Why Reliable Customer Support is Crucial for Cloud eDiscovery Success
Takeaway: Top eDiscovery vendors prioritize seamless communication between customer support and development teams, which leads to better customer support. Reliable customer support leads to quick, affordable, and user-friendly cloud eDiscovery. As a customer, it’s essential to evaluate your provider’s customer support early on to ensure they will be responsive when you need them most.
Essential factors you need to consider when choosing new eDiscovery software
Ease of Access: Modern eDiscovery applications are hosted in the Cloud, making them accessible 24/7 from anywhere in the world. Unlike traditional software, installing anything on your hard drive is unnecessary. You simply subscribe to the service and access it through your web browser, ensuring you have the flexibility to work from wherever you are.
Simple and Quick Setup: Cloud-based eDiscovery solutions follow the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, allowing you to set up your account in minutes. There’s no lengthy signup process, no annoying sales or marketing interruptions, and no need for specialized hardware. All you need is a laptop and an internet connection.
Effortless Storage Upgrade / Downgrade: eDiscovery cases fluctuate in size as you gather and process data. Your software should allow you to upgrade or downgrade your storage effortlessly. Ideally, when you add large files, the software will automatically increase your storage capacity and offer one-click options to reduce storage when you delete data.
Seamless Collaboration: The best eDiscovery tools enhance team communication by allowing you to share notes and comments within the platform, eliminating the need to switch to external tools like email.
Straightforward Pricing model: Look for a transparent and easy-to-understand pricing model. Avoid plans with hidden fees or overly complicated pricing structures. A good rule of thumb is that the provider’s pricing model is most likely straightforward if it has a simple infographic.
Reliable Customer Support: Check the provider’s responsiveness at the beginning of the selection process to ensure they are readily available when needed. This feature should be one of your top priorities when evaluating an eDiscovery vendor.
What makes customer support critical for cloud eDiscovery
One of the key advantages of Cloud eDiscovery is the reduced burden on you to manage technical issues. Since you access the software through a web browser, the provider handles back-end software and hardware problems like server crashes or system bugs. However, this hands-off approach only works if your provider offers responsive customer support.
The Challenge for Effective Customer Support: The Gap Between Development and Support Teams
Most eDiscovery vendors operate with two distinct teams:
Development Teams: Focused on writing code, refining workflows, fixing bugs, and ensuring product quality.
Customer Support Teams: Interact with customers, gather feedback, report issues, and assist with technical support
These teams often operate independently, each with different priorities. Developers are focused on the technical side, while support teams are customer-facing. This separation can lead to frustrations on both sides—developers may feel disconnected from user feedback. At the same time, support teams might think their input is not of value and stop giving suggestions based on customer interactions.
The Solution: A User-Focused Approach
The best eDiscovery providers break down these independent groups by fostering better collaboration between their development and support teams. Establishing cooperation between both teams begins with understanding each team’s frustrations and aligning their goals toward enhancing user experience. Developers benefit from direct access to customer feedback, while support teams see their suggestions implemented, improving the overall product.
The Bottom Line: Test Your eDiscovery Software and Support Early
Before fully committing to an eDiscovery solution, it’s crucial to test its customer support during a calm period—not during a hectic workweek. Pay close attention to how quickly they respond and how effectively they resolve your issues. Also, consider the other essential features we’ve discussed.
How GoldFynch Ensures Exceptional Customer Support
At GoldFynch, we identified the potential disconnect between our development and support teams early in designing our eDiscovery software. To address this, we created a system where both teams have equal influence over product features and user experience improvements. Some of our guiding principles include:
Prioritizing User Feedback: If a feature is suggested by customers more than three times, it’s immediately added to our development pipeline.
Fast-Tracking High-Demand Features: Popular features automatically move to the top of the development list.
Prototyping Back-End Scripts: We create back-end scripts for features that aren’t urgent but have potential. As demand grows, the development team can quickly convert these prototypes into core features.
This approach not only leads to faster software updates but also allows us to provide lightning-fast customer support. For example, our average response time is 30 minutes—significantly faster than most other Cloud eDiscovery providers.
When evaluating options for a cloud-based eDiscovery vendor with reliable customer support, use GoldFynch as a benchmark.
GoldFynch is a comprehensive eDiscovery suite explicitly designed for small and midsize firms. It offers the features and support you need to handle your cases efficiently. You can also sign up for a free trial without a credit card.
- It costs just $27 a month for a 3 GB case: Which is significantly less than most comparable software. With GoldFynch, you know what you’re paying for exactly – its pricing is simple and readily available on the website.
- It’s easy to budget for. GoldFynch charges only for storage (processing is free). So, choose from a range of plans (3 GB to 150+ GB) and know how much you’ll be paying upfront. It takes just a few clicks to move from one plan to another, and billing is prorated – so you’ll pay only for the time you spend on any given plan. With legacy software, pricing is much less predictable.
- It’s simple to use. Many eDiscovery applications take hours to master. GoldFynch takes minutes. It handles a lot of complex processing in the background, but what you see is minimal and intuitive. Just drag-and-drop your files into GoldFynch, and you’re good to go. Plus, it’s designed, developed, and run by the same team. So you get prompt and reliable tech support.
- It keeps you flexible. To build a defensible case, you need to be able to add and delete files freely. Many applications charge for processing each file you upload, so you’ll be reluctant to let your case organically shrink and grow. And this stifles you. With GoldFynch, you get unlimited processing for free. On a 3 GB plan, you can add and delete 5 GB of data at no extra cost – as long as there’s only 3GB in your case. If you cross 3GB, your plan upgrades automatically, and you’ll be charged for only the time spent on each plan. That’s the beauty of prorated pricing.
- Access it from anywhere. And 24/7. All your files are backed up and secure in the Cloud.
Want to learn more about GoldFynch?
For related posts about eDiscovery, check out the following links.
- A Complete Glossary of Essential eDiscovery Terms
- A Quick Primer on GoldFynch’s eDiscovery Software
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- The Secret to Choosing the Best Low-Cost eDiscovery Software for Your Small Law Firm
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- Is Social Media the Future of eDiscovery?
- 7 Basic eDiscovery Concepts Every Attorney Should Know