6 ms·

Extraordinary support? You’d better blow my mind.

41 points by mootothemax 14y ago

huhtenberg 14y ago
It's just a rant about some poor support experience with name calling.
- Hansi 14y ago
  True, but it does act as a word of warning against using their services I guess.
  - pc86 14y ago
    It does exactly that, which is why I don't think it belongs on HN. I didn't click on that link to listen to someone I've never heard of complain about a service I've never heard of. I was expecting an intelligent opinion (and in these comments, a discussion) about what exactly "extraordinary support" means. Anyway, I think you're exactly right.
- milkman 14y ago
  This is valuable advice that I appreciate. I want to know who I can trust to do business with. Where else can I find this stuff out?
- zaidf 14y ago
  Rant: "blabla sucks repeat" Much more than a rant: "here's what not to do if you are a business; why not to do it; how it makes your customers feel and here's a perfect example" This one is squarely the latter.
- duiker101 14y ago
  It is, but it contains some truth... many people lately go around thinking the can do amazing things(see: almost any startups). Amazing support, amazing API, amazing whatever. Same for the job specs, "The best position in the world! With nerf gun fights every day!". When this was not an extremaly common thing it was cool but now many of this things can be seen a negative thing. I immediately believe that 90% of these people are liars because it's easy to make big claims but really hard to maintain the them. And the more you claim the harder it will be. In the end the first impression I get of you is that you are not reliable, which is not very good.
- klawed 14y ago
  Not fair. The essence of the rant is that PayLane overpromised and underdelivered. That's a very key takeaway and there's a lesson there that applies EVERYWHERE. [EDIT fixed typo]
nodata 14y ago
In fairness, it never said "extraordinarily good support".
- codegeek 14y ago
  Just talking semantics. But we all know what it was supposed to mean
- taylodl 14y ago
  That's what I was thinking. 'Extraordinary' swings both ways.
nmcfarl 14y ago
Personally I’d never claim to offer extraordinary support - the expense is insane. There are cheaper ways to brand - with much smaller downsides. My experience is that people who are building things and doing things in a company are actually not competent to offer support. There are real skills - mainly people skills, that CSRs have that you didn’t hire the builders for. Additional a giant percent of good support is speedy responses, and long conversations. Both things that require lots of man hours. So you need a ton of CSRs. Which is expensive in itself. But then - customers have an insane way of finding critical bugs, and making completely reasonable requests that had never occurred to you. Things that require builder and makers of your product to be fully accessible to your CSRs. So you need to staff for that as well. And that gets you to good. How you move from that to extraordinary is some thing I don’t know how to do (And I’ve read a lot of what Tony Hsieh has to say), but I do know it’s going to be extraordinarily expensive.
- codegeek 14y ago
  "There are real skills - mainly people skills," This. If only more companies understood that.
- praptak 14y ago
  > Things that require builder and makers of your product to be fully accessible to your CSRs. So you need to staff for that as well. From the perspective of said builder/maker I can say this can grow into a huge problem if not handled well. Once your product/service gets deployed in multiple timezones, your support turns into 24/7, even if not advertised as such. Suddenly the developers whose jobs used to be nice cosy nine to five start getting called at ungodly hours to offer some insight into customer problems. Nobody likes that, especially not without getting paid.
  - nmcfarl 14y ago
    I know - I’ve been there. The obvious starting place is to hire people who know this isn’t 9-5 gig, (so nothing is sudden). But of course that drives up wages a bit :) Boy is this an expensive problem to solve.
blindfly 14y ago
This reminds me of a lone developer who balances hundreds of clients, where each client expects same day personalized replies with nothing but the right answers.
- codegeek 14y ago
  "where each client expects " The lone developer should ensure that client expectations are correctly set. Honestly, it is their responsibility and not the customers. Customers always want everything unde the sun. How you handle their expectations is the key.
- debacle 14y ago
  Having been a lone developer, it's difficult balancing dozens of clients, let alone hundreds.
codegeek 14y ago
As a customer, I don't really care about extraordinary support. I care that when and if I have an issue, you do your best in trying to resolve the issue. What I absolutely hate is being forwarded from one guy/dept to another without a real resolution. Yes some problems are user errors, some could be hard to solve right away but for me, extraordinary support would mean that you took time to understand my specific case and are working diligently towards a resolution. Rest is all fluff.
kylemaxwell 14y ago
Puffery and hyperbole are all too common in marketing. "Extraordinary support", "incredibly advanced technology", or my least favorite, "beautiful design" (:puke:). Nobody should ever believe a marketer when they say anything until the delivery matches. Sure, you can set some tentative expectations (e.g. "this payment processor will process payments"), but to go much further than that could invite accusations of naivete.
lubos 14y ago
here is how to do extraordinary support: lower customer's expectations and then exceed them.

