Talk to a real person
We answer the phone between 08:00 and 17:00, Monday to Friday, and until 13:00 on Saturday.
Where to find us
One office, two numbers and one address, all of them answered by people who work on the thing you are ringing about.
059 624 4856 · 054 832 2922
hello@backbone.gh
L539 Gecko Street, Musuku-Kwabenya, Accra
StarTech Multimedia and Supplies Ltd · TIN C0062053019
The three things people ring about
Nearly every first conversation is one of these three. Knowing which one you want means the first reply can be the answer rather than a question back.
Forty minutes, using your own figures. Bring a real quotation and a real stock problem.
We price the migration of your customers, stock, opening balances and chart of accounts rather than promising it.
Company profile, incorporation, VAT and tax clearance certificates are available as one pack.
Where each kind of message ends up
There is no call centre and no queue. This is the whole routing table, which is short because the company is.
| What you are writing about | Who reads it | What to expect back |
|---|---|---|
| Buying it, or what it would cost | The person who would run your implementation | A price worked out from your own numbers, or the questions needed to work one out |
| Seeing it work | The same person | Forty minutes in your diary, using figures you bring |
| Procurement documents | One named person, who signs them too | The pack, and a plain answer on anything in it we do not hold |
| Something broken in a live system | Support, at the times published on the support page | An acknowledgement from a person, then the four stages set out there |
| Speaking to an existing customer | Us, and then it is between the two of you | An introduction in a few working days, with nobody from here on the call |
| Implementing it for other businesses | Whoever runs the next partner cohort | Whether there is a place, and when the next four weeks start |
What happens after you write
Short, because there is very little to it. What is deliberately absent is the sequence of qualifying emails that most software companies put between a question and an answer.
- A person replies, by name
Usually the same working day and at the latest the next one. The reply comes from somebody who can answer rather than from somebody whose job is to arrange a call with whoever can.
- You get the answer, or the reason it needs a conversation
Prices, what is built and what is still being built, and whether we are a fit for your trade are all answerable in writing, and get answered in writing. Where something genuinely needs your figures in front of both of us, we say which figures and why.
- Whatever you asked for, you get
The pack, the walkthrough, the price, the introduction. If the honest answer is that you would be better served by something else, that is the answer you get, and it has been the answer before.
What to put in the first message
Written out because it saves a round trip, and a round trip on email in this country is usually a day. Nothing here is required and a one-line question is welcome.
A sentence. Print, a school, a workshop, a supplier of something. It decides most of what the reply contains.
Not an exact count. It is what the price is worked out from and it is the difference between a reply about one firm and a reply about a group.
A spreadsheet, a package, paper, or several at once. Including "nothing yet", which is a real answer and a good one.
The thing that made you look. Month end, stock, a person leaving with the knowledge, a tender you cannot answer. This is the part that decides whether we can help.
Even approximately. A date tells us whether to talk about a phased start or a whole move, and those are different conversations.
Where you are in Ghana matters more than it should, and we would rather say so than let you find out after two meetings. Say where you are and you will get a straight answer about it.
When you will hear back, and how often after that
Two separate promises. The first is about getting a reply; the second is about what happens once you have had one, which is where most of the irritation in buying software actually lives.
Written messages are answered on working days. The numbers on this page are carried by people who answer them outside those hours, and a factory that has stopped is a reasonable thing to ring about on a Saturday.
Once you are a customer, a fault goes to support and is answered against the published times rather than against this page. The times are per plan and they are on the support page in a table.
If you ask for something and we hear nothing back, you get one message a fortnight later and then nothing. There is no sequence, no newsletter you were added to, and no second salesperson trying a different angle.