So, some of the buzz coming out of WordCamp - Dallas was for a new web analytics product called “Woopra” - a Java-based analytics app.

According to my email, I signed up on March 30, 2008 - 14 days ago. At the time, I was unable to configure a site because although I could register for the service, setting up a site required an invitation - which I didn’t have and there were no instructions for getting one. The next day, the invitation was made ‘optional’ so I was able to add this site. However, adding the site just sent me into a queue and I received the message that I would hear back regarding site approval within 7 days - this was 13 days ago.

Two or three days ago (don’t remember which since it was a form on woopra.com and I didn’t receive even an automated recognition of the submission) I sent a support request via the woopra website asking for a status on the site approval. Nope, haven’t heard a word.

I was just cruising the forums over at woopra and there’s a whole topic dedicated to the approval timeline. According to CEO John Pozadzides, Woopra is too busy with other things like a site redesign, bug fixes and infrastructure scaling to take care of approvals - or customer service apparently.

I’m a web analyst and I like to evaluate web analytics packages when I can, I’ve had as many as six running on this site concurrently (don’t try that at home - it’s like going down the rabbit hole not to mention the impact to load times) seeing how things work and blogging about them from time to time.

Of course, with Woopra so far behind the customer service curve I’m just peeved enough to write a review with the information I have at hand.

Woopra had set my expectation for one week, in one week after sign up I was to know the status of my approval. Seven days came and went and there has been no communication. No resetting of my expectations no “Woops! We’re sorry” - not a peep.

So, it would seem that the folks at Woopra weren’t prepared for their launch and are managing poorly. Instead of focusing - at least a little - on managing mine, and others’ expectations as well as other aspects of customer service they are busy launching a redesign a couple of weeks after their launch.

How would I rate Woopra so far?

• Technology: UNK
• Core Reporting: UNK
• Segmentation: UNK
• Campaign Analysis: UNK
• Intra-Page Event Analysis: UNK
• ECommerce Analysis: UNK
• Multimedia Analysis: UNK
• Data Visualization & Exploration: UNK
• Customer Service: Non Existent

I also checked their official blog and there’s no discussion of the approval process or problems nor is it discussed in the FAQ so it would seem that the only place to talk about it is in the forum since support requests seem to be in an endless queue.

I found one of the co-founders on Twitter and there’s no discussion there about how the flood of sign-ups has derailed their customer service. I wonder what @jowyang would say about their apparent lack of social media strategy and management?

I guess my point is this: Even if you (or Woopra) think of yourselves as a technology company, at the end of the day people use the technology and you need to spend at least the same amount of time on us, your customers (or potential customers), as you do on your technology and service and I’m not feeling that at the moment.

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Has anyone else signed up for Woopra and gotten a site approved (since the launch at WordCamp)?

Anyone in on the private beta beforehand that would like to tell us about the service?