I posted this in the NetSuite User Community forums this morning. It is under the same title as this blog post. Feel free to post your comments there, where NetSuite will read them.

I am empathetic to people who work in customer support. My eldest son works in customer support for a large web hosting company in Manhattan. It’s tough for him to juggle 2 or 3 customers at a time and while keeping up with the latest product enhancements and features. As new team members join his group, he’s training them. It’s a thankless job!

When I attended SuiteWorld 2018, we were told that NetSuite is growing rapidly. I want to say it was something like 47%. That’s amazing. And lots of new NetSuite subscribers means lots of new support cases. So how should we as customers expect NetSuite to manage that growth and keep us happy. It’s a tough situation.

For the record, I’ve been writing software for more than 30 years, but am in my first year writing software in the NetSuite cloud. My company moved our accounting system into the cloud in October of 2017, 9 months ago. I’ve written some very extensive SuiteTalk apps, a handful of User Event Scripts, a RESTLet and now we are moving into SCA development. So I think I’ve got enough knowledge of the NetSuite platform to offer a suggestion. And I get the impression NetSuite monitors these forums. So I hope this post can help in some way.

I’ve grown more and more frustrated with NetSuite support. We do not have an enhanced support contract. NetSuite refers to us as a “Self-Service Customer.” As a self-service customer, I was told initially that I could not call NetSuite but was free to submit cases in SuiteAnswers. Initially, this worked great. But over time, I’ve been getting more and more support cases rejected outright, reminding me that I’m a self-service customer. This makes perfect sense. They are busy, other customers are paying. Sorry, no time!

However, what I’m finding is that customer support is too hasty in their rejection letters. In the end, we continue to work back and forth, wasting more and more of their time, because they are not properly vetting the case. I’m frustrated and made to feel like I’m getting in their way. In the end, the cases are taking way longer to resolve because we are wasting excessive energy getting NetSuite to own each issue.

Here are my suggestions:
1. Hire more support people.
2. Offer more time out of the queues for your staff to keep up with enhancements.
3. Cross train between departments – It’s frustrating bouncing between queues due to silos of knowledge.
4. Respond to customers in a less adversarial manner:
a. Tell them they are important. Let them know you’ve been unable to respond, and point them somewhere in SuiteAnswers
b. Remember that unhappy customers tell all their friends. Don’t send them an ugly “Do your own research” email and close the case.

Our service provider is now looking into getting us a premium support contract. I’m not convinced this will solve our problems. Our cases are mostly us giving NetSuite feedback on problems with the platform. I’m not sure paying more for that is a value!

Feel free to comment on this thread. I’m interested in other’s opinions. Thanks.