Is something going on in tech support land? I’ve submitted queries to two companies through their formal channels. I might as well have folded them into paper airplanes and sent them aloft into the canyon just beyond my backyard.
Query 1: Technorati
I’ve jiggered my templates in Expression Engine (the software I use for my blogs) to create Technorati tags, but Technorati isn’t picking them up. It turns out, according to Expression Engine tech support, that my Atom feed isn’t validating as a result of an update to Atom (which Technorati uses). The Atom feed works in most of the newsreaders I’ve checked, but it’s producing an error when testing it in the feed validators available on the web.
To figure out what I can do about it, I submitted a query to Technorati through the support email address listed on their site. I submitted it on July 2. I got an autoresponse immediately, which read (in part), “If you are reporting a problem you may be having you will be contacted by a support technician once we have had a chance to review your message.” Notice the lack of reference to a timeframe. That’s the last I heard. I’m following up today in the hopes that nagging pays off.
Query 2: Apple
Nagging doesn’t pay off with Apple. I’ve already tried twice to get an answer to this question:
I found “For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report” listed among the podcasts available through Apple’s iTunes v4.9. However, there’s no description and it’s uncategorized. I’ve scoured online resources for a way to update the information on the podcast, but found nothing. The only option for an answer seems to be the support forums Apple hosts on its site. I’ve posted my question twice. Not a word.
Lest anybody thinks otherwise, tech support is part of a company’s public relations effort. If PR is the practice of managing relations with an organization’s constituent audiences in order to influence opinions and behaviors, you can’t ignore tech support since it will have a huge influence on the opinions of a somewhat important audience: customers.
Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology which focuses on helping organizations apply online communication capabilities to their strategic organizational communications.
As a professional communicator, Shel also writes the blog a shel of my former self.
