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> At which point I stop reading and I'm thinking "finally, I see why he's emailing us". I never like to discourage 'too much' information because frankly 'end

> At which point I stop reading and I'm thinking "finally, I see why he's emailing us". I never like to discourage 'too much' information because frankly 'end users' don't know what they need to tell us in support (that is kind of what our job is right?). I'd much prefer the above than just 'it won't let me log in' - where there maybe context that I'd want. I spend more time asking follow up questions (without being able to provide even a modicum of solution) in many cases, I try to couch my 'questions answering questions' reply with why I am asking (more typing and explaining) when users don't give me chapter and verse, even if it is mostly 'puff'. > I now work as a software developer for a startup and often have to interact directly with clients, and when I communicate with them, I always make sure have my desired "call to action" (even if only summarised) within the first sentence. But that is after they have emailed you right? You cannot summarize anything until you actually have them tell you what is wrong, no matter how long takes them. So yes summarize in the first sentence is always useful and if you don't kow the solution (yet) it never hurts to admit that and say something like, 'but we can try X or see what Y is doing as that will help me understand the issue in more detail' etc. Customer Support is hard work sometimes, now try doing it with someone who doesn't speak your language very well ;)

bluGill 2y ago
The problem is all too often users have no clue what is useful information. Mechanics hear a lot about the color of the car making a funny noise, but nothing about where the noise seems to come from or when it is heard, nor do they get told when the last time the transmission oil was changed even though that might be a useful clue.
jonathanlydall 2y ago
> I never like to discourage 'too much' information because frankly 'end users' don't know what they need to tell us in support (that is kind of what our job is right?). I'd much prefer the above than just 'it won't let me log in' - where there maybe context that I'd want. I agree that more information is sometimes better, but elaborate only after stating the core issue. For example, if you're emailing a provider about being overbilled. Start your email with "I'm writing to you because I have been overbilled and would please like this addressed", then you lay out your case with all the facts that you think could be relevant. But don't start with a whole bunch of facts because the service agent won't yet be in the correct context to know which facts are relevant until after they know what problem you're trying to have solved. > But that is after they have emailed you right? You cannot summarize anything until you actually have them tell you what is wrong, no matter how long takes them. So yes summarize in the first sentence is always useful and if you don't kow the solution (yet) it never hurts to admit that and say something like, 'but we can try X or see what Y is doing as that will help me understand the issue in more detail' etc. Sorry, I wasn't entirely clear, but for this part I was not referring to responses to customer service requests, but more for proactive reach outs initiated from our side towards trying to ensure customer retention and (at the moment) we're more of a B2B product so we feel this is worth doing. As "random" reach outs by a supplier are not always appreciated, we always try to offer something of value/relevance when doing so, with the first sentence being something like "Hi <person name>, We've recently done <something to our product which we feel is relevant to you>, I was wanting to check if this would be useful to you?". I can then perhaps elaborate further on the potentially useful thing to them and also close by stating that I would be happy to do a video call to go through it in more detail if they would like. What's particularly noteworthy here is that I did a "call to action" which would be low effort on their part, namely to "please at least reply to let me know if this is useful" in the very first sentence. This is actually a bit of a psychological trick where because the recipient has been directly asked to do something in particular, they're more likely to continue reading towards doing this and engage. Once we started it on our side, I also started to notice that I see this trick very often to my own inbox from completely cold contact direct marketers, their first sentence often ends with something to the effect of "would <time and date> work for you for us to discuss further?", I don't engage with these completely cold contacts, but I see exactly what they're trying to do.

bluGill 2y ago

The problem is all too often users have no clue what is useful information. Mechanics hear a lot about the color of the car making a funny noise, but nothing about where the noise seems to come from or when it is heard, nor do they get told when the last time the transmission oil was changed even though that might be a useful clue.

jonathanlydall 2y ago

> I never like to discourage 'too much' information because frankly 'end users' don't know what they need to tell us in support (that is kind of what our job is right?). I'd much prefer the above than just 'it won't let me log in' - where there maybe context that I'd want. I agree that more information is sometimes better, but elaborate only after stating the core issue. For example, if you're emailing a provider about being overbilled. Start your email with "I'm writing to you because I have been overbilled and would please like this addressed", then you lay out your case with all the facts that you think could be relevant. But don't start with a whole bunch of facts because the service agent won't yet be in the correct context to know which facts are relevant until after they know what problem you're trying to have solved. > But that is after they have emailed you right? You cannot summarize anything until you actually have them tell you what is wrong, no matter how long takes them. So yes summarize in the first sentence is always useful and if you don't kow the solution (yet) it never hurts to admit that and say something like, 'but we can try X or see what Y is doing as that will help me understand the issue in more detail' etc. Sorry, I wasn't entirely clear, but for this part I was not referring to responses to customer service requests, but more for proactive reach outs initiated from our side towards trying to ensure customer retention and (at the moment) we're more of a B2B product so we feel this is worth doing. As "random" reach outs by a supplier are not always appreciated, we always try to offer something of value/relevance when doing so, with the first sentence being something like "Hi <person name>, We've recently done <something to our product which we feel is relevant to you>, I was wanting to check if this would be useful to you?". I can then perhaps elaborate further on the potentially useful thing to them and also close by stating that I would be happy to do a video call to go through it in more detail if they would like. What's particularly noteworthy here is that I did a "call to action" which would be low effort on their part, namely to "please at least reply to let me know if this is useful" in the very first sentence. This is actually a bit of a psychological trick where because the recipient has been directly asked to do something in particular, they're more likely to continue reading towards doing this and engage. Once we started it on our side, I also started to notice that I see this trick very often to my own inbox from completely cold contact direct marketers, their first sentence often ends with something to the effect of "would <time and date> work for you for us to discuss further?", I don't engage with these completely cold contacts, but I see exactly what they're trying to do.