AdamGrossmanLG
support isn't profitable. marketing is.
Cake needs marketing, yet marketing with no support is pointless. I see marketing as a way to get them in the door. Once they get in the door, if they don't have a good product with some kind of support they won't hang around.Granted the
expectations of how that looks can vary.
Marketing is a dog and pony show. Support establishes long term goals. All show and no go never helped anyone, except maybe the salesman.
Resonant Serpent
All the semantic arguing doesn't change the simple fact that Sonar updates used to cost less, yet we had better support. I know because I used it.
If it's a question of resources, then this makes the decision to go with Lifetime Updates for users even more baffling. I was more than prepared to pay a sub fee or yearly cost, but I'm not going to question a great deal. I, like others, assumed that the company was either in danger of going under, or coming out with a completely new flagship product.
When questions arose about the future of cakewalk because of the Lifetime Updates, the Bakers stated on this forum that we didn't need to worry about revenue, and that everything was fine at Cakewalk. Now, we're being told that support is cut because of a lack of resources. These two statements are contradictory.
When Gibson first took over, things were better than they had been in a long time. Is Gibson now hoovering money and controlling costs at Cakewalk? Is this why we've lost phone support? Or, is it simply a manpower problem?
I know that sometimes it's hard to find good help. My company is down 160+ employees because no one can pass a drug test, and all the ones that can were smart enough to move someplace where the rent was cheaper. I may end up moving in just a few months for the same reason... I can't afford to live here.
Bottom line... I'm just curious as to how this situation came about, but I doubt we'll ever get a real answer.
I hope things look up for you soon Resonant Serpent. Best wishes your way man.
I remember when the lifetime updates became available. If you could jump into that offer, not to do so was crazy.
It didn't seem to make sense though. What software company offers their product free for life? The kicker is those who made those decisions may no longer be with the company.
The things that seem like contradictions might simply be market fluctuations. Things could have been better back when Cake said they were. Those numbers change month to month.
We can only speculate on what Gibson is doing now with Cakewalk. Since Gibson is in financial trouble any number of things could be going on. If I worked for Cake, I would be very skeptical of any developments given their history of being acquired.
As far as I can tell, customer service has always been dealing with the larger problems first, then the smaller issues follow. They have a very stable competitive daw with a lot going for it. They have a beta test team. Large issues that cause havoc across many systems have been eliminated for the most part. This leaves second and third tier problems to deal with.
In some ways, having more customers with issues could be a sign of well..................more customers. It it's growing pains, this is a good thing. They just need to catch up with demand that's all.