July

If you can get me back up and running extremely quickly I want to pay nothing (fallacy of the quick support question)

Posted By: Wayne Schulz - Contact the author

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Whether you’re receiving phone support from Schulz Consulting, another consultant or Sage – I believe the worst thing you can do is cancel your MAS90 or MAS 200 phone support contract and pray nothing goes wrong.

I’ll take our own support plan as an example.

Enrollment in an unlimited phone and remote support plan costs you $2,800 per year.

That’s about $250 per month.

We don’t offer pay as you go telephone/remote support (read below for the primary reason).

Shortly we believe you will also have trouble finding a competent consultant who provides support on a pay as you go plan (see below for reason).

The most common argument that we hear against paying for a support plan is the old standby:

We don’t call that much

Ok. I’ll buy that.

When you DO call – how fast do you ~~want~~ expect the response?

Is it helpful that the person can also log in immediately to control your desktop and make changes (with your permission)?

Is one, two or even three day response time acceptable? That’s our estimate of the average “pay as you go” response time.

That’s one, two or three days of your staff staring at blank computer screens. Your staff sitting idle not able to process any computer transactions.

Most consulting firms (Schulz included) reserve their fastest response times for those customers enrolled in a prepaid plan. The reasoning for this is simply – they reserve this time for the clients who’ve prepaid and have indicated a future need for services.

The other common argument we hear against support is:

That was a quick question – don’t bill me

I’m paraphrasing the above but when we used to offer hourly telephone support (which we don’t any longer because all of our clients are on prepaid fixed cost plans) a huge number of clients would call expecting that if their question could be answered quickly that they would not receive a bill.

How insane is that logic?

Let me rephrase the logic of the quick question from a consultant’s perspective:

“If you can get me back up and running extremely quickly I want to pay you nothing”

Just this morning I received a call from a former support customer. Their normal internal staff person who supports their MAS 90 is out sick. They have 5 people unable to process any transactions until a MAS 90 issue is corrected.

Guess why they had cancelled support?

Correct! — they hardly ever needed to call.

Now the owner’s in a situation where his entire staff has to stop working until they can get a MAS 90 error condition corrected.

We are increasingly seeing these types of support issues where a company has cancelled their support due to perceived lack of need.

Guess what they’re discovering?

It’s only a lack of need — until you need it.

At a future point – they suddenly have a need again. And they’re stuck waiting in line for a consultant who offers lower priority hourly support.

We urge you – think twice before giving up your support. If having MAS 90 or MAS 200 shut down in the middle of the day would be a hardship for your company – then you need to be on a support plan with a qualified consulting firm. It’s important to establish these relationships ahead of time because shortly as the market contracts you will see more consulting firms that do not accept “quick question” type support for which they ultimately won’t be compensated.

Related posts you might want to review:
Sage MAS90 and MAS200 Clientcare Reinstatement promotions save you 40%

Reminder: Sage Maintenance Discounts Available For 2, 3, 5 Year Renewals

Sage Issues Malware Advisory For April 14 Support Knowledgebase Visitors [Updated]

Schulz Consulting providing MAS 90 and MAS 200 support and collaboration via Google Wave

AccuPOS and MAS 90 – quick review

About Wayne Schulz

Wayne is a Sr Consultant who has worked with Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 since 1986. He provides technical support to companies located throughout the United States on all versions of MAS90 and MAS200. Contact him on Twitter or Facebook or email wayne@s-consult.com. Review a list of all Schulz Consulting Prior MAS90 News Post Archives here. The views expressed on this site are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinion or position of any other person or company. We are NOT in the business of providing tax, accounting or audit advice and you are advised to consult with your tax professional in such matters and not to rely on any information here as authoritative tax, technology or accounting advice.

Filed Under MAS90, Sage software, schulz consulting

Comments

John Shaver

I like to look at a support agreement as an insurance policy. You don't wait until you've wrecked your car to buy the policy.
Wayne Schulz

It still boggles my mind that companies who rely upon their accounting system would "fly without a net".

For the annual support fee charged - they essentially are getting another employee who -

- never takes time off
- doesn't ask for health insurance
- is available at a moment's notice during all working hours
- and had extensive experience and resources to solve their problems

I just don't get it...