What would you do if this was your job?

Question

I work for a small software company. The people are great, the hours are somewhat flexible, and it's a very casual environment. The issue is our software has a very low integrity. It has more problems than good features. I don't know why we have so many customers and no lawsuits. It's a very expensive software.

My position is Tech Support. When a customer calls, I am almost embarassed to what happenned. Sometimes they actually loose money because our software messed up. I have to apologize everytime the phone rings.

Professional/considerate comments of what you would do is appreciated.

Answer 1

As tech support, you're unfortunately low on the company totem pole, but you're also in a very powerful position because you deal with the customers.

First, talk to your supervisor and get the formal procedure for escalating a problem back to the engineers. All software companies should have a formal escalation process, where Tech Support verifies that the problem is indeed a bug and not something specific to the customer environment. Make sure you have a lab machine set up so you can duplicate the problems. Then as customers report bugs, document them and formally escalate them.

The next suggestion--- use your judgement on this! But you want to leverage your relationship with the customers to help get those problems escalated. In my company, we have a formal product enhancement request website and whenever I deal with a problem that is not a bug, but really a functionality that does not exist in the software I support, I pretty much hold my customer's hand as they walk through submitting the enhancement request. You have to walk a very fine line here--- you do NOT want to be seen as the support tech who gets all the customers writing angry letters, but you do want to use the customers as a way to get some attention paid to the overall problems. Company managers are going to listen to the customers more than they listen to the employees--- because the customers are the ones spending the money.

Make sure you document in your cases how much money the customers are losing for each incident. Don't come out and ask them--- could make them madder!!!--- but if Mr. Jones says "your software made me miss the stock trade and we lost $800,000 because of that" then document it.

And seriously, you might want to start looking for another job. Many other companies offer flexible hours, cool co-workers and a casual environment; it's just a lot easier to do your job if the product actually works!

Answer 2

Take advantage of the situation and show your experience and knowledge in trying to make it better.

Help track the bugs - come up with procedures/policies to make an improvement in the process. Document customer issues/concerns and raise them - associate these with the bugs so the business knows where to focus and what is creating the demand.

There is lots of opportunity for you to be much more than tech support for the simple sake you have taken the time to identify the issue and express your concerns.

Is there a reason you can't take this up with your boss right now?

Change Control, Source control (svn/cvs), a good trouble ticket system that allows you to tie your systems together will help you out. I wouldn't look at apologizing to your customers as much as i would look at helping your business focus on the customer and show that you see the value/importance of solving/preventing the issues and not being embarassed by them.

Answer 3

The person providing your paycheck expects loyalty. Apologize for the problem the customer is having and explain repair is underway. Your comments are not important because you only know some of the story and could open the company to litigation if you say the wrong thing.

Answer 4

Hi
im sorry for your situation i have some similar position working for the biggest software company but i work in the department of the consoles and other accesories many times we have very bad situations with some non good quality products and well we basically also i need to lie , really sucks but unfortunately we need to work :( wish you the best and good luck

Answer 5

If you wish to remain in the company make suggestions to correct these problems. If you're unable to do this and are uncomfortable with the way the business is operated then move on.