5 ms·

Ask HN: Review my startup, SupportFu.com

20 points by veesahni 14y ago

We believe current help desk solutions are bloated and unnecessarily complicated. So we built something better - SupportFu. An intuitive, simple and mostly invisible help desk. It helps teams manage their support tickets without forcing their users to log in and remember ticket numbers. I think it's perfect for small teams who have outgrown their shared inbox. http://www.supportfu.com We're currently in private beta. Just mention HN in the signup comments to skip the the wait list ;)

veesahni 14y ago
clickable link: http://www.supportfu.com http://www.supportfu.com
creativename 14y ago
It looks great - very nicely designed, and I immediately understand the benefit. However, that landing page could do a better job having a call to action visible right away. I don't see anything until I scroll to the very bottom, and even then it's just a link to check out pricing. Also, I don't see any information regarding how it actually integrates with my site (ie. how do users actually submit a ticket?)
- veesahni 14y ago
  We've been experimenting with CTA flows. With a simple email form at the top, people signed but were non responsive when we reached out for feedback. The current flow gets us a lot less signups, but those who do signup are interested and motivated. And good point about integration, it's not very clear from the site. For what it's worth, users send email to support@yourdomain.com which you forward to an address we provide at signup.
  - creativename 14y ago
    Ah, gotcha. Well good to hear you're testing to optimize your signups! I'm not ready for a support product yet, but I'll definitely keep you guys in mind.
revorad 14y ago
This is really well done. After reading everything, the big question in my mind is how does this work? After signing up, what's the first step I need to take to get going? Please show me that process before asking me to sign up. A video would be great, but screenshots are also enough. I say this because apart from the dollar price, the biggest cost to me is my time and effort to switch. You do a good job of conveying that Supportfu will probably make my life easier once I've started using it, but I want to know what it will take to get there.
- veesahni 14y ago
  We've tried to minimize friction to make the signup process simple Step 1. Sign Up Step 2. Forward your support email address to an address we provide Step 3. Invite your team At this point, you are up and going. You can then customize signatures, tweak your notification preferences, setup your tags, etc..
  - revorad 14y ago
    That's great. You should put that step 2 text somewhere either on the homepage or on the sign up page. You might also want to put a sign up button on the homepage. Right now, there's no direct link to sign up on that page and it's not obvious that it must be on the pricing page.
  - knes 14y ago
    You should put those 3 steps on to your website. It shows how easy to setup your service is.
    - veesahni 14y ago
      With the feedback we received, we do plan to update the pre-signup pages to include some details on the ease of signup.
ScottWhigham 14y ago
Looks great - like how you've laid it all out. I'm interested in a replacement for ZenDesk but just FYI: for us, if a system doesn't have an iPhone/iPad app, it just won't cut it. Not slagging on you - just telling you some of the feedback you'll likely hear from others.
- veesahni 14y ago
  Thanks - mobile support is definitely on our list but there are a "few" things that we need to get done first :)
rnochumo 14y ago
I recorded a user test for SupportFu on BetaPunch: http://www.betapunch.com/startups/view/267 http://www.betapunch.com/startups/view/267. I set up the email forwarding and tested by sending an email to that account so it would appear as a ticket. But I never got the email into my supportfu account... Also i agree that there is no clear call to action on where / how to sign up. Good luck to you!
- veesahni 14y ago
  Hey Ross, looking at your video, I believe you missed setting up the forwarding address in gmail after clicking the confirmation link. If that were the case, then the email would never be forwarded by Google (and never make it into your SupportFu account). Thanks for taking the time to make the video and giving us feedback!
codegeek 14y ago
I like the design. Neat. Coming from a large corporate environment, i cannot even start to tell how bad of help desk systems we have to use. Anyway, one thing that confuses me is a pricing tier with more than 3 options. May be you can combine it into 3: FREE, small business, large business (something like this).
- veesahni 14y ago
  Thanks for the feedback...
Juuumanji 14y ago
looks well thought out. good work
- veesahni 14y ago
  thanks!
edwinyzh 14y ago
Apart from the good things: 1 - You should show more screenshots in the home page, e.g. what the 'submit a ticket' page look like? 2 - Don't use hand-writing style typefaces in the screenshots, that's difficult to read for none-native English speakers (me included). 3 - You might want to check out Freshdesk, I was planning to use it for LIVEditor (http://liveditor.com http://liveditor.com) after checked a handful online support services, but gave up because the performance (pages took near 10 seconds to load). Just my 2 cents.
- veesahni 14y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. 1. Your customers 'submit a ticket' by sending you an email, literally. We track threads internally.. A form widget to put on your site is in the works.. 2. didn't think about that... thanks 3. You should try SupportFu - we've focussed on UI speed and frendliness :)
lexbryan 14y ago
I would love to try the service. I don't have a company yet but I'm working as an engr. for a company that uses other help desk provider. thanks.
vaske 14y ago
clean and nice design, I like idea and realization! good work!

