By Rachel Andrew CHAPTER 11Another issue is that we assume Web designers will be supporting
their clients. We are not set up to support people using Perch as an editor,
as we don’t know anything about individual installations due to the CMS
being self-hosted. We have to tell end clients that unless they have the ba-
sic skills in HTML, CSS and general website building and are able to follow
our support materials, they need to find another designer.
We have dealt with sourcing those designers for end clients by way of
our registered developer program. The Perch customers who sign up to
this typically are experienced with and like the product. We can then send
that list to the end clients as a start in finding someone to help them — we
know that these experienced customers of ours have the understanding of
the product to help them out. Hopefully, we all do well: we get to keep that
person using our product; a designer gets a new, grateful client; and the
end client gets help with their website.
This situation is only likely to be relevant to you if you offer tools or
a service that people use to provide their own services. If, like us, you are
in that situation, it pays to consider how to deal with people with whom
you do not have a contract, but who are still users of your product and may
well come to you for help if the relationship with the person who actually
deployed your product breaks down.
DiffiCulT CuSToMeR, oR CulTuRal ClaSh?
Customers are human and humans can view situations in unexpected ways.
— Marilyn Suttle^8Despite our best efforts, we have had the occasional incident where a
customer has felt we were being unhelpful or even rude, and these have
tended to be due to misinterpretation of our replies based on the fact that
we are British and speak English, and our customers are from all around
8 Marilyn Suttle, “Customer Perceptions Matter More than the Truth”, http://smashed.by/truth