4 ms·

Here's one bit of bad communication I'll throw in, and unrelated to the current brouhaha. Some time ago, I signed up to FogBugz. A few weeks later, I got an em

by swombat 17y ago

Here's one bit of bad communication I'll throw in, and unrelated to the current brouhaha. Some time ago, I signed up to FogBugz. A few weeks later, I got an email from... omg! Joel Spolsky! I thought that was pretty awesome, that he got in touch with all his users to see how they were getting on. Great way to build strong customer relationships. Of course the initial email was probably automated, but the intention was there. I took a good 20 minutes or so to write a fairly detailed but concise, 4-5 paragraph email listing some of the things I thought could be improved about Fogbugz from a start-up point of view. I got a reply the next day, from some intern who basically explained how they wouldn't do each of the 4 points I'd raised. Not even "we'll look into it" or "it's on the plans, but I can't tell you when it'll come out". Just no, no, no, no. Basically, an email that not only had nothing to do with Joel Spolsky, but clearly had been delegated to someone who didn't yet have basic customer service sense. With that, Spolsky lost all the credit he got in that first initial email, and then some. Since then, I've copied the Spolsky approach. All our users get an email from me, two weeks after they join, asking how they're doing. But I am the one receiving and responding to that email.

DenisM 17y ago
Did it ever occur to you that they have looked at your requests months before you sent them in, and decided not to do them for a good reason? Most people do not come up with unuqie suggestions.
- swombat 17y ago
  Of course it did. But there are a lot of ways to say no without sounding dismissive - I'm more offended by the fact that some intern responded to my email (that was a reply to a purported personal email) than by the fact they declined my suggestions.
- AmberS 17y ago
  I also think it's unlikely that the intern actually weighed his argument and decided against it, and would have been in a position to make it happen had his arguments convinced him. Most likely he was told which features would not be implemented and is spewing that out to customers.
  - DenisM 17y ago
    Please re-read my post: looked at your requests months before you sent them in, and decided not to do them. I have many users asking for things and they usually ask for them same things - things I already decided not to do. Sometimes after many requests I change my mind, but only one of the people gets the email "you're right I changed my mind" and everyone who came before him gets "I thought about this and decided against it". It's impossible to have a popular product and not be in this situation.
jacquesm 17y ago
That's a great way of doing it. I take all of our customer support 'problem' cases, that's where you can make the difference and where you get to hear what's up with your service so you can make it better. This usually amounts to maybe one or two such cases per week so work-wise it's small fry but it really helps keeping your head close to what the users are experiencing. And the problem cases are the ones where you learn fastest. The other day there was a 'support is sales' post here that was really good.
- swombat 17y ago
  Actually, I do get several responses a day, but most of them are, thankfully, positive. Here's an example received today: I wasn’t sure how to access the plans, but once I figured that out I have had no trouble since. I think about 10-15% of the people who sign up and confirm their account end up replying to me.
  - brlewis 17y ago
    Are you thinking ahead to when there are too many new signups for you to continue? I don't mean that accusatively. There are good reasons not to think that far ahead.
    - swombat 17y ago
      When I can't handle it anymore, there's a number of things I can do. 1) Make the emails more random - if I only send half the emails, it stands to reason that I'll only get half the responses! 2) Stop sending them! There are other ways to gather feedback that may work better later. I haven't spent too long worrying about this, though. It'll be a good problem to have.
- brlewis 17y ago
  Thanks, I had missed that post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1354463 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1354463

by swombat 17y ago

DenisM 17y ago

Did it ever occur to you that they have looked at your requests months before you sent them in, and decided not to do them for a good reason? Most people do not come up with unuqie suggestions.

swombat 17y ago
Of course it did. But there are a lot of ways to say no without sounding dismissive - I'm more offended by the fact that some intern responded to my email (that was a reply to a purported personal email) than by the fact they declined my suggestions.
AmberS 17y ago
I also think it's unlikely that the intern actually weighed his argument and decided against it, and would have been in a position to make it happen had his arguments convinced him. Most likely he was told which features would not be implemented and is spewing that out to customers.
- DenisM 17y ago
  Please re-read my post: looked at your requests months before you sent them in, and decided not to do them. I have many users asking for things and they usually ask for them same things - things I already decided not to do. Sometimes after many requests I change my mind, but only one of the people gets the email "you're right I changed my mind" and everyone who came before him gets "I thought about this and decided against it". It's impossible to have a popular product and not be in this situation.

jacquesm 17y ago

That's a great way of doing it. I take all of our customer support 'problem' cases, that's where you can make the difference and where you get to hear what's up with your service so you can make it better. This usually amounts to maybe one or two such cases per week so work-wise it's small fry but it really helps keeping your head close to what the users are experiencing. And the problem cases are the ones where you learn fastest. The other day there was a 'support is sales' post here that was really good.

swombat 17y ago
Actually, I do get several responses a day, but most of them are, thankfully, positive. Here's an example received today: I wasn’t sure how to access the plans, but once I figured that out I have had no trouble since. I think about 10-15% of the people who sign up and confirm their account end up replying to me.
- brlewis 17y ago
  Are you thinking ahead to when there are too many new signups for you to continue? I don't mean that accusatively. There are good reasons not to think that far ahead.
  - swombat 17y ago
    When I can't handle it anymore, there's a number of things I can do. 1) Make the emails more random - if I only send half the emails, it stands to reason that I'll only get half the responses! 2) Stop sending them! There are other ways to gather feedback that may work better later. I haven't spent too long worrying about this, though. It'll be a good problem to have.
brlewis 17y ago
Thanks, I had missed that post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1354463 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1354463