Let me start by mentioning quickly that I’ve been spending a little time cleaning things up around the site. Just little things, mostly – fine-tuning the sidebar and footer, doing a review of plugins, re-arranging categories, integrating Google Search. That kind of thing. As part of this minor refresh, I decided I’d finally jump ship and add one of the comment systems I’d heard so much about. When you look at this kind of thing, you quickly find that you only have two real choices: Disqus – a system used on dozens of my friends blogs, that I own a t-shirt for already, and have seen nothing but praise for; and IntenseDebate – a system that seems to be far less widely known despite being owned by Automattic. This was an INCREDIBLY hard decision, but eventually my allegiance to the WordPress team won out.

After signing up for and installing IntenseDebate, I had to import my comments from my database to theirs. No problem. I was told that my blog was queued and could be for several hours. Fine. I made myself lunch and returned to find that my import had started (yay!) but that I was at 0%. So I went grocery shopping. Then did some housework. Then made dinner. No change. So I finally turned to Google. Turns out I’m not alone. A search at their GetSatisfaction page reveals piles of threads – very few listed as resolved – and while users are trying to help each other – it didn’t look like the company was around much (I’ll get back to this). I submitted a help request through the website, and went back to trying to figure it out on my own.

Let The Troubles Begin

After several hours of effort I, in frustration, uninstalled the plugin. At the recomendation of the web in general, I also removed the database entries (By hand) and went back to local comments. This seemed like a step backwards to me so after verifying that local comments did indeed work, I re-installed it. Then I removed and re-installed it again. And again. And again using the IntenseDebate Clear Database plugin. Then again. Then – in the interest of experimentation, I removed it and installed Disqus. It was up and running (and working!) in 15 minutes. I sighed. My allegiance to WP shined through, though, and I removed Disqus, and gave ID a few more tries. Nothing seemed to work.

Around 7:20pm, I sent a tweet that read “Having some major problems getting ID set up. Sent a support request no reply. Maybe Twitter help?”. I directed it both at @IntenseDebate and @mkoenig – the only employee who seemed to be active on GS. After not hearing anything for an hour or so, I gave up – left the plugin installed, just in case, and moved on to other things. Eventually, I fell asleep on the couch next to my laptop. Several hours later I was awoken by Seesmic telling me I had a reply. It was from @mkoenig, and came in around 12:45 am. It was now 12:51 am and he was asking me to email him. My email (just a super-quick, lets-get-a-conversation-started-while-you’re-at-your-desk email) was sent at 12:54 am. I waited. Then kept waiting. And waited some more. This post is going live around 4:10 am. I have yet to hear back from them.

Greener Grass – 3 Tips For IntenseDebate

I know it sound like I’m ranting – I am. And I know it probably looks like I’m jumping the gun on wanting this to work – I’m probably doing that too. But I’m frustrated. My beef here, too, doesn’t fall with the fact that it’s still not working on my site – though that would be awesome – but rather with the support I’ve received. I’ve done years of customer service, several of which were online for a startup, so I’d like to reach out and offer some advice to ID here.

1. I love that you’ve got people on GetSatisfaction. I think it’s an awesome way to connect with your users. But if you’re going to be on there – use it to it’s full potential. There should be lots of threads being marked as resolved, comments from USERS being promoted as solutions, and employees clearly listed and interacting. And this Auston guy – who seems like he was the GS guy – appears to no longer be with you. Or, at least he doesn’t have the employee tag. His ID profile still says he’s a developer for you, so I’m not too sure.
2. You should be ALL OVER Twitter. Yes, I used caps and bolded that. Sure, you’ve got @IntenseDebate locked down and it looks like @mkoenig is using his personal account for support. But the ‘official’ account is announcements-only and Michael’s has DAYS between tweets. A handful of searches reveals lots of people looking for ID help – not all of which are being addressed – and even more are simply venting. Some generic searches and the competitor reveals lots of outreach possibility too. You’re a community-focused product, Twitter should be KEY for you.
3. You seem to be lacking follow-through. When I finally did hear from someone (Who told me to email – something I’d already tried), I heard nothing back… Despite replying in mere minutes. I don’t mind waiting until the morning for a reply – but that expectation should have been set. Twitter is INSTANT and moves fast – and I replied both with a tweet and an email pretty quick. If you didn’t intend to reply until the morning, your tweet should have read “@tommyvallier sorry for the delay. please email me at info@intensedebate.com – I’ll check it in the morning.”. If you did intend to reply tonight and got distracted, busy or fell asleep, that sucks. In either case, it’s a screw-up.

Customer service – ESPECIALLY online, can really turn around and bit you in the behind. While I’m probably the last guy in the world to be complaining and passing along a ‘how-to’ (considering my current employment status), I’m hoping this strikes a chord with someone. I probably, too, should throw in the towel here too and just switch to Discus (Who I’m half expecting to find this post before anyone at ID the this point)… But I’m going to give it another shot. What can I say – I’m a sucker for punishment.