20 points by veesahni 14y ago

veesahni 14y ago

clickable link: http://www.supportfu.com http://www.supportfu.com

creativename 14y ago

It looks great - very nicely designed, and I immediately understand the benefit. However, that landing page could do a better job having a call to action visible right away. I don't see anything until I scroll to the very bottom, and even then it's just a link to check out pricing. Also, I don't see any information regarding how it actually integrates with my site (ie. how do users actually submit a ticket?)

veesahni 14y ago
We've been experimenting with CTA flows. With a simple email form at the top, people signed but were non responsive when we reached out for feedback. The current flow gets us a lot less signups, but those who do signup are interested and motivated. And good point about integration, it's not very clear from the site. For what it's worth, users send email to support@yourdomain.com which you forward to an address we provide at signup.
- creativename 14y ago
  Ah, gotcha. Well good to hear you're testing to optimize your signups! I'm not ready for a support product yet, but I'll definitely keep you guys in mind.

revorad 14y ago

This is really well done. After reading everything, the big question in my mind is how does this work? After signing up, what's the first step I need to take to get going? Please show me that process before asking me to sign up. A video would be great, but screenshots are also enough. I say this because apart from the dollar price, the biggest cost to me is my time and effort to switch. You do a good job of conveying that Supportfu will probably make my life easier once I've started using it, but I want to know what it will take to get there.

veesahni 14y ago
We've tried to minimize friction to make the signup process simple Step 1. Sign Up Step 2. Forward your support email address to an address we provide Step 3. Invite your team At this point, you are up and going. You can then customize signatures, tweak your notification preferences, setup your tags, etc..
- revorad 14y ago
  That's great. You should put that step 2 text somewhere either on the homepage or on the sign up page. You might also want to put a sign up button on the homepage. Right now, there's no direct link to sign up on that page and it's not obvious that it must be on the pricing page.
- knes 14y ago
  You should put those 3 steps on to your website. It shows how easy to setup your service is.
  - veesahni 14y ago
    With the feedback we received, we do plan to update the pre-signup pages to include some details on the ease of signup.

ScottWhigham 14y ago

Looks great - like how you've laid it all out. I'm interested in a replacement for ZenDesk but just FYI: for us, if a system doesn't have an iPhone/iPad app, it just won't cut it. Not slagging on you - just telling you some of the feedback you'll likely hear from others.

veesahni 14y ago
Thanks - mobile support is definitely on our list but there are a "few" things that we need to get done first :)

rnochumo 14y ago

I recorded a user test for SupportFu on BetaPunch: http://www.betapunch.com/startups/view/267 http://www.betapunch.com/startups/view/267. I set up the email forwarding and tested by sending an email to that account so it would appear as a ticket. But I never got the email into my supportfu account... Also i agree that there is no clear call to action on where / how to sign up. Good luck to you!

veesahni 14y ago
Hey Ross, looking at your video, I believe you missed setting up the forwarding address in gmail after clicking the confirmation link. If that were the case, then the email would never be forwarded by Google (and never make it into your SupportFu account). Thanks for taking the time to make the video and giving us feedback!

codegeek 14y ago

I like the design. Neat. Coming from a large corporate environment, i cannot even start to tell how bad of help desk systems we have to use. Anyway, one thing that confuses me is a pricing tier with more than 3 options. May be you can combine it into 3: FREE, small business, large business (something like this).

veesahni 14y ago
Thanks for the feedback...

Juuumanji 14y ago

looks well thought out. good work

veesahni 14y ago
thanks!

edwinyzh 14y ago

Apart from the good things: 1 - You should show more screenshots in the home page, e.g. what the 'submit a ticket' page look like? 2 - Don't use hand-writing style typefaces in the screenshots, that's difficult to read for none-native English speakers (me included). 3 - You might want to check out Freshdesk, I was planning to use it for LIVEditor (http://liveditor.com http://liveditor.com) after checked a handful online support services, but gave up because the performance (pages took near 10 seconds to load). Just my 2 cents.

veesahni 14y ago
Thanks for the feedback. 1. Your customers 'submit a ticket' by sending you an email, literally. We track threads internally.. A form widget to put on your site is in the works.. 2. didn't think about that... thanks 3. You should try SupportFu - we've focussed on UI speed and frendliness :)

lexbryan 14y ago

I would love to try the service. I don't have a company yet but I'm working as an engr. for a company that uses other help desk provider. thanks.

vaske 14y ago

clean and nice design, I like idea and realization! good work!