Make Them Come Back: You Need a Usable Site and Fast Support Responses

I have a constant flow of apps in my inbox and in Firefox tabs, waiting to see if they are worth a review. Most of the time, when an app is unusable or has major bugs, I just delete it and move on. But I had two apps in a row last week that this happened with, and I realized it's a symptom of a larger problem with many Web 2.0 start-ups.

The two apps I tried using were SyncWizard and Andanza, and the first crash and burn I had was with SyncWizard. Touted as an online backup tool for your PC, it piggybacks on existing Web 2.0 services, allowing you to select pertinent files and back them up to existing accounts. Documents go to Zoho, photos go to Picasa, and all would then be easily accessible.

The trouble with SyncWizard is that it specifies the service you use. If you happen to use Flickr instead of Picasa for your usual photo sharing, you are out of luck, because your photos are going to Picasa when you use the service whether you like it or not. If you haven't already set up accounts on the services SyncWizard uses, you are invited to set up a new account on each service, and this process goes swimmingly, not even dumping out out of the AJAX set-up interface to do it.

However, that AJAX interface is also where SyncWizard crashed and burned. I tend to use as complex a password as an app will allow if I plan on uploading any sensitive data, and since my documents include invoices and contracts, I was all over adding symbols and whatever else I could to my password. Zoho had no trouble with it, but when the time came to add my log-in information to SyncWizard? It repeatedly told me that my credentials weren't valid, even after I tested it in every browser to make sure I could still log into my Zoho account. No problem, right? I could simply email support, describe my problem, have it fixed, and review the app, right? Wrong. A week later, and my ticket is still open with no response. If you can't even log in to use the service, and get no reply with a simple issue, how likely are you to go back?

Andanza faces a somewhat similar fate. A nifty tool to help you not only format your site for mobile access, but also preview how it will look on various mobile devices, it could really be handy for quick mobilization of your content. My first attempt to recreate Profy went badly; I had only a small version of our logo image, and Andanza automatically resized it, leaving it blurry. When I tried again with a larger version, well, it all crashed and burned. I receive only a message (in Spanish on the English version of the site) that the tool couldn't recognize my image. Again, I sent off an email to support, and again, received no response. I was able to create a somewhat functional mobile version of Profy and preview it on an iPhone as well as the two other phone versions currently active, but I can't add the logo, nor could I find instructions for changing the menu text to English.

While frustrating for me as a reviewer, I'm also willing to pursue these bugs as they crop up, giving companies the chance to fix issues and show their commitment to customer support. I don't think that the majority of casual users would be willing to pursue issues, simply moving onto the next possible tool for their needs. It's a crowded space, and if your first impression isn't a good one, your company may be over before it even got off the ground.