Great Customer Service Trumps Technology Nightmare

Here's the setting: I'm interviewing Dr. Kenneth W. Thomas for my podcast yesterday. Ken is one of the most influential researchers in worker empowerment and conflict management, with his Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) having sold over 6 million copies.

We're having a great interview. He's into it, I'm enjoying it. His PR guy is on the line, very happily quiet. The marketing rep for a publisher is listening in, contentedly. It's a podcaster's dream.

The interview finishes and I hit the "Stop" recording button on the software which has captured every word of this interview over Skype.

And my computer locks up.

What is going on? I can't talk to them. My mouse won't even move. The computer is frozen. I don't know if the interview is saved. I am freaking out.

I quick grab a land line and call the conference line to let them know I wasn't rudely dishing them now that I got the interview! I mention the problem and that we may have to re-record. Everyone is gracious and willing but I am ticked.

I decide to walk upstairs from my recording studio/office to get a cup of coffee, take a deep breath or two, and pray with my wife that the recording was salvageable. I go back downstairs and stretch every geek gene and neuron to recover the temp file that I see but cannot listen to.

Sigh.

I contact the provider of the software (CallGraph) and express my displeasure. Realizing they are in India I didn't expect a response, but got one in less than an hour. I tried a couple recommended steps without success and decided to just send them the file with SendThisFile.com.

As I dozed off last night I couldn't help but admit this was just another technology nightmare. And it had to happen on this interview...

I checked e-mail first thing this morning and saw an incredible message in my inbox. The subject read "Recovered file." As it turns out, Rajiv from CallGraph worked his magic and recovered everything except the last second or two. Unbelievable.

Turns out prayer still works. :) And it also showed incredible customer service from a little known company that offers free Skype recording without time limits. There are settings, I've learned from Rajiv, to avoid the panic that I experienced.

It is with confidence and appreciation that I recommend CallGraph (www.callgraph.biz) to my customers and colleagues who want a tool to record Skype conversations.

Andy Kaufman
Host of the People and Projects Podcast

Labels: customer service, podcast

posted by Andy at 6:57 AM