TeamworkPM - A Technology Company Who Delivers on Customer Service

I'm taking a brief timeout from the Top 10 Technology Influences to credit a small software-as-a-service company that I think is doing something very right. TeamworkPM is an easy to use, well-featured project collaboration software service, but I also see it as a role model for customer service in the information age.

In early, 2013 when I started in my current role as Director of Information Technology for Data Commons, LLC, one of my first tasks was to evaluate and select a collaboration environment to link dozens of people from 8 different organizations across the country. My requirements were: a shared calendar, task tracking, document storage (preferably with versioning), and threaded conversations.

I had no desire to host the solution so I knew I wanted a cloud-based service. My first thoughts ran to Microsoft Office 365 Sharepoint or Basecamp. I like Sharepoint but the monthly costs grows with each new user, no matter how active they are in the system. And the full-featured nature of Sharepoint dictates use of a Sharepoint administrator, even if only part-time. This was a cost I could not afford. Basecamp was my next choice but as I was evaluating a trial copy, I found myself struggling to find out how to achieve certain things that I thought were easier when I had first used Basecamp a few years back. I googled for help and learned that others had similar problems. More importantly, I saw a number of responses recommending TeamworkPM as a better alternative to Basecamp. I signed up for a trial and within an hour or two I knew this was the product I was selecting.

The price was right but more importantly everything I needed was there and figuring our how to configure the site for my needs was intuitive or easy to learn in a short period of time. Having been in the software business for almost 30 years, I've seen plenty of good (and bad) software. Seeing a good product like Teamwork is a joy but its not unique.

What really put this product and the company behind it over-the-top was the first time I needed customer service. I navigated to the Feedback and Support page, filled out the form and hit send. I'm used to not expecting much by way of customer support requests but what I experienced really wowed me! In less than 5 minutes I received an email back, written by a real person responding directly to my question with a direct answer. Maybe this was just a fluke. Nope. Since that first time, I've sent a number of requests through this form and every time the pattern is the same. A quick reply from a real person with a direct answer. Even more amazing is that I typically send requests during normal business hours on the east coast of the United States. The TeamworkPM crew operates out of Cork, Ireland.

If I request a new feature I'm told if it is likely the feature will be included or not and if I am helping to advance a feature on the development roadmap. Did I mention that the TeamworkPM folks keep a published roadmap of upcoming features? (http://www.teamworkpm.net/roadmap) Sometimes I am given advice on how to achieve a goal that is alluding me. Sometimes I am asked to provide more information, screenshots, etc. so they can review the code for a potential bug. At all times the communication lines are active and know I am talking to a real human being and that the TeamworkPM team is taking ownership of alleviating my concerns. And that is World Class service in an ever more robotic Information Age.

TeamworkPM is a terrific online project collaboration product initiated in 2007 by Peter Coppinger and Daniel Mackey's Digital Crew with the mission "to make the world’s most easy-to-use, fastest and best Project Management System." On their bio page is the description "Peter and Dan spent some time reviewing and using project management software... Many are very expensive and overly complex, some were lacking basic features such as dates on tasks and some seemed to remain stagnant with the developers simply ignoring basic feature requests from customers." Elsewhere it states "We care. You'll get fast amazing support from people who really care and we actually listen to all the suggestions we receive. A lot of our features have been driven by people just like you letting us know what they would love to see."

Selecting and implementing our TeamworkPM collaboration site was the first major success of my new role. Peter and Dan, I believe you have achieved your mission and also set a new standard for customer support. Thank you!

Next: Technology Influence #4 – MacBook Air.

Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in TeamworkPM. I am simply a satisfied customer of their products.

Image credit: iqoncept / 123RF Stock Photo