Market7

Recently, our company experienced terrible customer service from another Software as a Service (SaaS) company.

Instead, it is meant to highlight some of the key areas where SaaS is potentially weakest and where we (in accordance with our fine customers’ request) we hope to excel here at Market7.

• After signing contract, customer cannot easily alter agreement after four months of low-usage
• No online account management capabilities, must call customer support and wait for the assigned Account Representative to call us back
• Despite leaving a better phone number for the Account Rep, Rep continues to call the phone number listed on the account, resulting in extended game of phone tag
• Refusal to reassign account despite 4 weeks of Account Rep phone tag
• Finally! Rep contact. Then 27 days go by with Rep failing to deliver promised new contract terms
• After angry customer call and quick Rep follow up, Another four days pass, Rep still fails to deliver on promises
• Through the entire process, customer is being charged for services they are not using

What can we at Market7 learn from this debacle? First, that customers feel vulnerable when dealing with SaaS. They are relying on someone “out there” to take care of them. They are at the mercy of outages, down-times, upgrades that result in bugs and loss of data. Because of this, it is especially important that they feel comfortable with the customer support system.

The irony is that the service is very, very good. If not for this customer service experience, I would recommend them to anyone wanting to have an online meeting in real-time. It is a shame that so much time was put into a great software experience only to lose customers because of their customer support.

Why is this different than traditional software? The vulnerability factor cannot be overlooked. SaaS companies must go OUT-OF-THEIR-WAY to take care of a simple request (like changing a service plan). Customers who get the impression they are just a number will conclude that their valuable information is at risk. “Wow, if they won’t even take the time to adjust my subscription, what will happen when I have a real problem like data loss on their servers”.

For Market7 video projects on a specific and limited time scale, producers and clients all fear that at the worst possible time (IE, 24 hours before the video is set to air) Market7 might not be there for them. As a result, it is crucial that we do three things for each and every customer:

1. Make it easy for them to contact help
2. Accept responsibility and encourage open communication
3. Keep them constantly updated about progress and follow through the conclusion

customer, customer service, Product, SaaS