Email them. They might bump it up the priority list if they get a few more emails. It can’t be that difficult for them to do (easy for me to say!) - they just need to include a VM in their test environment.

Feedback fromn ‘power’ users is very useful. But I think you need ‘virgin’ users for what most people would consider usability testing.

TechSmith’s SnagIt is one of my favourite software tools.

What we’ve done in the past at LandlordMax is tried to single out customers that gave us the best feedback on how to improve the software (not necessarily quantity, but rather quality). And those that we did single out, we treated well. Sometimes it was free upgrades, sometimes other perks. Whatever it was, we made sure to thank them appropriately. And they were also happy because they got to directly influence the software, which made their jobs that much easier (not all suggestions are weighed evenly).

Of course this is on top of continually compiling and listing all the suggestions we get. For Perfect Table Plan it’s probably a little different, but for LandlordMax we already have about 20 versions worth of features we can add. That’s just the nature of our product. It of course doesn’t apply to every product, and in some circumstances too many feature is a very bad thing. But ignoring that debate, I think I will check out this service. And hopefully they’ll offer desktop usability testing. It would be great to get some specific testing done for new users.

It would seem to help with the logistical side, and looks like the CoPilot based solution but with everything packaged up for you.

I don’t know how much it costs, but all the other TechSmith products are excellent.

(Great blog and product BTW)