In praise of SMA - again [RE-wrenches]

Fri Jan 24 11:14:16 PST 2003

Jeff:

Please believe me when I say we are painfully aware of the deficiencies
is the telephone situation.  This is why we hired Jason Mills and
revamped the phone tree several times recently.  We also have another
new person starting on Monday that should help out as well.  As I
mentioned in my earlier post be sure to leave a message and say you are
in the field.  This will get you a priority response.  Remember to leave
you number twice if you are on a cell phone so we can be sure to get it
right.

We discussed a way to add a special hotline for field calls.  We
rejected this because as soon as we put it on the phone tree or publish
the number it becomes clogged too.  We are considering an authorized
installer program that couples additional training with additional
dedicated support resources.

If you have any questions, or if I can be of any further assistance,
please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best Regards,

John Berdner

SMA America, Inc.
12438 Loma Rica Drive, Unit C
Grass Valley, CA  95945
530.273.4595 (voice)
530.274.7271 (fax) 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Clearwater [mailto:clrwater at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 7:18 AM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: RE: In praise of SMA - again [RE-wrenches]

Hi John and All,

I too have had great response on problems from SMA EXCEPT, in the 
interest of not letting SMA's head grow too large - It's been a 
hassle getting people on the phone in the field.  With all the sales 
and success, I would think SMA could afford a phone receptionist - 
someone that could filter the urgent stuff and get it dealt with .  I 
always get a voice mail box when I call and I often don't hear back 
for a couple of days.  By then I've either had to solve it myself or 
move on and leave a loose end.  I've resorted to trying each person 
on the company roster - thereby hassling people for tech questions 
where it's not their job.

That coupled with the fact that half of SMA's voice mail boxes lead 
you into an endless loop where you are asked for a password and can't 
get back to the main menu further frustrates my attempts to get 
answers in the field.

How about a "Tech Support Hot Line" for field only related calls?  Or 
a real person to talk to? Or?

Otherwise, I totally agree that SMA has been a shining example of 
service in the industry.

Cheers,

Jeff Clearwater
Ecovillage Design

At 3:06 PM -0800 1/22/03, jberdner at sma-america.com wrote:
>Lastly one item not in Peter's post: 
>If you are in the field with a problem PLEASE say that you are in the
>field if you call and get voice mail. This helps us to give priority to
>those who need it most.  Also please repeat your telephone number
slowly
>if you are on a cell phone.  Cell phones sometimes make it hard for us
>to get the numbers right and repeating the number gives us a much
better
>chance of getting back to you promptly.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Clearwater
Ecovillage Design Associates - Whole Systems Design
Community and Village Scale Renewable Energy & Water Systems

Cell: 720-480-8455
Office:  800-440-2523 (PIN-7071)
Fax:  720-528-7813
jeffc at ic.org

2525 Arapahoe Ave.
Boulder, CO 80302

PO Box 2255
Redway, CA 95560

Council Member - Ecovillage Network of the Americas -
http://www.ecovillage.org
Advisory Board - Living Routes - Ecovillage Education - 
http://www.livingroutes.org
Founder:  Ecovillage Research, Development, and Demonstration Program:
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~clrwater/RDD/rdd.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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