Drake - It finally happened

[Corduroy Frog]

Yes, after years and years of promptly answering the phone, Drake now has a telephone menu.

Under the guise of "properly directing your call", we now hear a few minutes of propaganda, punch this, punch that, etc.  And I'm sure we will be directed to "we are trying to save money so we can pass the savings on to our customers."  And I'm not against a company making profit - it's just that Phil never needed this to make a profit.

Years ago I had TaxSlayer, who answered the phone even more promptly than Drake.  I couldn't stay with them because the state packages were sorely lacking (outside of Georgia and S Carolina).

Any comments?

 

[Lee B]

Drake has new owners. Changes like this were inevitable.

Go read the posts in the Drake category for the last several years.

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

31 minutes ago, Corduroy Frog said:

Any comments?

Sure, but no one really wants to hear them. If you do, read on, first is my stock reply when someone asks.

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We stopped offering phone support in 2019.  This allows us to be fair, and efficient, with our support.  We stopped allowing voice mail messages in 2021, as many were not leaving their email information, customer ID, etc.  We stopped accepting text/SMS messages as well, for the same reasons, and because they are simply inefficient, as they do not contain any of the previous information.  We were also getting SMS messages such as "help", or "what is wrong", in other words, messages it is impossible to give a solution to.

Since at least 2010, the overwhelming majority support questions have been arriving via email.  When we get a stack of messages awaiting replies (such as overnight, waiting for a reply when we open for the day), it is not fair to bypass the queue and allow a phone caller to jump the line of those already waiting.

We have pondered offering paid support, but we run into the same issue of fairness.  We are not comfortable with someone having to wait longer because another person paid to jump the line.

Even on our most busiest days, Mondays and Fridays in September, December, and January, we are usually able to reply within an hour.  We strive to offer a usable reply/solution in our first reply, saving you from waiting longer to get back to work.  We also OFTEN reply outside of business hours, especially if the message contains complete information explaining the issue.

Thank you for your understanding.

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The additional information, which I don't normally include, is customers cannot always be counted on to give pertinent information. After 40+ years of development, the software is very stable, and gives messages as needed (such as trying to delete an employee when there are paychecks to said employee).

Types of messages I get:

"help" (literally, that is all the message from the customer contains), "why can't I", how do I", and where is my".

The ones with nothing useful, I have a stock reply asking to elaborate, including sending images of messages or something else showing the issue is welcome. Essentially a "what are you trying, what happens when you try" type of response.

The "how do I" messages are almost always answerable by a screen grab of the documentation.  This used to be considered rude (last century), but actually is a good method, since we have taken the time to create documentation which is complete.

The where is my messages also have a stock reply, stating how email works, that senders can only control sending, etc.

The outliers can sometimes get a stock reply, but most only need a sentence or two as other than random rare things, we have seen or heard it before. This time of year, it is usually explaining how withholding calculations work, to contact the tax agency directly to register for their efile process, why is WH lower for the new year, etc.

All of the above is likely normal customer support.  No real reason to tie up employees on the phone, staff a phone bank, etc.  When working, I reply within minutes, after the overnight messages are handled. (Consider what you pay for employees, ones with actual training and experience!)

The tough ones, and maybe the most important reason not to support over the phone.  Customers who contact you for your expertise, and trust your software, yet question the information you share, or tell you your solution is wrong, inaccurate, or do not follow the instructions and want to lay blame outward.  A trail of the interaction is needed, which written is the only way to go. Just had this a few days ago where someone misunderstood some information, then posted their opinion online. I posted the entire thread, and let readers judge for themselves. The unusual part was this person actually contacted me after, to apologize.  That was a first or maybe second ever.

99.9% of customers are kind, and I sometimes miss chatting on the phone, but given even modest thought, chatting was not really fair to others who were waiting...

[Corduroy Frog]

Dennis, customers are people you have to meet where they are, not where you would prefer them to be.  I have to stick to this axiom with most of my tax clientele.  Some of them, if they have ascended to elite status, really wouldn't need me.  Those who have difficulty of grasp are those who need me the most.

[Corduroy Frog]

3 hours ago, Lee B said:

Drake has new owners. Changes like this were inevitable.

