Software Business Challenge: Customer Support
This will probably be the last update in the software business challenge for the foreseeable future.
Customer support is the biggest failing that entrepreneur gurus get wrong.
Here’s my guide.
Build A “Database” Or Spreadsheet Of Errors And Fixes.
You don’t have to provide support 24/7, but you should set a standard for yourself (or your team.) By this, I mean something like answer all tickets within 24 hours. This means you can go and eat lunch, sleep and whatever and still keep a high level of support.
Find the problems yourself and fix them. Don’t wait for them to arise. Even deliberately try and break your product (through what can be considered reasonable use.) This isn’t just a software business article – by the way – if you’re selling digital watches, then put them under the sink, drop them on the floor; whatever feasible problems a person could have with your product, try and find it before they do. There’s nothing worse than being in a situation that needs solving where you’re running around like a headless chicken.
“Easy” Or “Difficult” Is Irrelevant.
Again, this is a customer service tip for all businesses. A customer doesn’t care whether fixing something takes you all day or takes you two minutes; your duty to them – and what they expect – is to provide the fix.
What this means for you is that time = money and attention = money.
I’ve worked with other freelancers who’ll bemoan that writing an article takes them hours. Regardless of the subject, the easiest way to fix this problem is to reduce the time it takes to get a solution.
In regards to a software business, you’ll encounter bugs and other issues. Fixing these can take you days or it can take you hours. It’s preferable that it takes you hours and not days.
Follow the advice above and you’ll get there. Here’s the key point though; your customer support and service should be thought of and acted on as a system. When you get an email saying, “HELP I’VE ACCIDENTALLY HIT THE SELF-DESTRUCT BUTTON” you probably won’t know how to fix the problem at the start. You should know how you’re going to approach it though.
When People Suggest Features
If people suggest new features, then you should make a note of all of them. Some won’t be feasible, a lot will be. A lot will be feasible long-term and you can store them away for once you’re a millionaire who has a team of workers to actually implement the crazy scheme.
However, keep all of them: People pay a ton of money for research into market opportunities, and you’re being given them for free. Don’t overlook this.
Also, you’ll get ideas that are so blindingly simple and painfully obvious that you’ll realise you should have included them in the first place. Put those in as an update and your customers will think you’re a hero.
Help People Help Themselves
You know what’s better than having a tech support guy help you out?
It’s having a tutorial written for you so that you can help yourself.
I can’t remember the amount of times I’ve waited 48 hours for some tech support guy to answer a support ticket with an answer that would have taken me five minutes to solve myself if I’d have known. Also, I feel a little warm glow of joy when I walk through a tutorial of a technical thing and I actually get it to work at the end.
There are numerous ways in which you can do this.
Firstly, create a support ticket system and save the answers you have to give.
Secondly, turn that support ticket system into a knowledgebase that all customers can access.
Thirdly, make a forum when you have an overwhelming customer base, product and loads of knowledgeable users. They’ll help each other and it’ll build a community and everyone will still love you.
Always Be Courteous
One of the craziest things I find online – especially among the young entrepreneur crowd – is this idea that if you’re in business for yourself, you get to say “Fuck you” to your clients and people around you.
There’s the James Dean archetype of the maverick who answers to nobody… and it’s stupid.
(Funny how the people who talk about “Fuck you” money and “Answering to no one” are also the ones that bang on about 48 Laws of Power… dorks with no social awareness pretending they’re some Mafia Godfather.)
You never gain anything from being rude. Even if your customer is the biggest idiot or the crookedest swindler ever, you gain nothing by returning fire.
Always teat your customers with respect, even if they don’t deserve it. Your business will run better, your blood pressure will be better (trust me; anger creates a feedback loop) and you won’t have to deal with a guy you upset in a few years’ time trying to get back at you. (This happens.)
Now… this might lead into the next section.
Returns and Refunds… Set Your Terms and Get Out Of Jail Free
If you have a bad customer and they want out… give it to them. For the most part, customers in any field just want the best they can get. They want your service, they want you to help them and despite personality quirks, it all tends to go smoothly. When it doesn’t, things are quickly resolved in many cases.
Then there are the swindlers, the guys who want something for nothing and the people who won’t pay.
You need to eradicate these people from your customer list, supplier list or wherever else they might spring from. They cause danger and distress and it’s simply not worth it.
If someone wants out, then say, “How can we help you more?” If they say, “No, I want out!” Let them out.
If you lose $10, then you lose $10. But you gain your time, energy and the fact you haven’t bludgeoned anyone. It’s an easy trade.
The dividing line rests on how you set your terms. Always be upfront and honest. Then, if someone is being trouble because of something you’re not prepared to offer, you can say, “Here’s the contract; if you don’t want it then leave.”
Again, don’t be rude. Cut your losses politely. Wish the person well. Leave no reason for them to badmouth you or cause trouble. (Some will try, but when you follow the above rules, it’ll peter out.)
Final Thoughts and Repeating The Process
As a conclusion – there’s a lot of talk about serial entrepreneurship and finishing one thing and jumping straight on to the next. When it comes to software and long-term business ideas, I would suggest that you don’t move on to the next thing until you’ve gotten the above issues sorted into a comprehensive system.
Fixing most issues isn’t terribly complicated, but it can be very waring if you don’t have a system in place. Managing an old project while starting a new project is a time-sink and concentration-sink, so you should do everything you can to minimize the amount of those things it can steal.