Behind the Scene: Entropia Support

Marco|SDS

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Joined
Feb 15, 2005
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Gothenburg, Sweden
Hello!

It is (as always) busy times at the MA office. We are currently housing over 35 people and will probably be 45-50 by the end of the year. My job description is changing as well, more on that after the summer when all the details are set.

Today I wanted to present a Behind the Scene feature, from one of the most rumored-about areas of MindArk and the Entropia Universe, the Support. I bring you words from our Customer Service Director Cornelia Sundström, about vision, policy and facts (like all Support is done in house today, after a stint of trying outsourcing).

Without further ado:

--

Hi everyone,

Marco has invited me to make a contribution to this forum to introduce myself and the Entropia Support Department. I thought it was a great idea, and an excellent opportunity to offer our community an insight into our working methods.

My name is Cornelia Sundström, I am 32 years old and began working at MindArk in March 2005 after finishing a Masters degree in Communication Science in Berlin, Germany. In October 2005, I became the Customer Service Director and am now responsible for the organization of the Entropia Support Department.

The Entropia Support team currently consists of six employees, with plans to expand the department soon and provide even faster service. Our goal is to offer 24 hour support in several different languages.

The Entropia Support department is today situated in the Gothenburg office where we work closely with the development teams and management. The daily communication with the other departments is crucial for our work. Our main task is to supply all Entropia Universe customers with technical support for the Entropia Universe. Some of our staff is involved in other areas too, such as test, text and translation. Due to the specific nature of the Entropia Universe as an ever-changing complex virtual experience, we need to keep ourselves updated in all areas and this aspect certainly makes our work most interesting, but also very challenging.

I define our work in the Entropia Support Department, as the connecting link between the company we are working for, and our customers. Our primary goal is to offer a high quality customer service at all times. However, even though we are all dedicated to helping our customers with the variety of Entropia Universe related issues that arise; we are governed by some policy constraints which are connected to the general policy of MindArk PE AB. These constraints are formulated in the section “Support Policies” on our website, here (http://www.entropiauniverse.com/en/rich/5383.html).

As part of our commitment to providing a high quality support service, we have developed a short survey, which will soon be sent to all participants. We would very much appreciate if you could find the time to fill out and return the survey to us, as this will help us in improving our service further.

We all look forward together to an improved experience.

Best wishes,

Cornelia Sundström,
and the Entropia Support Department.

--
 
Much appreciated info, Thank you.

Does MindArk accept any appliances for jobs and such right now ? Just a random thought that popped up
 
yes marco. this is what we need :thumbup:
keep it coming. good relations between the community and the ppl behind EU is very important :wise:

maybe you could try convincing cornelia to join the forum aswell? :D
 
I appreciate you taking the time to let us know what is going on and what you plan to do.

I also manage a support team and realize how important it is to constantly communicate with your customers.

Thanks
 
good job marco :)
 
[edit: dash is just being himself.]


















.
 
Thanks for sorting it out.

Thats what we want more communication :D

Ta
 
Thanks for the input....hope it's not in vain....please press the global button for me!!!
 
Agreed!

Good to hear. MA seems so anonymous a lot of the time, not a good feeling. This improves things a lot. Thanks!
 
Much appreciated and of course i will return the survey.
And press the global button for me too, plz :D
 
cool :) thx for the input

just remember... outsourcing is bad, m'kay ;)
 
what are u all thanking for? they say they are on their limit... :confused:

oh well ... we will get a survey. wow...

PS: i'm a bit sarcastic today
 
A step in the right direction ;) Please keep walking ... :D
 
Behind the scenes ... I like it, make it a series Marco :)

Next issue could be about testing, a lot of rumours about that too in the community ;)
 
Ahh nice to see some comunication goin on... hope its not once in a lifetime experience :)

Would be great to hear from you guys, or notice you hear us once in a while :)
 
Lighterthief said:
just remember... outsourcing is bad
As a recently outsourced Support Employee I can only confirm that :wise:

Great job though of bringing support and participants closer together,
I think the survey can (and will) have a huge engagement ratio from the players thus possibly having a possible positive influence on the game(play). :dunce:
 
EyeContact said:
Next issue could be about testing, a lot of rumours about that too in the community ;)

Rumours about Testing? I thought all that talk about testing before releases was Fiction or Legend?? Euuh.. :dunce:
 
It seems we Berlin people are really spread around the world.
Even if I myself was born in Berlin I have to say that it is a fact that you are a "Berliner" after being there for around 2 years - it is a mindset which will never be the same and it identifies you everywhere you are.

