We’re going to take a slight detour this month as we discuss one of the primary tools of the Qumulo Customer Success team. You may have heard that “Customers are our magnetic field”. It’s actually painted on the wall at HQ. It’s one of the first points made to potential candidates, and one that is echoed when we make decisions. Happy customers are repeat customers and promoters.
Just how do we keep this magnetic field happy? Having worked at several storage companies, from startups to one of the big Goliaths, I can say a common thread that all customers want is communication. Echoing the thoughts from the other month, customers trusted their business with our product, if they’re having issues that’s costing them money – the least we can do is communicate back to them. One of those communication paths is that each and every customer gets a dedicated slack channel. Unlike some other vendors, we don’t limit who can join a customer’s slack channel from the Qumulo side. In fact, outside of all of the support engineers, you also get engineering popping in from time to time. I don’t know if there’s been a CEO sighting in a channel yet, but there has certainly been CTO sightings.
As a customer, you are given the full population of the support team, which means right off the bat you’ve got an insane amount of experience at your disposal. Qumulo doesn’t have a tiered support structure, so you won’t be running into an outsourced support org who simply wants to get your question framed and passed along. We’re here for you, right off the bat, with best in class support at your fingertips.
With that said, let’s run down some customer slack best practices that will help us resolve your issue as swiftly as possible.
First and foremost, don’t be shy. Hop on out there, use your big outdoor voice, and say hello. We love to talk to our customers (see aforementioned point of magnetic field). Bored on a Tuesday afternoon? Drop us a line!
Secondly, if you do have an issue and not just deep dish pizza recommendations, any information you can provide up front is helpful. Most customers have more than one cluster, so knowing what we’re looking at is extremely helpful. On top of that, the more details you can provide the better.
Lastly, don’t be afraid to ask for a [insert favorite web conference software here]. We’ve done it all short of PC Anywhere. If anyone uses that for remote support, let me know – I’d love to see how it works these days. Defunct software aside, don’t be alarmed when two or three customer success engineers show up on your call. We love to troubleshoot issues, and having multiple minds together can work wonders.
Next month we’ll be rolling back into the technical realm, so don’t miss it!
