The Best Support Ticket I've Ever Opened

It's easy to complain about bad customer service. It's much rarer to publicly thank people when they get it right.

A parcel arrives late, a restaurant gets your order wrong, or a support agent gives you a copy-and-paste answer that doesn't address your question. Those are the experiences we remember, the ones we tell our friends about, and sometimes the ones we share online.

What we don't do nearly often enough is talk about the people who get it right.

A Rare Exception

Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know that almost all the software I use is free and open source. It's a philosophy I've believed in for decades, and it's served me very well.

There are, however, a handful of proprietary applications that have earned a permanent place on my computer. One of those is Camtasia.

I first started using it many years ago to produce training videos and, despite occasionally trying alternatives, I've always come back to it. It suits the way I work, and over the years I've created a considerable library of videos with it.

Recently I needed to update a series of training videos that I had originally produced more than eight years ago. They all featured a fairly elaborate animated introduction. I honestly can't remember how long it took me to build, but I do remember it wasn't something I created in an afternoon.

When Old Projects Meet New Software

Opening that old project in the latest version of Camtasia was quite a shock.

I fully expected there might be a few compatibility issues. Eight years is a very long time in software development, and it's only natural that file formats, rendering engines and features evolve. I was prepared to spend a little time tidying things up before carrying on.

Instead, the animation was completely broken.

I spent several hours trying to work out what had happened. I checked every setting I could think of, experimented with different approaches and searched for anything that might explain the problem. Eventually I had to admit defeat.

Fortunately, my client was happy to remove the animated introduction altogether. I could complete the updated training videos without it.

Most people would probably have stopped there. I couldn't.

I'm one of those people who hates leaving something broken, even if it's no longer needed. Once I know something should work, I find it very difficult to simply ignore it.

Contacting Support

With nothing left to lose, I contacted Camtasia support.

My expectations were modest. At best, I hoped they might point me towards an obscure setting I'd overlooked. At worst, I expected them to explain that projects created eight years ago simply couldn't be expected to work perfectly with today's software.

To be honest, I would have accepted that answer. Software evolves, and maintaining complete backwards compatibility forever simply isn't realistic.

Instead, the support process immediately impressed me.

The first-line support engineer understood exactly what I was describing. Rather than working through an endless checklist of standard troubleshooting steps, they quickly recognised that this wasn't something with an obvious fix and escalated the case to their Level 2 team.

That simple decision saved both of us a lot of time.

A Support Team That Listened

The Level 2 engineer asked me to upload both the original project and the version that had been converted by the latest release of Camtasia.

Not long afterwards they came back with the words every customer wants to hear when reporting a problem: they had reproduced the issue.

That may sound like a small thing, but it isn't.

Anyone who has reported software bugs will know the frustration of hearing, "It works on my machine," or being asked to repeat the same steps over and over because nobody believes the problem exists. Having the support team immediately confirm that they could see exactly the same behaviour gave me confidence that they understood both the problem and its importance.

Within twenty-four hours they replied with a detailed explanation.

Over the previous eight years, changes to the internal workings of Camtasia meant that this particular type of animation could no longer be converted correctly. They explained why it happened, apologised for the limitation, and made it clear that there simply wasn't a technical fix available.

It wasn't the answer I had hoped for, but it was an honest one, and I appreciated that.

Going Beyond Expectations

At that point I assumed the support case was over.

After all, they'd investigated the problem thoroughly, explained exactly why it happened and confirmed that it couldn't be fixed. Many support teams would quite reasonably have closed the ticket there.

Instead, the email continued.

One of their specialists had taken the time to recreate my animated introduction from scratch.

Not an approximation. Not a simplified replacement. A fully functioning animation that behaved exactly like my original, ready for me to download and use in my project.

That wasn't something I had asked for, and it certainly wasn't something I expected.

It was simply a team deciding that they could help, so they did.

What Great Support Really Means

Great customer support isn't measured solely by whether a bug gets fixed.

Sometimes there isn't a fix.

Technology moves on, old formats become obsolete and certain problems simply can't be solved. That's an unavoidable reality of software development.

What matters is how you're treated throughout the process.

Do the support team listen? Do they understand the issue? Do they explain what's happening honestly? Do they treat you like a person rather than a ticket number?

In my case, Camtasia's support team did all of those things. Then they went a step further and delivered a solution I hadn't even considered possible.

Thank You

This post exists for one simple reason.

We should be just as willing to praise excellent service as we are to criticise poor service.

Whether it's the waiter who serves our dinner, the barista who makes our morning coffee or the software engineer investigating an obscure compatibility issue in an eight-year-old project, taking a moment to say "thank you" costs nothing.

So, thank you to everyone at Camtasia who helped with my support request.

• Thank you for listening.
• Thank you for investigating.
• Thank you for explaining.
• And most of all, thank you for going far beyond what I expected.

That is what great software support looks like.