Products & Services
Where do we go from here 2
By James on 19 May 2008
USA – Following our posts last week on Service in the USA, we’ve had an excellent response. We know we don’t have all the answers, and appreciate the fact that those commenting have the patience to give us the time to get them. It’s important at this point to say we’re going to continue this conversation until we do get them. Right now though, I just want to put a line in and outline the key questions still outstanding. Amy Gahran, who’s driven this conversation from the users’ perspective has done an excellent job of rounding up the key issues in her latest post on Contentious.com, which i’ve now summarised.
Service turnaround time
We’ve already outlined the standard service turnaround time, though some users have raised individual issues regarding their own experiences. The reality is the majority of users have a good experience, whilst a minority don’t. It’s Nokia’s job to ensure there are more of the former and less of the latter. We’re going to try and find out the latest on Nokia Care in the US, and what, if any, improvements are being put in place to ensure more users get the service they expect, and deserve.
We’re also going to look into the bigger issues of guaranteed service times. We have no idea of the practicalities behind this, so we cannot say what the outcome might be. We do though have an idea of what would work from a users’ perspective, which is as good a start point as any.
Service locations
As we reported previously, things are changing rapidly for Nokia in the USA. Whilst we’ve written about how many people are going to be assigned to product management, we haven’t written about what’s happening with service locations. We’re going to look into this further, get the lowdown on what happens right now and what the plans are for the future.
The update process
Three of the four people involved directly in Conversations use Macs. We’re only too well aware of the pain of not having a Mac-native Software Updater. So, we’re going to find out if there’s one in the pipeline, and if so, when we might be able to expect it. Some commenters also note the process isn’t very intuitive, so we’re going to find out what’s happening with the next generation of the Software Updater and what if any changes are going to be put in place to make the process as easy as possible.
New devices, new firmware
Some variants of the N95-3 seem to be shipping with the latest firmware, whilst others aren’t. We’re going to look into whether this is still the case and if so, why it is. We can understand some retailers having stock that long ago left Nokia and as such, still have the original firmware. We would expect that any device hitting the shelves fresh from the factory today though will most definitely have the latest version. If they don’t, we’ll be searching for an answer as to why.
So, lots for us to do over the next couple of weeks. We’ll bring you answers as soon as we get them. Meanwhile, please keep leaving your comments and if there are any other issues related to this conversation, let us know. We’re as keen as you are to get answers but please appreciate that this can take time.
Photo from Javan
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Tags | Firmware, Nokia Care, service, Update, usa
May 19th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
And if I can pop in:
These issues are very important and we are working hard to activate the Nokia Care folks to get involved in this discussion (beyond the discussion forums they already have).
We here at Conversations are not really the right folks to help out and we feel we are just getting in the way, relaying messages back and forth.
Yes, there is a need for Nokia Care to set up something to carry on this discussion, directly with you guys. As you can tell, there’s only so far we can carry on here at Conversations.
Good news is that it seems we are getting somewhere in getting Care more involved in this conversation.
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Charlie, Nokia Conversations
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May 19th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
James & Charlie, thanks again for your excellent efforts to carry this forward.
When you say the Nokia Care folks have been involved in your discussion forums, could you provide some links to examples? Nokia’s forums are pretty complex, there are many subdirectories, and it’s pretty hard to figure out where to raise those issues there. I’m all for communicating with the right people in a way that actually reaches them.
That said, I do think it helps that this discussion is happening here, in such a public and findable way. Because even if the Nokia Care folks don’t jump in here, eventually they’ll be hearing about what happens here from above — and I think that’s especially likely after the next firmware update release, because I expect many more US N95-3 users will be reporting problems with the updating and service then.
Also, it may help to consider guaranteed service turnaround time as a key competitive issue in the US. As I mentioned before, Nokia’s leading competitor in the high-end US phone market (Apple) offers fast, excellent service. Apple (and AT&T, which also retails iPhones) understands that people who pay a premium price for a premium device that they rely on daily are not willing to tolerate even the risk that they might be left without that device for more than a few days at a time. From the consumer’s perspective that’s a huge issue.
Maybe in the short term Nokia could look into a premium add-on service agreement that would provide overnight shipping for an equivalent loaner phone, while the customer’s main phone is being repaired? If that service were priced comparably to, say, Apple’s ProCare, that might help a great deal.
Also, concerning a Mac-friendly firmware update process — here too it’s important to remember that Apple is your key competition in the US. And also, people who are likely to want a n N95 specifically for its advanced content creation and distribution capability are also especially likely to be Mac users, and bloggers. Which means they might also be especially likely to complain in a very public, findable, linkable way if they encounter obstacles with expensive tools like the N95. So although Mac users are still a minority of the overall computer market (and among the overall Nokia market), it might be worthwhile to give US Mac users special consideration for competitive reasons as you promote your N-Series phones in the US.
Thanks again,
- Amy Gahran
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May 19th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Also, regarding new units with old firmware — Would it be possible for Nokia to publish information about which models (or serial number groups) have the latest firmware, and maybe which retailers are offering those models? That way, would-be N95 owners who are concerned about this issue could make informed purchases more easily.
- Amy Gahran
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