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For CME Software Support, Set Your Expectations High

When it comes to technical support for CME software, most people know what to expect.

Constant problems mean constant phone calls. Then there are wait times – long ones. Sometimes, you don’t even have a dedicated account manager. You just dial into a call center and hope for the best.

And then you do it again the next time something breaks.

Support doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, it barely needs to exist at all.

You read that right. We said technical support barely needs to exist. And yes, we’re talking about support for CME software, learning management systems, and really any enterprise, cloud-based applications.

That’s because the biggest problem with technical support isn’t the quality of the phone reps or how fast a vendor addresses problems. It’s the software you’re using.

When software works the way it should, you’ll hardly ever need to contact technical support. That’s why support barely needs to exist at all.

But isn’t CME software always going to be buggy in some form or fashion?

Not always. To be sure, no piece of software will be 100% perfect for 100% of its users 100% of the time. Things happen. You get stuck. Some tools might not work the way you think they do.

However, what’s great about “problems” like those is that you can learn how to use the tool, make some changes, and keep on going. Nothing actually broke. There’s just a learning curve, and it shouldn’t be a big one.

CME software, like all software, won’t be buggy when:

Unfortunately, many vendors just don’t go to the trouble to put out software that ticks all of those boxes. Their platforms malfunction. They make it harder for learners to complete tasks. They give administrators headaches.

And then, when you desperately need the vendor to fix something, they take months – or even years – to follow through.

So, yes. Many CME platforms require heavy amounts of technical support. But that’s because the software wasn’t built or internally supported properly to begin with.

The bad news is that most people expect their software to have problems. The good news is that they’re wrong.

It’s time to set your technical support expectations really high.

Let’s be even more specific. It’s time to insist on CME software that works so reliably, you don’t even need technical support.

Here at Rievent, our support options include:

That’s it. There’s no 24-hour call center because we don’t need one. When our clients need new features or request a fix, we add the changes to the platform and release them to everyone. It just works. And the reason it works is because we do all the things a vendor needs to do to create and maintain great software.

At Rievent, we have a 99% customer retention rate. One reason CME providers stick around is that our software works reliably, all the time. Another related reason is that they never have to spend time working around bugs or phoning tech support.

It’s cause and effect. If you build great software, people will keep using it.

Here’s what “support” should actually consist of.

Custom functionality, integrations, and a little re-training. That’s all.

Around here, most of the support we provide relates to client-specific features for which a need suddenly arises. That, or someone needs our platform to integrate with another system that they’re about to bring in.

While we do receive questions via our ticketing system, they’re practically never due to an actual problem with the software. They’re usually questions about how to use a particular tool, and they’re easily resolved.

Build it to work. Build it to last. Build it to be self-supporting. That’s how we built the Rievent Platform.

It’s also how all cloud-based software providers should operate. The higher we all set our expectations, the sooner we’ll get there.