Behind the Curtain
I had been courted by Higher Logic for several years before coming on board a new association with an established community with Higher Logic. I've been an end-user of the Higher Logic online community platform myself, but never saw what was behind the curtain, until now.
Their support team is your typical support with a few shining stars who have gone above and beyond in some instances. While I was not on the team that implemented the platform, being part of the team that works to keep it up and running hasn't been a delightful experience. Their online community platform works well and members seem to not have any issues. It's some of the other products and system updates that have caused us the most anxiety and poor user experience.
Personally, I feel that the best in class vendors should do what they are known for and keep improving that product. Their event manager is not useful for large events, reporting, or even taking international currency. I'm not sure if this was ever conveyed to the team that implemented the module in the past, but it is causing a lot of headaches now.
When ever they do, what I feel, are small unnoticeable updates, something is always affected that causes an issue on the front-end user side. When event registraion for events taking place around the world are paralyzed because a setting that wasn't setup in the initial implementation is affected by a small update, it's very unsettling.
And the constant attempt at upselling is annoying. If a client emails you about an issue, and most likely this is not the first email regarding a problem with the product, that is not the time to mention yet another product you are selling. Make the product you've sold me work and maybe, just maybe, I'll listen to you about another product.
Overall, the online community platform is relatively simple to use but not completely without issues, which leaves me hesistant to spend any more money on other products.
