7. “Hello, no kidding really do want
to say ' thanks for listening'! I have
no idea the last time one of these
'submit feedback' type of things
actually responded or listened.”
8. “We had a request 'can you tell us
the order of sign up on availability'
- not only - drop dead through
shock - did you acknowledge in a
friendly personal way, but i can
now see its on your 'working on it'
list.”
12. The Five Customers
You Meet in Support
• Power Users
• Regular Ol’ Everyday Users
• Reluctant Users
• The Totally Clueless™
• Asshats
13. “Our team manager signed up for
TeamSnap. I would give it a 0 out of 5,
right now.”
“I do not want this at all and have no
need for it. Please do not try to sell me
anything or ask me for any money. I have
no money.Thank you!”
CSz Survey bit:\nHow many people think that they are good at customer service?\nHow many people think that because they replace the “F” in “RTFM” with “Fine”?\nHow many people never answer questions that involve raising your hand?\n
Built on customer service.\nHad a dedicated customer support person in the first 4 employees (kinda by accident)\n
Internal sysadmins are there to help the company run better, and support everyone (even the suits)\n\nExternal sysadmins may be working on public-facing or open-source projects.\n
Yay discussion!\n
People notice when you respond.\n
People notice when you understand their problem, and pee themselves with joy if you can fix it.\n
Things are getting more complex and connected. Your users don’t understand everything. Neither do you. Avoid tech arrogance.\n\nIf your product is hard to use, it’s your company (or your reputation) that will suffer, not your users.\n
How do you survive in a world where anyone can spin up a few cheap cloud servers and replicate your business?\n
Yay more discussion!\n
This list applies to both internal and external customers.\n
Dissatisfied customers are an opportunity. If they’re taking the time to write to you, it means that they still have some sort of emotional investment in the product.\n\nTell the story of the Quadaffi guy.\n
There’s no glory in being a martyr. Don’t do repetitive user tasks yourself. Build them tools, and work with a designer to make them easy to use.\n
This can lead to you getting yelled at. Look at it as an opportunity to optimize the experience. People are generally good, if frustrated. \n
Easier with smaller companies than larger ones, but the higher up it goes, the better.\n\nAnyone who has a stake in your company’s success should be on the front lines on occasion.\n
There is an argument that if they’re getting something for free then they’re not your customer. But don’t discount the promoter effect.\n