The new services are finally nearing completion, and are almost ready to be “turned on” for the users. This is a good thing in the long run, but my short term work load will spike as I get a slew of users who don’t understand the new, simpler system.
FlashTalk is rolling out an enhancement for some of our services. This is actually something that’s been planned for probably more than a year now, has changed in scope a few times, and has finally gotten to the “git ‘er done” point. Gitten’ ‘er done hasn’t been quite as smooth as Mr. Boss man would have liked, of course. There have been many delays, many changes, and many bugs to be worked out. Well it finally appears to be happening, even as I type this, the virtual big red switch is being slowly worked from the I position to the O position. Or is that O to I? Anyway… it’s finally happening.
What does that mean for the customers? Well, it means that they’ll have much easier access to this service. Their site addresses will be simpler, and they’ll have easy access to a complete list of their sites through us. They’ll also be able to pay separately for it, rather than having to have both services to get just the one they want. Of course, we’re also taking this opportunity to increase the prices, so we can work our way toward independence and profitability.
What does it mean for me? Hopefully, it will mean a decrease in support contact for this particular service. The new version really is much easier to manage and access for the customer. Unfortunately, with change comes fear and misunderstanding. My work load for the rest of this week will likely be significantly higher than usual. I’m going to have more of the same kinds of e-mail as our little warning a couple weeks ago. They will be angry at receiving anything, they will want their account canceled, they will not have read the message and need help with every little thing, or they will have completely missed the e-mail due to their over-zealous spam filtering and have no idea why their old web site address isn’t working any more. Not looking forward to it, not one teeny little bit. You can probably expect a rant about it later this week.