(Also read Part 1 – Needs and Part 2 – Installation experience)

Support experience is still important (spoiler – I am happy)

Even though the installation was trivially easy (see Part 2), things can go wrong and questions may need to be asked, no matter how good the product.  Therefore, the support that sits behind them is critical to the sense of comfort and trust.

So as part of my review of the Sinefa probe I also wanted to “test” their support.

This comes in 2 flavours:

• They have a community based self-help site and it looks pretty comprehensive. But who has time to read stuff!! I want to talk to someone and get an answer now.
• The only other option listed on the drop down is “Live Chat”. I don’t know about you but I have had mixed experiences with Live chat.  The two biggest issues are:
  • Timeliness of response (i.e. not enough resources)
  • Usefulness of response (i.e. not enough knowledge)

Despite these concerns my experiences to date have been positive.  However, this is based on a sample size of 2 (which is hardly comprehensive) and your experiences may vary.  The 2 calls played out as follows:

1. They are using Zendesk which immediately says to me they are taking things seriously. This is a tier 1 product in the helpdesk space. (http://www.softwareadvice.com/au/crm/zendesk-help-desk-profile/, https://www.zendesk.com/product/features/zendesk-reviews/)
2. Chat 1 was during the setup stage where I had a question about activating the public probe
   1. Timeliness: from my “Hi” to support joining the chat = 5 seconds and first typed response = 19 seconds (Good) – note times are UTC, I wasn’t working in the middle of the night!!!

      

   2. Usefulness: I was given a clear and actionable response which meant the whole chat was over within a couple of minutes
3. Chat 2 was related to checking the firmware was up to date
   1. Timeliness: from my “hi” to support joining the chat = 3 seconds and first typed response = 11 seconds (v good)

      

   2. Usefulness: An immediate response confirming the current software version and where I needed to look to check I was on the current version. Again whole chat only lasted a few minutes

DISCLOSURE: Sinefa provided me with one of their SF200 probes on a free 90 day trial to allow me to carry out this review.