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GemX's Classy Reply to Daly's Questions
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Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jun 26, 2008 at 09:53 PM
The other day, in response to GemX’s sale and a response to a post I had written, I started a thread called “Is GemX another ADM?”
I sent a copy of what I wrote in that thread as part of a note to GemX.
Within hours I received the following post from Jon at GemX. I then wrote to him for permission to present his post to the group, because I was struck positively by his straightforward manner, and what I appreciated as willingness to note limitations. He gave me permission to use the post as long as I used the whole post, and made no changes. Here is Jon’s post to me:
Jon’s Post to Daly
Hi Daly,
Thank you for the detailed email.
There have been no shortage of people complaining about just because
we have not answered simple questions such as how to use doO email
client or were not able to fix bugs like in yesterday. Well, I can’t
blame them. It’s our fault. We were too ambitious on providing just
too good of a customer service. When we were coming to the gates of
burn out stage we decided to stand back and take it easy. Please
remember we are a small company with a limited resources.
Now days we do not answer email questions are already answered in help
documentations.
In respect of your inquiry, all I can say is that don’t take anybodies
word for it. Test it yourself to see if it provides the solutions you
are looking for satisfactorily for your needs. If it doesn’t or in
doubt then right thing to do is not to purchase it. Special offers
finish date is July 20, 2008. I hope this gives you enough time to
evaluate.
We don’t and won’t sell future possibilities. We sell all GemX
applications as is. No sale talk with promises or re-assurances. You
should base your purchase decision on what you can see and use at
present.
There are no guarantee we can provide that GemX will continue
developing it’s applications years to come. Something drastic may
happen and we may have to stop the business. However, In such event,
we wouldn’t just dump everything, we would try to find a new owner who
can carry on developing and selling GemX applications.
We run special offers on certain times of the year. Only difference is
that we offer bigger discount at this time than previous ones; taking
into account soaring energy prices and shrinking buying power of
prospective customers. Of course we need to get in cash and new users.
Can any business survive without customers and reasonable cash flow?
I hope the above goes some way to answer your questions.
Best regards,
Jon.
GemX Software
Daly’s Reflection on Jon’s Post
I appreciate Jon’s honesty, and I think he notes the realities facing a small developer who becomes quite successful.
His comment about selling future possibilities was in response to a question I had posed about whether GemX might disappear, such as ADM. Jon is absolutely correct—there are no guarantees about what might happen tomorrow. I appreciate that he stipulates that if something did happen to impact the business negatively, they would try to find new owners.
Having been in corporate public relations, and having worked with companies facing challenges, I find myself more confident about GemX because of Jon’s frankness, and willingness to avoid the temptation of making promises.
With re to DO, I am testing it, and finding that so far it seems to have been improved very much from the first time I tried the product. The mail downloads are blazingly fast, and I am getting the knack of using the links.
The feature that appeals is the fact that a browser is built-in. That means selecting a url in a post opens the browser tab. I can then tab back to the email and read other emails, if I wish. The material in the browser tab does not change. I can also open new tabs.
There is also a button that toggles from email in pane view to full view of the email. Very fast and convenient.
So far I am fairly pleased with what I have seen.
Other features need to be checked out, such as the finance module, the mind map, and the yearly planning calendar.
It appears to me that DO has become GemX’s flagship product—it incorporates features of other products, plus adding PIM capabilities. In ways it reminds me of either Ariadne or InfoSelect. Of course, Ariadne did not have a mail capability. DO’s mail and browser capabilities work far better than IS’s ever has.
I can also copy web page clips or whole articles to Surfulater from DO.
I do not think I would use DO as my main reference container—but as a workshop for day to day activities, it may be just right. More later.
And thanks again to Jon for a fast, no nonsense response. The delay in posting it here is solely my fault.
Daly
Posted by Graham Rhind
Jun 27, 2008 at 09:11 AM
>Now days we do not answer email questions are already answered in
>help
>documentations.
Actually, regardless of the rest of the response, this would ensure that I don’t touch their software. Annoying though it is that users ask questions that might be gleaned from (deep in) the documentation (and I have the same issue with my users), it should be normal that each request gets a response, even only that the answer is in the documentation in chapter ..... It’s basic customer service and developers should do well to consider it as such.
Graham
Posted by Thomas
Jun 27, 2008 at 11:39 PM
“There have been no shortage of people complaining about just because
we have not answered simple questions such as how to use doO email
client or were not able to fix bugs like in yesterday.”
Well how it IMHO all started was that suddenly there was a number of complaints on the forum about people not getting license codes they purchased.
There was at least one case I remember that went for many many days if not weeks.
Once the ball started rolling with license codes complaints, and shutdown of the forum shortly after that, THEN those complainers with simple questions started adding their experiences, but they were by far just a side-effect.
As for the support…definitely I agree they should at least send a reply “please check the help file”.
Maybe it just wasn’t a very well though out response from them.
On the other hand, with a significant helpdesk experience, I can understand what they might have been going through. (“I don’t have time to read help”, “How do you check for mail”, ....), hard to judge without seeing what’s really going on.
That said I was happy with their support.
Posted by dan7000
Jun 28, 2008 at 04:25 PM
Graham Rhind wrote:
>>Now days we do not answer email questions are already answered in
>
>>help
>>documentations.
>
>Actually, regardless of the rest of the response, this
>would ensure that I don’t touch their software. Annoying though it is that users ask
>questions that might be gleaned from (deep in) the documentation (and I have the same
>issue with my users), it should be normal that each request gets a response, even only
>that the answer is in the documentation in chapter ..... It’s basic customer service
>and developers should do well to consider it as such.
>
I’d go farther than that. I think that well-designed, usable software should not need a help file. If someone needs to look at the help file then they are experiencing a flaw in your design. (I know this is an impossibly high standard - but it’s an ideal that developers should shoot for.)
It sounds like GemX has been hearing the same questions over and over about how to use their software. When that happens, the last thing they should say is “look at the help file.” The fact that lots of people can’t figure out how to use the software should make them say:
“we know this is an issue with the software, and we are redesigning that feature to make it more obvious how to use it. Can you tell us exactly how you thought the feature would work?”
Posted by Pierre Paul Landry
Jun 28, 2008 at 06:22 PM
dan7000 wrote:
I’d go farther than that. I think that well-designed, usable software should not need a help file. If someone needs to look at the help file then they are experiencing a flaw in your design.
——————————-
For software which implement a known concept, I think this is possible.
But when something is really innovative, when it does not resemble some other well-known app, or when it is a cross between 2 or more apps, then, some form of documentation, start-up guide, etc. is essential.
So many of my users were baffled at first, and after talking, reading, thinking, one day they say: Aha! now I see the light. Everything becomes simple, clear, predictable… and powerful. But until that light gets turned on, because it is an unusual concept, users need help.
A worker requires training to use a new tool unless (1) the tool is very simple, or (2) he’s been trained on something very similar.