Ben Meredith

Customer Experience as a Service.
I'll teach you how to do (and train) tech support that doesn't suck.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

Cheat Sheet for Sustainable Support:

Book ($5): https://t.co/Lp3qqCjBHh
Tool ($25): https://t.co/36uveVw5c3
CX Audit (starts at $975): https://t.co/NdWn5HmM51
Coaching ($535): https://t.co/PNADbx4bS7

These prices WILL go up.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

Installed Ollie (from @mikemcalister) locally.

Downloaded all the docs I could find for it
Put all of those in the local directory (above app/)
Started peppering Cursor with questions about it
got sufficient answers and said "make a homepage for a church with a video background"

...and it did it. No block library plugin, no bulky UI, and now I can tell cursor "make the global color palette this particular blue" and it'll just... do it.

Incredible stuff.

Cannot wait to see what Mike and team do going forward.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

@TheCre8tiveDiva Most founders that have LTDs do put those sorts of stipulations into the agreement.

But some buyers demonstrate (eventually) that they are not the type of organization I still want to be in any agreement with—lifetime or otherwise.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

@chrislema here here.

Also echo the "not easy or fun" bit.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

@TheCre8tiveDiva https://t.co/pyOvyJr5Qt

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

On the bright side, I can now actually find the Kadence docs again. Yesterday they were redirecting to a portal with a bunch of broken links.

😆

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

@NewYorkerLaura 😆😆😆😆😆

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

I don't think this is my first time being quoted in the @therepositorywp, but it is the latest time. https://t.co/zLKnSmVBzJ

Good reporting there.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

@photomatt @KatieKeithBarn2 @carlhancock @jeffr0 Perhaps if you consider your method of communication of your point to be at least partially responsible for "nobody listening" it might change how you are received.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

@JDVance @WHFraudTF Asking for a friend... can you start with @Ike_Saul 's exhaustive look at some pretty-darn-convincing instances of fraud from his piece here?

https://t.co/4MgcSf6b9y

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

All early reports are that we still have our licenses. About 12 hours late they communicated in various places that they were working on the migration that failed. But their new dashboard still doesn't show me as owning ANY products.

Zero advanced communication as far as I've seen.

As for what they "thought about" I could not possibly venture a guess.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

@AlexStandiford ...I'd wager 50% or more of the customers for a given brand had ZERO knowledge of the parent company, so a redirect at the domain level was startling at absolute best.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

The biggest legitimate issue I see is that LOTS of people lost access to their licenses, and therefore could not even download products they've already paid for. On top of the site that hosted those products going away with no advanced notice, it was one of the strangest things I've ever seen a company do.

If I had woken up with the expectation to add the Kadence blocks pro plugin to my site today, being a lifetime license owner, not only would I not be able to download it, the entire website it used to live on is redirecting to a single (remarkably bland) landing page at LW, which I don't know how to log into.

With no warning.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

I'm fine posting wherever folks want. I'm not fine with aggression, profanity, and name-calling. And I'm seeing a lot of it.

TO be clear, I've spent most of the day fluctuating between frustrated, livid, and sad. So I get it.

But a support agent who likely had NOTHING to do with a bug or even the decision to "unbrand" (or whatever-the-heck is going on) doesn't deserve to be yelled at.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

Pro tip: the support team is likely just as frustrated as you are, today.

Lay off them. If you can't control your emotions and use acceptable language and treat people with dignity even when you are upset, that's a you-problem.

Your $400 per year does not purchase a license to cuss out a support agent. Go touch grass.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

I'd have to spend significant time coming up with any individual way this could have been a worse transition for existing tens of thousands of customers at beloved StellarWP brands.

It's a profoundly sad day.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

I can't get over how all of these companies laying huge swaths of people off are giving them these massive severance packages.

If you'd have offered (at really any point in my career) to pay me the same amount for the next 7 months, AND cover healthcare? I'd have taken the deal with a grin on my face. I'd take it TODAY (and I love my new job!)

A 7 month runway that you don't have to hide and pretend to be loving your job on LinkedIn? That's enough time to literally learn a whole new skillset, all while the last company pays you!

Sure, AI apocalypse or existential dread or whatever. The company just privately funded you reinventing yourself. Take the paycheck and learn to weld, launch a product, or get certified in that field you've always wanted to work in.

I dang sure wouldn't be filling out online applications for the same roles as 10,000 other people who just got laid off from the same position.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

SpinupWP's "move site" feature combined with Hetzner's nearly half-price rates on really beefy cloud servers mean that I just saved about $3,000 a year on hosting costs with ~15 minutes of "work" clicking "move site."

Testing first with a bunch of smaller personal sites.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

I constantly laugh at the difference between my previous customers in the WordPress software world and my new "customers" who are K–12 students.

In the old days, I could at least trust that the customer *wanted* the software to work.

These new ones, especially older ones? They actively do NOT want the software to work, and will lie straight to my face about having taken steps to resolve it.

"I can't figure out why the quiz won't load"
"I think my webcam is broken"

And the best part is they think they sound convincing.

An offer to screenshare magically resolves 90% of my issues these days.

[Ben Meredith @benUNC]

Joining a new company without any enforced Slack norms is going to be the end of me.

No threads. Nobody pinging groups. People asking urgent questions but not pinging anybody then just giving up and texting individuals.

Utter chaos in every channel.

I regularly hear "I don't like Slack, I can't find the conversations anywhere, and I miss things!"

...I know you can't. Because you're not using it right.