tags: web hosting, Web Faction, emarketing, marketing troubleshooting, customer service, Remi Delon, Comcast