During August we ran a survey to determine the experiences and expectations from our users for our software support and development.
We sent out 6449 emails and had quite a good response with some interesting comments and suggestions.
It was interesting to get comments from users who never contacted us before with it. Based on this I can just once again say that we want
every user to communicate any problems, suggestions or whatever you have to us. It is of no use if you complain to everyone else but us.
Following is a look at the results from the respondents that completed the survey.
1. Q - Do you own/use any Model Maker Systems software package ?
- 5% No and 95% Yes
- Hopefully the 5% will soon also be able to say yes.
2. Q - Which one of our programs do you use most ?
- Model Maker 84.5%
- Road Maker 8.8%
- Pipe Maker 3.6%
- Survey Maker 3.1%
3. Q - Do you have a current support agreement in place with MMS for your software ?
- 84.5% Yes and 15.5% No
- We found that some of the respondents who opted for NO actually do have a support agreement.
- It may be that in larger companies some users are not aware of the admin. behind the software.
- Take note that on the start up screen the software will show the following if your support expired
- and if you believe it is not correct please contact us immediately.
4. Q - What version of the MMS software do you currently use ?
- 7.12 (latest) 48%
- 7.10/7.11 40%
- 7.01 to 7.03 5.8%
- 6.20 to 6.23 2.8%
- 6.10 to 6.13 1.7%
- 6.00 to 6.03 1.7%
- If you have a support agreement then we recommend you always use the latest version.
5. Q - On average - How often do you contact MMS or agent for support.
- Once a week 4%
- Once a month 26.7%
- Once every 6 months 45%
- Once a year 16%
- Never 8.3%
- This may go according to your needs but we do recommend you contact us with anything related to using our software.
- At training sessions I always say that if you wonder for longer than 10 seconds on how to do something you should
- have picked up the phone to ask for help.
6. Q - Are you aware of our remote access "TeamViewer" support method ?
- 49.5% Yes and 50.5% No
- Mostly when a user has a problem it is related to the data he works with at that moment.
- What better help can there be then to have the developers of the software show you on your computer in your office
- how to deal with the problem. You can be anywhere in the world and all that is required is a good internet connection.
- For info on the security and use of "TeamViewer" have a look at their website www.teamviewer.com
7. Q - What method of contact with MMS do you prefer for support ?
- Direct phone call 55%
- Email 40.8%
- Other 4.2%
- The phone is still the best and quickest way to solve a problem. We are waiting for your calls.
8. Q - When you encounter a problem using the MMS software. Do you ?
- Contact MMS or agent immediately by phone 60.4%
- Send an email 22.5%
- Other 17.1%
- For those that opted for "other" I can only say - Who can give you better help than the developers of the software.
- Once again it comes down to continuous communication with us.
9. Q - If you do not use the latest version of the software. Please give reason why.
- Some said they do not have a support agreement but most said they are afraid of 'bugs' in the new version.
- If you have a support agreement and you do not use the latest version then I believe you waste your money.
- Any 'bugs' reported to us are fixed immediately and we will put the fixed version within 24 hours on our website.
- If you use say version 7.10 then version 7.12 will have many 'bugs' fixed that you may still have in 7.10.
- I use the term 'bugs' here but want to quote one reply we received from a respondent >
- "Your software still have less memory issues and bugs than other software used by our company"
10. Q - How satisfied are you with the support provided by Model Maker Systems ?
- Extremely satisfied 25.9%
- Very satisfied 54.9%
- Neutral 18.8%
- Not satisfied 0.3%
- Extremely dissatisfied 0.1%
- The Not satisfied respondents have been answered in our follow-up and in most cases it was some misunderstandings.
- The few Extremely dissatisfied replies was mostly from respondents who do not use/own our software so they just wanted to
- disrupt our survey. There were only one real user in this category who did not reply under his own name but I know who he is
- and can only wish him luck with any other software he may use.
11. Q - Do you have any other comments/suggestions ?
- Here we had a few good replies and already replied to most.
- Once again I would like to stress the point that all users must communicate any problems, suggestions or other related matters
- with us. We will do something about it if it falls within the scope of our software.
We highly appreciate the participation of our loyal users in this survey.
Carel Viljoen - CEO Model Maker Systems.