Let us start the discussion by assuming a scenario.Say you are a service provider and you have partnered with another provider specialized in specific technologies.Partnering with them is going to help you deliver a variety of services to your clients based upon those technologies, and you don’t need to take the pain to master those.So, the project progresses, and after a few months your service partner successfully delivers your dream project, and everything is just the way you wanted it to be.You are all excited to start off with the website or application for your client. With all hopes and eagerness, you show the green flag to the marketing team to begin with the campaigns and the wheels start to roll.The users start arriving at the website or start downloading the application, they interact with the content, place orders, and everything appears to be falling into the right places.However, everything goes on smoothly for a while, but one fine day an unexpected error appears in the process.It seems to be an error which needs an in-depth technical inspection to identify and troubleshoot.On the other side, your client calls you up and complains that the system through which orders flow in is not working correctly and the customers are unable to place orders.
Fact – As per NewVoiceMedia, 51% of customers never do business with a company again after they have a negative experience with them.
You already know this can severely impair your client’s business and might also jeopardize your partnership with them.Sensing the urgency of the situation, you try to fix the issue quickly, but it doesn’t do much as you have limited technical know how.The next option is to reach out to your service partner, so you ask them for help, but they quote you an exorbitantly high price for fixing the issue which doesn’t seem to be fair.They tell you as the project has been delivered and signed off hence, they don’t bear the responsibility to fix any errors or bugs which may arise. So, you need to pay the price to fix the issue.However, assessing the gravity of the situation, you decide to pay the high price even though being unhappy with it.Now, what do you think? Shouldn’t your service provider have fixed the issue for free?Even though the contract is over, it is the vendor who built the application/website. The reason you partnered with them is their technical expertise which you don’t have, then why isn’t it their job to fix the issue?I believe any bugs and issues which hampers the performance of an application or a website and impedes the business should be fixed by the service provider without any additional charges.Even if a bug surfaces say, five years after the project has been delivered, it is still the liability of the vendor and not the customer to fix it.Being a customer, one should always go for the vendor who provides free technical support even after they deliver the project or at least should negotiate with their existing vendor to include it in the agreement and contract before awarding the project.The drawbacks of not getting technical support post delivery of project are something one should always give importance to when choosing a vendor.There are many service providers offering ‘Free Technical Support’ for a year or two or even for three years, but what if the customer faces an issue after that time period gets over?Simply the customer then needs to shell out big bucks to get that issue resolved even when they have already paid for it initially for getting the project delivered without bugs and issues.But the good news is that there are vendors who go the extra mile and provide ‘Free Life Time Support’.
Quote – “Customer experience isn’t an expenses. Managing customer experience bolsters your brand.” – Stan Phelps
There are service providers who are committed to delivering a great customer experience with their robust support system.As a customer, you just need to find the right service partner who takes care of you even when you are not paying them anymore.
Author Bio: Anindo Chatterjee, He has over 5 years or experience in the field of Web and App Development and Digital Marketing. He works with Brainium Information Technologies which is an ISO 9001:2015 certified software development company specialized in providing end to end solutions in Web Technologies, Mobile Technologies and Digital Marketing.