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Consider outsourcing your customer support to a company that specializes in it. If you just hire two full-time employees, you're still going to be picking up t
by trapexit 14y ago
Consider outsourcing your customer support to a company that specializes in it.
If you just hire two full-time employees, you're still going to be picking up the slack on weekends or when someone gets sick, goes on vacation, or resigns.
A vendor that specializes in customer service will be able to train multiple employees on your product and rotate them as necessary to give you 16/7 or 24/7 coverage if that is what you need.
Set the goal of having your customer service vendor handle 100% of first-line support inquiries. They should have a manual that tells them what to do in any conceivable situation that could arise.
Obviously, it's a lot of work to write this manual, or even to think up/research all of the possible problems a customer might have. Start by just identifying the top 4 or 5 issues and writing down what you currently do when someone has that issue.
Give this info to the CS vendor and tell them that it is their job to maintain the manual and to contact you whenever a situation arises that is not covered by the manual. When they call you, tell them what to do, and insist that they record this in the manual and handle all future situations of that type in the same way.
You should never do customer support unless either you like doing it, or because you are concerned about getting out of touch with your customers' wants, needs, and desires.
And if you really want your business to grow, you should find someone else to write code and fix bugs for you, too.
You're not a developer anymore. You're an entrepreneur. Yes, you can be both, but you can't simultaneously be excellent at both.
You've figured out how to get 300,000 users for your games, and you're apparently making enough money to pay for employees, which is phenomenal. Wouldn't all of that talent and skill that you have be better spent identifying new products to create, new ways to monetize your existing products, strategic partnerships you could form, new ways to get customers, etc.?
An excellent book on this subject is "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber. He talks about how a business needs three personalities: a technician, a manager, and an entrepreneur. Most people who start businesses get stuck in the "technician" role all day and keep working in their business instead of on their business. A successful, sustainable business has employees who do most (or all) of the day-to-day work and supervision, with the founder/leader free to think and act strategically.
- babuskov 14y agoGreat advice. I guess I really have more to think about here than just "how to handle support". Thanks Brian.