26 July 2008

When It Comes To Support,
Quick Office Takes It Personally

After 86 hours and 32 minutes, a little email tag, a couple of SMS messages, a morning phone call, and some great ideas on both sides, the Quick Office saga has finally been resolved!

Right before I pulled out my hair and screamed my eyes out, I got a rather personal email from an important person. Mr. Mark Moreton, Quick Office Vice President of Product Management, had gotten wind of my situation and decided to handle the situation first hand! Needless to say it was a shock.

Mark began to explain that something was possibly wrong with the email system, and they were working to get my software working properly. He went on to also assure me they were, in fact, an actual location on the map, and very close by. Just like me, Quick Office, too, is based in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in the northwestern city of Plano, Texas! That was just more confirmation that the DFW area's Telecom Corridor is truly becoming the world's epicenter of mobile computing and communication.

We emailed back and forth, he gave me various phone numbers if I needed to contact him, and he assured me the problem would be solved. I went a little stir crazy not being able to open a few documents later that evening, and sent him an angry text message to vent. He remained a consummate support professional, assuring me via email that things were in motion. I allowed myself to calm down and caught some sleep.

Upon waking up that morning, while walking my pit bull, Raki, I received a text message from Mark. It was my unlock code, and an invitation to call him! I promptly rang him up, and he told me Quick Office was not an e-pirate, and sincerely apologized for my inconvenience. He assured me Quick Office maintains a large management and support staff, and invited me to visit sometime to see for myself. I really appreciated that gesture.

We went on to talk a little about customer relations management in general, and listened to the requests I and other Symbian Freaks had about their support service. He sees the value in the concept of the brick and mortar storefront's clerk to directly connect with customers, and looks to actually try to solve it online in a unique way. He spoke of a possible agreement with Shape Services IM+ or another messaging app developer to provide a live chat messaging window on the site for direct customer service representative interaction with users even on WAP browsers! I didn't need to tell him how great an idea that was!

So despite the roadblocks online customer service must overcome, Quick Office is definitely serious about making sure their customers are happy, and working to ensure all users have access to support. They take it very personally, and that's all most of us ask.

I can proudly say that I've finally gotten to try Quick Office! Other than the lack of support for copy and paste using the pencil key, it's everything it says it is and more. Mobisystems Office Suite, my former document app of choice, is nice, but Quick Office is definitely the premium office document suite for S60. File support is excellent!

So now, my phone is back to full strength, my world is back to normal, and I couldn't be happier. I can finally read and create .docx and other filetypes directly on my mobile! Once again, laptops everywhere take a swift kick in the ribs from my Nokia N95 8gb, all thanks to Quick Office, and especially Mark Moreton. Thanks for everything.