Anders Johansson wrote:
On Saturday 30 April 2005 22:01, Marc Chamberlin wrote:
I have looked around on Novell's website for their feedback mechanisms and yes they do provide some, but not good ones really. They like a lot of companies want to tie feedback in with support (for which there usually is a cost) or assume a customer wants to use it for pre-sales/marketing purposes. I would like it to be much easier and more obvious as to how to give them feedback, so as to simply give them a heads up, for example, on some technical issue or idea, rather than having to hunt around so hard on their website in order to find a way to do so.
HEY! Thats what I wanted to see! Thanks.. Get Novell/SuSE to put that link on their SuSE home page so we can easily find it! I wasn't able to....
One thing I want to caution everyone against, is do not discourage people from complaining on a newsgroup, such as this one, about things that are troubling them about the SuSE products. Even if the complaint is redundant and has been raised before, the more people complain the higher it raises the priority to get that issued fixed and/or addressed.
Only if it is phrased rationally. "This is crap" is unlikely to end up anywhere except in a trashcan. "This is wrong because [....]" has a better chance to attract attention.
Yep we engineers often get a response from someone who has become quite frustrated. Computers are like that, they can involve a lot of time trying to find a solution to some problem and end up making someone very angry. But that alone is also valuable feedback and should not be entirely ignored. I again advise to try to look beyond the emotion, it is human nature to want to lash out at something when things go wrong/unexpected. A newsgroup such as this can provide some level of interactivity to get such a user to clarify more about what has gone wrong. Other feedback mechanisms are not so likely to as the overhead costs of producing a personal reply are too high. However, with a good feedback infrastructure in place, if you get an emotional bit of feedback such as "This is crap" then simply sending back a canned letter/response asking the person to elaborate further should not be to costly and may lead to gaining some valuable information... Other power users on a newsgroup such as this one are not so likely to respond to an emotional outburst, but that is the point where Novell/SuSE monitors should step in. Remember, this person is frustrated and wants to find a solution to his problem. He probably is willing to spend time giving further feedback if he thinks someone will at least listen... I kind of think of getting feedback from users is a lot like fishing! Most just suffer in silence or try to hard finding answers on their own. Many think it is they who are at fault because of their lack of knowledge. Others just give up and go looking elsewhere for a solution. And when they finally do communicate, many have become quite frustrated, having tried lots of things that apparently didn't work for them. So their communication attempt starts out poorly. Therefore I like to put out all sorts of VERY EASY mechanisms (bait) to get them to provide me with information on how things are going. When one strikes, you have to set the hook firmly, then reel him in so you can get the information he or she is willing to give up. That is valuable to a company and its engineers as it enables them to improve their products and become ever more competitive. And it is valuable to users also as it empowers them with the feeling that there is a company that cares and they are helping to improve the product.
I really hope Novel is monitoring this group for their own sake, having feedback is so darn vital and valuable it is not funny. They would be wise to even have someone officially represent them, monitoring and responding from time to time, on this news group...
There are many Novell/SUSE employees who monitor this list, although not as an official part of the job. But they are here and they do provide answers and input. Just look at the archives of the past month on lists.suse.com/archive/ and you will find several
That too is good news.. Like I said I lightly monitor this group, and haven't seen any one speak up for Novell yet in any sort of official capacity... I assumed they are there monitoring however. I am not asking them to take time to solve problems, but just having someone pop up, every once in awhile and say "I am from Novell/SuSE and I like your idea or understand your frustration and will forward it on to someone to look at" would be very encouraging. All users want to know that someone IS listening, cares, and trying to improve the product in ways that will meet their needs.... Marc..