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I'm not going to excuse the faux pas, but customer service is a hard job. I answered nearly all customer support for my company for years, until we finally hire

I'm not going to excuse the faux pas, but customer service is a hard job. I answered nearly all customer support for my company for years, until we finally hired people to do it. The change in my mental health when this happened was profound. People are sometimes nice, but often irate, cruel, or upset. That wears on you after a while, unless you are a total psychopath. I learned to cope by not reading emails until I was in a good state of mind in the morning, where before I would flip on my phone the moment I awoke. I can understand why the Postmates CEO needs to blow off some steam, though an email to staff is of course inappropriate. Save the user support gossip for office banter. Thankfully, we haven't had any turnover in our support people (1 full-time and 1 part-time), but it's a job that is rife with it. It just wears you down after a while. If you are doing support for your new start-up, give yourself a break and manage your state of mind when you read support. And if you hire people to do support, make sure you empathize with their position, encourage them relentlessly, and tell them what bastards some users can be. Sorry users, you are everything to me, but you get us down sometimes! We care so much about the product and what people think of it, and the lowest trenches for us are when we don't do a good job for someone, either in the software or support.

batbomb 13y ago
Try working customer service face-to-face sometime. I did it in a grocery store for over a year, handling everything from 1 hour photo processing to $15k out of country Western Union transfers to people unhappy with their bill to people returning all 6 stocked items of (unbought) Saffron for store credit, which they then sold outside the store for 70% of face value. I imagine working at the DMV would be worse, but I would have killed for the chance to just handle these people over phone or email.
joshwb84 13y ago
Did you employ any other practical/teachable techniques to "manage your state of mind"?
- andrewljohnson 13y ago
  1) The one I mentioned (don't start out your day with support) is important. Have breakfast first, drink your coffee, read Hacker News. 2) Take a break. We answer support even nights and weekends, and this is important in connecting with users early on, but on nights when you aren't in tip-top shape, just don't do it. 3) Complain to your co-workers. Venting helps. 4) Strenuous exercise really helps. Nothing like a 20 mile hike to clear your mind. 5) Vacations without internet access. And of course, make your product better! Fixing bugs is usually a better way to stop complaints than adding features. People thanking you for your work is a soothing balm, and you can eliminate a lot of harsh complaints. I'm not sure how actionable the advice is, but hang in there and do good work, and ceterus paribus, it will be a fulfilling existence.
- coldtea 13y ago
  This series Dexter has some great tips.

batbomb 13y ago

Try working customer service face-to-face sometime. I did it in a grocery store for over a year, handling everything from 1 hour photo processing to $15k out of country Western Union transfers to people unhappy with their bill to people returning all 6 stocked items of (unbought) Saffron for store credit, which they then sold outside the store for 70% of face value. I imagine working at the DMV would be worse, but I would have killed for the chance to just handle these people over phone or email.

joshwb84 13y ago

Did you employ any other practical/teachable techniques to "manage your state of mind"?

andrewljohnson 13y ago
1) The one I mentioned (don't start out your day with support) is important. Have breakfast first, drink your coffee, read Hacker News. 2) Take a break. We answer support even nights and weekends, and this is important in connecting with users early on, but on nights when you aren't in tip-top shape, just don't do it. 3) Complain to your co-workers. Venting helps. 4) Strenuous exercise really helps. Nothing like a 20 mile hike to clear your mind. 5) Vacations without internet access. And of course, make your product better! Fixing bugs is usually a better way to stop complaints than adding features. People thanking you for your work is a soothing balm, and you can eliminate a lot of harsh complaints. I'm not sure how actionable the advice is, but hang in there and do good work, and ceterus paribus, it will be a fulfilling existence.
coldtea 13y ago
This series Dexter has some great tips.