Tag: support

September 19, 2014

Three types of support

When you’re working through a queue of support threads it can help to identify what type of question the user is asking. Doing this helps set the tone for how you approach your reply. In my mental model there are three broad types of support questions.

Users typically ask educational, technical, or transactional questions. Knowing which bucket their question falls in to helps guide your actions.

Educational questions boil down to unfamiliarity with the product. Your goal is to help the user connect the dots. You’re teaching them about how your product works and how they can use it to meet their project’s goals. Take these questions as an opportunity to point users to best practices, existing documentation, and ways they can get continued help.

Technical questions happen from a breakdown in expectations. A user knows what they want, but your software is hampering their ability to get there. Your goal is twofold: help the user get around the issue they’re facing and fix the root cause so it doesn’t happen again. These questions represent an opportunity to dig in to bug details. Maybe it’s an edge case. Maybe it’s widespread. In any case don’t just dismiss the question as a one-time error without verifying that it won’t happen again.

Transactional questions happen any time there’s an issue with purchase-related actions. When you accept payments you will get loads of questions in this bucket. Customers will want refunds, their cards won’t process correctly, they’ll want to pay by purchase order, and more. The goal here is to get the money issue sorted out as quickly and smoothly as possible. There’s no faster route to losing a customer’s trust than making payments and refunds difficult.

At its core, support is requests in one of these areas.

Before you reply to someone it can help to find what area they fall in to. The appropriate language, personality, and content all changes based on that. If someone’s question boils down to a transactional issue you’re better off handling the issue directly. They don’t likely want to read documentation about how to get a refund, for example. Next time you’re working through a queue of support threads ask yourself what type of question you’re answering. Doing so can help ensure you match your response to the user’s primary goals and concerns.

May 15, 2014

Four Million to One. How Brian Cervino handles support for Trello. What stood out most to me was that 4 million users generate just 300 support threads a week.

March 18, 2014

I talked with Chase Clemons on his Support Ops podcast yesterday about how we run support at Automattic. We talked a lot about live chat support and how we manage a team of 40+ Happiness Engineers.

It was a live Google Hangout so you can watch the video below:

March 7, 2014

I had a fun time talking with Scott Tran about the support team at Automattic. The podcast is about 40 minutes and we covered everything from hiring to team structure to the type of culture we value. It’s live now over on Scott’s site.

This was my first time recording a podcast and it was a lot of fun. Scott has other interviews that focus on support at companies like Basecamp, Olark, and Zapier. If you’re interested you should give them a listen.

March 3, 2014

Show, don’t tell, with GIFs. Ingenious approach to showing users how to get something done with your product.

February 28, 2014

Handling Freemium Customer Support. How Justin Williams approaches support for Glassboard.

January 13, 2014

Task-centered support

In the past I’ve written about focusing on the particular task a customer is stuck on. Reading The Design of Everyday Things reminded me of that mindset. Donald Norman writes:

In their work, designers often become expert with the device they are designing. Users are often expert at the task they are trying to perform with the device.

Norman’s description is apt, I think. It got me thinking about the role of support, too. In many ways the support experience starts when a customer’s ability to complete a task breaks down.

A product is more than the sum of its menus and settings. A product is ‘Hello World’, not the code which generates that. A lot of what defines support is how you take someone from being stuck to finishing whatever it is they wanted to do.

People are unlikely to poke through every setting just because they are there. You do that when you are mastering a device, not when you are completing a task.

Nerds are great at digging through the layers of a product. Customers are unlikely to be nerds. Rather than understand an entire system they want to get something done. Less time with a product means more time for their project.

Next time a customer writes in and is stuck, try to stop yourself from wondering what about the product they missed. Instead, think about what task they are trying to complete. Think about how your product helps them get there. Your customers will thank you.

December 16, 2013

Support as creation

Too many companies pigeonhole customer support as just answering questions. It’s a cost center they believe exists only to maintain the status quo of customer happiness. This definition misses something powerful. Great support is an act of creation.

Whether you focus on the practical elements, or prefer the intangible values, support has more to offer when viewed through the lens of creation. From documentation to personal experiences, support turns a faceless product in to a product that these people made for me.

Your goal is to craft joy. Out of a frustrating customer experience your team will create a memory of happiness, helpfulness, and appreciation. Instead of a cost center your support team becomes a department which creates and educates loyal customers. Where once resided a team just answering questions now lives the frontlines for creating your tribe of happy, repeat, and profitable customers.

November 24, 2013

Interview with Rob Siefker of Zappos. Great 4-part interview with Rob Siefker from Zappos’ Customer Loyalty Team.

November 15, 2013

Social Media: A Trailing Indicator of Customer Experience:

Social media is an important trailing indicator of your customer experience…Organizations that get this, empower their employees with the latitude to deliver excellent customer interactions, and to engage with their customers on social media.