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- Just use email. - As long as possible, handle all requests yourself. - If people keep having billing issues, use a different solution for billing. I use Fas

- Just use email. - As long as possible, handle all requests yourself. - If people keep having billing issues, use a different solution for billing. I use Fastspring, and issues are rare. And I can just forward billing related issues to Fastspring support. - If you keep having to deal with technical problems, fix your product. Ideally it shouldn't need customer support. If it is so complicated that customer support is required, charge at least $100 per customer. - Write good documentation. This is so often overlooked. People generally contact support as a last resort, and will usually read all documentation in advance. If your docs explain it, they won't need to contact you. - Time: it usually takes me 10-30min to answer one support request. I don't have a time budget, I try to answer as quickly as possible. Being responsive makes a great difference to your customers, and they will be much more likely to buy your product and recommend it to others. - However, to limit the time per week I spend on customer support, I do everything I can to make sure people don't need to contact me at all. I try to fix every reported issue permanently so that I never have to deal with it again.

danielbarla 11y ago
I agree with most of what you said, and try to follow a similar approach as well. Especially pre-empting support issues by fixing the product. That said, I'm not convinced about documentation - a large percentage of enquiries and support calls we get could have been resolved by checking the documentation, or even just reading the landing page of the website. I'm still not sure how to efficiently resolve these.
- corobo 11y ago
  Hi Genericuser, Our documentation located at <direct url> should be able to assist you with <problem xyz>, please do let me know if there's anything there that needs clarifying! Kind regards,
  - username223 11y ago
    Better: Hi <indication that we're tracking this problem>, ... please do let <contact to avoid fighting back through automated menus and outsourced support> know... Kind regards, <person ultimately responsible for failure>
- craigvn 11y ago
  With documentation it will only be used if it is visible. If they have to exit your program and go to a website and search it won't be used. If you have a prominent (not hidden in a menu) search for help option it will be used. Assuming the search function works well.
  - danielbarla 11y ago
    The documentation is HTML, but it's linked directly in the app, so you can get relevant information and tutorials about the function you're using. Most of the time these inquiries are related to "can it do X", rather than "how do I do X" - my best guess is that they want something in writing (therefore passing the responsibility for making the claim to us), rather than doing their own reading and confirmation. It still takes a fair bit of effort to answer all of these.
supersan 11y ago
That's really useful advice. Thanks. > People generally contact support as a last resort, and will usually read all documentation in advance. If your docs explain it, they won't need to contact you. I think this somewhat depends on the industry or more like your target audience. Our latest site has been quite popular with older (60+) non tech savvy people but a side-effect of that is that we get an insane amount of questions. I've gotten questions about how to do something when the step was as simple as pasting a URL and pressing the Next button. On top of that there is a pdf download and a big help button to a YouTube video on that same page. Our support desk shows answers like Stackoverflow when somebody tries to submit that question but they still ask anyway. It's so boring replying to the same thing over and over (thank god for canned replies). Handling customer support yourself does give you a lot of feedback about your site though. If you really love your product it can be a real eye-opener.
- joss82 11y ago
  > ... as simple as pasting a URL ... You need to do user testing when you watch your users use your product. Do it with your target audience. You will be floored by their lack of technicality. Then go fix your product so they never have to paste anything.

danielbarla 11y ago

I agree with most of what you said, and try to follow a similar approach as well. Especially pre-empting support issues by fixing the product. That said, I'm not convinced about documentation - a large percentage of enquiries and support calls we get could have been resolved by checking the documentation, or even just reading the landing page of the website. I'm still not sure how to efficiently resolve these.

corobo 11y ago
Hi Genericuser, Our documentation located at <direct url> should be able to assist you with <problem xyz>, please do let me know if there's anything there that needs clarifying! Kind regards,
- username223 11y ago
  Better: Hi <indication that we're tracking this problem>, ... please do let <contact to avoid fighting back through automated menus and outsourced support> know... Kind regards, <person ultimately responsible for failure>
craigvn 11y ago
With documentation it will only be used if it is visible. If they have to exit your program and go to a website and search it won't be used. If you have a prominent (not hidden in a menu) search for help option it will be used. Assuming the search function works well.
- danielbarla 11y ago
  The documentation is HTML, but it's linked directly in the app, so you can get relevant information and tutorials about the function you're using. Most of the time these inquiries are related to "can it do X", rather than "how do I do X" - my best guess is that they want something in writing (therefore passing the responsibility for making the claim to us), rather than doing their own reading and confirmation. It still takes a fair bit of effort to answer all of these.

supersan 11y ago

That's really useful advice. Thanks. > People generally contact support as a last resort, and will usually read all documentation in advance. If your docs explain it, they won't need to contact you. I think this somewhat depends on the industry or more like your target audience. Our latest site has been quite popular with older (60+) non tech savvy people but a side-effect of that is that we get an insane amount of questions. I've gotten questions about how to do something when the step was as simple as pasting a URL and pressing the Next button. On top of that there is a pdf download and a big help button to a YouTube video on that same page. Our support desk shows answers like Stackoverflow when somebody tries to submit that question but they still ask anyway. It's so boring replying to the same thing over and over (thank god for canned replies). Handling customer support yourself does give you a lot of feedback about your site though. If you really love your product it can be a real eye-opener.

joss82 11y ago
> ... as simple as pasting a URL ... You need to do user testing when you watch your users use your product. Do it with your target audience. You will be floored by their lack of technicality. Then go fix your product so they never have to paste anything.