41 points by mootothemax 14y ago

huhtenberg 14y ago

It's just a rant about some poor support experience with name calling.

Hansi 14y ago
True, but it does act as a word of warning against using their services I guess.
- pc86 14y ago
  It does exactly that, which is why I don't think it belongs on HN. I didn't click on that link to listen to someone I've never heard of complain about a service I've never heard of. I was expecting an intelligent opinion (and in these comments, a discussion) about what exactly "extraordinary support" means. Anyway, I think you're exactly right.
milkman 14y ago
This is valuable advice that I appreciate. I want to know who I can trust to do business with. Where else can I find this stuff out?
zaidf 14y ago
Rant: "blabla sucks repeat" Much more than a rant: "here's what not to do if you are a business; why not to do it; how it makes your customers feel and here's a perfect example" This one is squarely the latter.
duiker101 14y ago
It is, but it contains some truth... many people lately go around thinking the can do amazing things(see: almost any startups). Amazing support, amazing API, amazing whatever. Same for the job specs, "The best position in the world! With nerf gun fights every day!". When this was not an extremaly common thing it was cool but now many of this things can be seen a negative thing. I immediately believe that 90% of these people are liars because it's easy to make big claims but really hard to maintain the them. And the more you claim the harder it will be. In the end the first impression I get of you is that you are not reliable, which is not very good.
klawed 14y ago
Not fair. The essence of the rant is that PayLane overpromised and underdelivered. That's a very key takeaway and there's a lesson there that applies EVERYWHERE. [EDIT fixed typo]

nodata 14y ago

In fairness, it never said "extraordinarily good support".

codegeek 14y ago
Just talking semantics. But we all know what it was supposed to mean
taylodl 14y ago
That's what I was thinking. 'Extraordinary' swings both ways.

nmcfarl 14y ago

Personally I’d never claim to offer extraordinary support - the expense is insane. There are cheaper ways to brand - with much smaller downsides. My experience is that people who are building things and doing things in a company are actually not competent to offer support. There are real skills - mainly people skills, that CSRs have that you didn’t hire the builders for. Additional a giant percent of good support is speedy responses, and long conversations. Both things that require lots of man hours. So you need a ton of CSRs. Which is expensive in itself. But then - customers have an insane way of finding critical bugs, and making completely reasonable requests that had never occurred to you. Things that require builder and makers of your product to be fully accessible to your CSRs. So you need to staff for that as well. And that gets you to good. How you move from that to extraordinary is some thing I don’t know how to do (And I’ve read a lot of what Tony Hsieh has to say), but I do know it’s going to be extraordinarily expensive.

codegeek 14y ago
"There are real skills - mainly people skills," This. If only more companies understood that.
praptak 14y ago
> Things that require builder and makers of your product to be fully accessible to your CSRs. So you need to staff for that as well. From the perspective of said builder/maker I can say this can grow into a huge problem if not handled well. Once your product/service gets deployed in multiple timezones, your support turns into 24/7, even if not advertised as such. Suddenly the developers whose jobs used to be nice cosy nine to five start getting called at ungodly hours to offer some insight into customer problems. Nobody likes that, especially not without getting paid.
- nmcfarl 14y ago
  I know - I’ve been there. The obvious starting place is to hire people who know this isn’t 9-5 gig, (so nothing is sudden). But of course that drives up wages a bit :) Boy is this an expensive problem to solve.

blindfly 14y ago

This reminds me of a lone developer who balances hundreds of clients, where each client expects same day personalized replies with nothing but the right answers.

codegeek 14y ago
"where each client expects " The lone developer should ensure that client expectations are correctly set. Honestly, it is their responsibility and not the customers. Customers always want everything unde the sun. How you handle their expectations is the key.
debacle 14y ago
Having been a lone developer, it's difficult balancing dozens of clients, let alone hundreds.

codegeek 14y ago

As a customer, I don't really care about extraordinary support. I care that when and if I have an issue, you do your best in trying to resolve the issue. What I absolutely hate is being forwarded from one guy/dept to another without a real resolution. Yes some problems are user errors, some could be hard to solve right away but for me, extraordinary support would mean that you took time to understand my specific case and are working diligently towards a resolution. Rest is all fluff.

kylemaxwell 14y ago

Puffery and hyperbole are all too common in marketing. "Extraordinary support", "incredibly advanced technology", or my least favorite, "beautiful design" (:puke:). Nobody should ever believe a marketer when they say anything until the delivery matches. Sure, you can set some tentative expectations (e.g. "this payment processor will process payments"), but to go much further than that could invite accusations of naivete.

lubos 14y ago

here is how to do extraordinary support: lower customer's expectations and then exceed them.