In a recent conversation with a client (who will remain nameless but we can all relate to this story) the conversation started a bit tense. 

"We have found seven bugs in your product!!"

This call was an escalation and our client was not happy.  Unfortunately that had found one real bug. I'm sad to say it, but it happens.  We did supply a workaround in the same day and a hot fix the next day which by normal accounts was awesome service. 

However no horns trumpeted, no applause.  Why? 

Because the client felt like there were six more problems on their list. Bugs?  No, they were related to mis-configuration, product knowledge and unhappy users.  So what to do, what to do?  We could hide behind our Support Policy and get off the hook!  These are not defects.  While true, that is so LAME!

My comments were as follows (abbreviated):

"It doesn't really matter if the issues are defects, mis-configuration of the software, training issues, actual issues or just perceived issues.  What matters is your users are not happy, so you are not happy.  It is our job to help you get your users happy.  So we will sit in on user calls, perform training and enablement based on those calls and sit side by side until they are happy." 

We (you and I) hate it when companies do that to us.  Hide behind dumb policies.  So xMatters is not going to do that to our client.  This story is still in the works so I'll make sure to update it as we go.  However, we are "all in" to help them be successful. 

I hope this approach ends with happy end users, a happy client and we'll all enjoy our jobs better because we will have helped a client who needed us. 

Troy