So true.  I remember meeting Phil in 1982 on his way out the door to go deer hunting in N Carolina.  He was working on software at the time, and for most of the rest of us, electronic filing was a far-fetched dream.

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

When we started:

We managed to stuff 1000 paychecks into about 510k of memory. Could not count on anyone having more, and many had less available.

Found a way to handle the 5 key on the key pad (it was an issue back then).

Kept checks for the current quarter, and balances going back farther.

Printed a list of the line numbers and values to enter on 941.

Had to publish a list of printer codes to get the margins set to fill in tractor fed W2 forms.

Literally had to give instructions such as close the drive door. And yes, at least once, someone got up and closed their room door instead.

Duped 5.25 single and double sided floppies for each customer. Stuck a label on them, wrapped with a folded receipt, stuffed into a mailer.

Could be found on any shareware rack in North America, and better back then, we were in all the shareware catalogs (paper). (A big reason shareware authors are going away, there is no way to get noticed without spending big $.)

The big names back then were just regular ish folks who liked to tinker. 

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

28 minutes ago, Corduroy Frog said:

Dennis, customers are people you have to meet where they are, not where you would prefer them to be.  I have to stick to this axiom with most of my tax clientele.  Some of them, if they have ascended to elite status, really wouldn't need me.  Those who have difficulty of grasp are those who need me the most.

Would never work, and never has, for us.  Why?  Like with using tax software, someone using accounting and payroll software simply must have some sort of experience or training in the subject matter. I get requests, daily, from folks who want to find software which will handle their payroll and/or accounting, not because they know how, but because they want to save money.  I have to refuse if they have no experience or training, as no software will teach them what to do and when.

If the above was not also true for tax prep, then you would be out of business because any TP could use some sort of magic software and never need your experience, training, and insight. Some online tax software tries, with the Q&A entry style, and for all but the most odd things, it can and does work.

I learned long ago customers are not always right, and to stand one's ground morally and professionally. I refuse to license my software to someone who I can be certain has no business preparing anything for anyone.

I think there are more than a few here who agree with me, as we have seen threads about reducing or eliminating customer caused time sucks, like phone calls and drop ins.

[BTS]

16 hours ago, Medlin Software, Dennis said:

I learned long ago customers are not always right, and to stand one's ground morally and professionally. I refuse to license my software to someone who I can be certain has no business preparing anything for anyone.

I think there are more than a few here who agree with me, as we have seen threads about reducing or eliminating customer caused time sucks, like phone calls and drop ins.

I agree.  I built PC's for clients (and others) back in the 90's and 99% of our support calls regarding PC's were not PC related but wanting help with learning software we didn't supply.      We finally added a message stating "if this phone call is related to software not supplied by us then call them".   And that eliminated 99% of the time we spent on the phone.   Thank goodness PC's are now available at Walmart !!!  While I still build all of our PC's we do not do it for clients.   

 Our time suckage now is the following.  And I know many here have the same issue.  We have on our after hour answering system the following.  "If this message is tax related please state your name, best number, best time to call and the question".   What message do 99% leave ???  Call me back.  So you call back.  No one answers !!  You try to leave a message..  "sorry the voicemail box of the person you are contacting is full" !!!  Or,, you leave a voicemail,  stating "returning your phone call,.. if you call back and we are not available, please leave a detailed message about your question and a good time to call you".  And of course they call back after hours and leave this message.  "I see you called, call me back".  They see a missed call on their end and dont bother to listen to the message !!!  We now call back one time only.  Thats it, whether they answer or not.  They can call back during open hours.  Time suckage !!!  Sorry venting before the season starts 

[mcb39]

I have found Texting and Messaging to be the biggest waste of time that I have ever encountered in all the years of doing tax prep.  Second to that is e-mailing, but sometimes that has some value.

[Lee B]

Most of my client contact is via email which works fairly well for me. Some of my younger clients I have to send them a text reminding them to read their email.

[BTS]

One thing we never did was give out our cell numbers.  Have clients ask all the time.  We just say no, our cells are for personal calls.   But email is fine of course.  

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

12 hours ago, Lee B said:

Most of my client contact is via email which works fairly well for me. Some of my younger clients I have to send them a text reminding them to read their email.

For receipts, we send an email and if we can, a text. So many don’t see their email and used to complain it was never sent.