I had the same issue with my own application. It's a great niche app, but I
found that I was not personally suited to providing a customer support role.
So I signed-up a bright young guy to do some marketing & support, for a cut
of the take. This guy works in the industry that the product is aimed at. So
he can "walk the walk & talk the talk" from a customer viewpoint. Result:
waaaaaaaaaaaay better marketing. And in the very near future,
waaaaaaaaaaaaay better support, much happier customers, & lots more sales.
Remember that it's not just answering technical questions. It's also
providing training, offering suggestions how to integrate the product into a
particular business; keeping in regular contact to see how they're going, &
so on. I'm not sure that a support firm would do all of those things
enthusiastically, on a regular basis, for a reasonable price. For example, a
call-center type operation is just not going to ring up the customers to see
how they're going, IMO.
So, maybe consider teaming up with an individual (in the relevant industry?)
who could do those things for a cut of the take?
HTH,
TC
"Chuck" <w0***@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:64**************************@posting.google.c om...
I have a question tht I'm sure someone out there can answer.
A friend of mine has developed an Access application that is a very
business specific (niche type of application). The application would
only be used by one type of business but there are a lot of these
businesses out there along without too much competition.
He is interested in selling the application (a runtime version of
Access would be supplied as well) but he works during the day and
knows that it would be very hard or impossible to support the product
when probably most support would be needed. He is looking for a
company that could provide first tier support for the product. If the
question could not be answered by them then they could contact him for
either the answer or modification of the program if necessary.
Please let me know if you know of a company (or companies) that could
provide this type of support.
Thanks
Chuck
