Update: I am happy to report that immediately after writing the article Bob Cramer the Chairman and CEO of Nimbit reached out to me with great concern about the problem. I met with Bob a couple weeks ago at the SF Musictech Summit and I am happy to pass along this update from Nimbit on the problem.
After you pointed this issue out, we identified how automatic tweeting from our support ticketing service, was causing more confusion than benefit.
We changed our process so that now when someone tweets @nimbitsupport, that issue is still captured and tracked with our ticketing system, but there will be no auto response made.
Any responses we send out will be personally coming from a member of our support team. Once a ticket is created, our support team gets the ticket issued to them, on both on their computer and smartphone, and is deal with promptly.
A few weeks ago I posted that I was moving one of my clients off of Nimbit; to either Bandcamp or Topspin. The client had become pretty frustrated with Nimbit support and communication. I was in the same boat. A few months ago I had opened a trouble ticket with Nimbit about the player in the their WordPress plugin being broken and return nothing but a bunch of code on the website. I recall also mentioning this on Twitter in a reply to @nimbitsupport. I immediately got a reply on Twitter saying they opened a ticket, with a link to the new ticket. Well I didn’t need a second ticket, but ok it was a reply. I replied I couldn’t see the ticket with the link provided. This is when I noticed something odd, they were automated messages being generated by a help desk application. A real person was not replying to me. I didn’t love that, but if it worked to resolve my problem then I don’t really care. Fast forward a few weeks, the problem is not resolved and Nimbit actually went and closed the ticket saying it was resolved. Wow, not professional at all.
After the client’s own problems with Nimbit, they made the decision for leave. This is when I posted on Twitter they were leaving. I tagged Nimbit in the post, but didn’t expect anything. As they never replied to previous posts referencing them made by The Music Biz Weekly Podcast, and of course knowing the automated system they were using on Twitter.
Well surprise I got a reply from Kevin (mentioned by name in the Tweet) asking if he could help. I replied:
Kevin sorry to say it is too late for client. They have given up with frustration and will be moving.
I then received the following reply to my response:
We turned your tweet into a ticket! Reply to this tweet or see your ticket here…
Are you kidding me! They initiated a conversation with me and when I reply I get a automated reply that a ticket was opened. My reply back to this automated Tweet was:
Fail! There was no issue that had to be entered into a ticket. I was replying to a tweet you sent me.
I didn’t hear anything more…. until yesterday when this Tweet arrived:
Happy with how we helped out? Click here to let us know:
Again, are you f#@king kidding me! Another automated Tweet with zero understanding of the context of the conversation. Nimbit you need to evaluate how you are using Twitter and your overall customer service experience.
What is the point of sharing all of this? Be VERY careful using automated applications when communicating with your fans. I am always in favor of using automated workflows where possible to help you save time and better engage with your fans. But, a real person should always be in control and know what is being sent, who it is being sent to, and should always be able to jump in a stop the automated process and engage personally. Customer service communication is a very delicate situation. You may have someone who is already upset, already unhappy. The slightest mistake in a reply can easily end your relationship. Do you want to blindly let a automated application handle that communication for you? Like Nimbit just did with me?
UPDATE 8/5/11: Bob Cramer the CEO of Nimbit reached out to me directly about his concern for the problems I encountered. It is too bad these problems occurred, but I am happy to see Bob personally involved with investigating and resolving the problems. I have invited Bob to be a guest of The Music Biz Weekly podcast so he can address this problem publicly. I will let you know when he is confirmed as a guest.
Hey Michael-
Thanks for your points, and sorry for the trouble and confusion.
Our Twitter account is integrated with Zendesk, where we’ve configured a few automations on our behalf.
For an incoming tweet, @nimbitsupport automatically responds with the “We’ve turned your tweet into a ticket…” message you saw. Unfortunately this was confusing in your instance as we had already been communicating back and forth, so this automated response was unnecessary. That response is there because users like to know their issue is now a ticket and they can login via Twitter to add more context/detail, instead of thinking their tweet went into a black hole. The idea was never to pretend a robot was solving their problem.
Furthermore, I apologize that apparently my response to your message did not go through. I’m sending it again and feel free to respond so I can help out further: https://twitter.com/nimbitsupport/status/98817150260752384
Regarding your actual problem, we’re currently working on our WordPress plugin, including the errors you were seeing. (If there are other specific issues, please let me know. I didn’t get wind of specifics in our back and forth on Twitter).
There are real people behind our user support tools here at Nimbit, and I regret that your experience implied otherwise. I’m going to review our automations, especially our Twitter settings, to make sure they make the most sense to the most users. If you ever have any further comments/feedback, please feel free to shoot me an email.
Kevin
Kevin,
The specifics of the error received from the plugin were part of the very initial trouble ticket I entered a few months ago, and was closed by Nimbit as being resolved. Sorry I no longer have the details.
Thanks for clarifying, Michael, I just wanted to make sure there weren’t further problems causing frustration. We’re in fact still working through some of those WordPress issues that you reported.
Hi Michael,
I’m both embarrassed by, and at the same time greatly appreciate your article on how we failed to properly set up our automated systems in customer support.
While automation can play a valuable role – if set up incorrectly, it can seriously backfire as it has in this situation. We’ve been experimenting with multiple support systems (zen desk and get satisfaction), as well as trying to integrate twitter and other vehicles for submission and customer satisfaction monitoring.
We’ll be working diligently over the coming weeks to address the areas you’ve identified above, and will see to it that your negative experience at least results in better service for other users.
All the best,
Bob
Chairman & CEO, Nimbit
Bob,
I really appreciate you and Kevin replying to my post. If you have any questions please feel free to follow up with me directly at me(at)mikebrandvold.com and I would be happy to provide more feedback.
I may not have the entire picture here, but it seems unwise to me for a dot com to utilize an outside party (twitter) to handle ANY requests from customers for help. I can not imagine the ‘convenience’ could outweight the possibility that a customer’s request might go unresolved, or that an outgoing auto mssg may not fit the request. Confused customers (or fans) exit, never to return… ~Tom~
I do feel you need a system to manage help requests, help desk software. But, you can’t rely on it to do your communicating.
Hi Michael,
I realize this is an old article, but having just found it, I though it important to add my experiences to the conversation.
I too was trying to determine if I should use Nimbit, Topspin or Fanbridge and sent Nimbit a question about WordPress on June 17, 2012. Nearly a week later (6/23) I sent another email indicating that I had not yet received a response and hoped that the lack of customer support in presales was not indicative of the kind of service I would receive post sale. Three days later, (6/26) I received an email, from the same person with whom you were emailing, Kevin Ebaugh, apologizing that they did not receive my initial question. Although he answered my WP question, I must say, I was very disappointed with his response. He said, “Our WordPress plug-in is basically in as-is condition at this point.” He went on to say that although he was not trying to deter me from the product, he did want to ensure that my expectations were set correctly. What I find most disheartening is that your client’s WP issues with Nimbit were almost 11 months ago and here it is, July 2012, and there has been no fix and apparently, none is soon forthcoming.
It seems to me the biggest issues with Nimbit are two-fold: (1) They continue to not fix their issues with WordPress; and (2) Kevin seems to be the only guy in customer support. I think, as your client did, that I too will be using Topspin. It certainly seems to be working for many of today’s biggest stars.
Eugene
Eugene, sorry to hear about your problems. I would have hoped by now they would have improved the plugin.