And heck I don't want a global button pressed - it would be enough for me if you pressed the HOF button ;)
 
What are the current hours that support is open?

On days when we have a serious support issue (like today, when I cannot login), it would be nice to know at which point we should give up hope until tomorrow.
 
As as been said, a nice step Marco (and welcome Cornelia :))

Maybe a weekly "Behind the scenes" , even if there are no great developments to shout about, just a weekly touch base with us all :D
 
Way to go MA :)

Thank you for this message, its what we been wating for all time. Keep it coming :)

Rapido
 
dub said:
What are the current hours that support is open?

It varies somewhat, but between 0600 to 1800 UTC. Sporadic during the rest of the time (the system is being monitored 24/7).
 
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U need to update your logo Marco :D
 
I dont find anything intresting :D but it is late hehe.
 
Well, thanks MArco for that! It is nice to hear from someone else at MA. :)

Like AJack10600 said, keep walking...

It is very nice to introduce the person in charge of support, and I really appreciate this "behind the scenes" look. It is nice to hear from the person responsible for the support department. I have never had a problem with MA support, but thanks for introducing us to Ms. Sundström.

I do get the feeling that there is something missing...

- answer questions regarding developmental or design issues. This is not the right venue for discussing Entropia Universe core dynamics. Questions regarding the different In-World systems will therefore be left unanswered. Instead, we advise you to turn to fellow participants or to one of the Entropia Universe related Community Sites and look for the answer to your questions there.

...the support dept. does not deal with developmental or design issues, even though there is a suggestion option in the drop-down list of options when creating a new support case.

I want to be able to make suggestions and have the feeling that they are taken seriously. If support does not handle design and development issues, what happens to the support cases that are categorized as "suggestions"?

Marco's role is changing, what does that mean. Will there even be a community relations dept. anymore? Will someone else do it?

How can we communicate to MA our desires and dreams for the further evolution of EU?

This forum is not the place, as there is no feed back from MA on our ideas.

MA support has always handled my cases promptly and has improved constantly since I joined EU in Nov. 2005. So I guess Ms. Sundström is good at her job. :) Thank You!

My original thread about feed back from MA had nothing to do with support. Marco did'nt even bother to answer a single thing that was criticized there.

My other thread...

Thanks Marco, for giving a little more information, even if it is not what I had hoped. It is better than nothing. :)

I'm done with this topic for now, I will let it rest for now...

...I think I will go shoot something.

Cheers :beerchug:
 
Marco|MindArk said:
..the most rumored-about areas of MindArk and the Entropia Universe, the Support.

If you think about it...that's pretty funny. :laugh:
 
This is the BEST thread I've read yet on EF!! Great job Marco!! +rep Thank's for the "behind the scenes" view of MA support!!!! :)
 
sp00ne said:
Much appreciated info, Thank you.

Does MindArk accept any appliances for jobs and such right now ? Just a random thought that popped up

Yes, im willing to trade my toaster & possibly my microwave for a job :laugh:
 
So the grand result of people asking for answers to issues they have and you promising to come here today and reply to them is that we are offered a 'short' survey?

Yesterday you asked what people wanted to discuss and you got quite a few pages of replies. Did anyone ask for an interview with someone from the support department?

Marco|MindArk said:
I'll be back tomorrow. With info, replies and some behind-the-scene glances.


This entire post looks just like more PR spin with no information or answers to issues people have. In fact the information in this post could have been written by anyone on this forum.

All I have learnt from this is that it takes 6 people to copy/paste support replies when I thought it must have been only 1 person.
 
Thanx for the info Marco & Cornelia :thumbup:
 
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