This article is for those of you who feel they are totally “computer-challenged,” are short on time or just don’t have the desire to monkey under the ACT! hood.
It’s Time to Wave the White Flag
Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you are just not capable of fixing a problem on your own. This could be because you don’t have the time to both troubleshoot and resolve your computer-related problems and run your business. Maybe some of the solutions you researched sounded like they were written in Greek rather than in English. Once you’ve come to the realization that you’re going to have to call in the reinforcements here are the best places to look for help:
ACT! Tech Support: ACT! comes with 30 days of free technical support starting from the time you make your first support call. After that, there is a fee for technical support. Like I say when I hit a tennis ball off of the frame of my racket – I paid for it, I may as well use it!
An ACT! Certified Consultant (ACC): When you call ACT!’s technical support line, chances are slim that you’ll speak to the same technician twice. Without Corporate Edge Support Contract, you’ll most likely end up in an off-shore call center. For that reason, many users seek out the help of an ACC. ACC’s have received specialized training in ACT! and are required to stay abreast with all the latest developments in the ACT! world. Because most ACC’s work with a large number of ACT! users, they are very adept in helping you to customize your database – something that ACT!’s technical support personnel won’t be able to do.
The Wrong Places to Find Help
Now that you know where to seek out expert advice, here are a few people you should stay away from at all costs. These people are generally terrific human beings, but tend to be lousy ACT! consultants:
Your IT person: Although your IT person is loyal, trusted and very adept in what he does, it is impossible to learn ACT! by “osmosis.” Most IT people tend to underestimate ACT!’s power – or overestimate their own knowledge. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing – especially when it applies to ACT!. Since you are presumably paying the IT person by the hour, on the job training becomes an extremely expensive proposition. They may charge less per hour than an ACT! Certified Consultant, but they typically take longer to solve ACT! related issues.
Your local computer store: Very often your neighborhood computer store provides ACT! trining and support. Unfortunately, chances are pretty good that the technician is only one chapter ahead of you in the Dummies book. Worst of all, some of these “geeks” actually pass along misinformation which will further complicate your issue.
The person who’s been “using ACT! for 10 years”: You don’t become an ACT! expert simply by using the program. Unless you are a full-time ACT! consultant, you’re probably only familiar with the parts of ACT! that you use regularly. Faithful ACT! users generally make the mistake of thinking that all versions of ACT! are created equally; believe me, they’re not!
Yourself, especially when you’re frustrated! Enough said!
Time to Cut Bait
Not all technicians are created equally. If you have a gut feeling that your technician isn’t up to the challenge, chances are good that your instinct is correct. Don’t be afraid to politely extricate yourself from the phone call and try again with another technician.
There are a few warning signs that just might set off a red light in your head:
You are frequently put on hold: Most tech support has three “tiers” of support. You’re being put on hold while your Tier One technician researches the issue. Ask to have your problem escalated (Tier Two) or ask to speak to a supervisor (Tier Three).
You don’t understand a darn thing they’re saying: There might be an insurmountable language barrier between you and the technician. Maybe you both speak different native languages, or maybe his “geek speak” is so strong that you can’t understand him.
You seem to be going in circles: Very often the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. If you seem to be repeating the same instructions again and again, it’s time to terminate the call.
Understanding the Meaning of “Support”
Once you’ve contacted either technical support or an ACT! Certified consultant, you should soon be on the road to recovery. Hopefully, your problem will be fixed in a jiffy. If you are working with technical support, however, you’ll need to understand the true meaning of the word “support”:
We don’t support this: This stock phrase implies that the technician is either unwilling or unable to help you with your specific problem. It does not mean that someone else might not be able to fix your problem, or that the problem is based on a limitation of the ACT! program. For example, users of ACT! 2006 and Terminal Services were told by tech support that “ACT! doesn’t support this feature.” What they meant is that although ACT! works with Terminal Services, they didn’t have enough knowledge to actually support it.
Support is not the same thing as training: Like just about everything else in life, technical support has become highly specialized. They will be able to help you with issues such as installing the software or getting your e-mail to work. They won’t be able to help you to determine why you might want to add new fields to your database or various ways to send out an e-mail blast.
The Care and Feeding of an Outside Consultant
So, now that you’ve waved the white flag and called in the troops – or at least an ACT! consultant – you’ll want to get the most bang for your buck. Here’s a few tips on how to work with the consultant so that your frustration level and consulting fee, remain as low as possible.
What you should not do, quite simply, is to waste anyone’s time discussing anything that won’t get the problem fixed. The more you say, the more you risk confusing, or insulting the technician. Remember, the clock is running. Under no circumstances should you:
- Bash the Program
- Bash the Techie
- Belly ache about the price
- Curse, swear or make references to the Techie’s Mother
- Jump ahead of the technician
- Ignore the technician’s instructions
- Assume that if the technician is a non-native English speaker that he is hard of hearing
- Assume that if the technician is a non-native English speaker that he is dumb
- Refuse to try something that the technician suggests
Finally, here are a few things that you should do to make your experience with the consultant as painless as possible:
- Trust that the consultant knows what he is doing.
- Listen to instructions. If you’re not sure about an instruction, ask that it be repeated.
- Avoid the urge to jump ahead of the consultant.
- Keep an Open Mind.
Although good help may be hard to find, believe me, it’s out there! Don’t give up until you’ve found the perfect solution. I recently had a client who spent more than a week trying to share an ACT! 2010 on their network. They were told by Technical Support that the ACT! database had to be located in the My Document folder on a Windows server in order for it to be shared. It took more time to convince the client that Tech Support was wrong than it did to make the database sharable from an ACT! directory on the server. There are two lessons here: (1) You get what you pay for; (2) Price and Cost are two different things since lower priced products and services often cost more in the long run.
To find an ACT! Certified Consultant near you, please visit http://www.act.com/partners/acc/find/index.cfm
