For any company, customers are the biggest asset - more so for startups.
AdaptiveBlue has been complimented on many occasions for light-speed customer service - the thing that we take very seriously around here. In previous posts of our startup tips series, we shared what we learned about conferences and tech PR. In this one we take a look at what worked for us in the customer service game.
1. Make it your #1 priority
At AdaptiveBlue any support email is answered instantly.
Unlike larger companies, that typically take 24-48 hours to reply, we email back within an hour, more likely within 10 minutes. Why is this important? First, it sends a message of commitment and respect to our users. Secondly it builds up trust and relationship, third it helps the user get the answer while the issue is still fresh in her head. Lastly, this is simply common sense.
The effect is that customers are impressed. They email back and remark that our support stands out. At this point they are engaged and we work through the problem together.
2. Use simple tools
There are many different tools that can be deployed for support: 800 number, email, forms on the site, forums, chat, etc.
We use two main tools: email and Skype.
A startup does not need an 800 number. This is an old fashioned way, which is unlikely to be used by the early adopter crowd anyway. Instead we use Skype. The best thing about it is that it is both chat and voice. Typically, a problem can be resolved using simple chat, but sometimes it is necessary to talk to a person, thats where voice comes in handy. There is no need to create accounts on all popular chat systems, since Skype is rather pervasive. In cases when a person does not have Skype account, she can contact us via email.
Early on, we had form-based support on our site. To contact us, users would fill in a web form with their question, provide the email and send it to us. We found that this approach is problematic, because a lot of people do not fill in their email. We got a lot of questions but without the return email address we could not reply. This was frustrating and recently we switched from forms to direct email: support [at] adaptiveblue.com. This is a better approach because all emails now have a return address and we can reply.
Together the skype and email combination is quite powerful and sufficient for our users. We have never had a complaint that a user was trying to reach us but was not able to.
3. Evolve the knowledge base
Many companies in the past (and still some today) use support forums. Forums have a couple of benefits. First, it is a great way to answer the question only once. Secondly it is a way to have users help each other, paving the way to building community.
Unfortunately forums have not worked for us, mostly because there was too much spam.
The second issue is that forums need to be seeded with content. Having an empty forum is bad because people will not be inspired to post questions and comments. What we have done instead is build help pages and blogged commonly asked questions.
We have a simple, yet comprehensive help section on adaptiveblue.com. The section is elevated to the top level navigation on our site, where people can easily find it. The help page itself is presented as an index partitioned by topics. The users drill down based on the area they are interested in.
Despite the fact that it is prominent feature on our site, we discovered that not a lot of people dive in and read help pages. There is something old-fashioned about it I guess. So we are leveraging and recycling some thing the best help content in our blog.
What we do is have Tip of the day posts, as well as Users ask posts based on frequent questions that users ask us. For example, here is the post that explains how to add the affiliate id to SmartLinks. Here is another post that explains how to uninstall the BlueOrganizer. The value in having posts like these is that when users ask questions we simply send them the link to the post, leveraging the blog as the knowledge base.
4. Pick the right people
It is common to setup an email alias for support. This allows several people to respond to user emails. While several people get the email, it is necessary to have the process for handling them. In our case, we have Fraser, who is wearing product management and community hats among others, respond first.
The reason is that it is critical for him to interact with users, to understand what difficulties they encountered with our products. When the issue is related to deep aspects of our technology then Karen, our Director of Engineering and I help out. Fraser forwards us emails that he feels need more technical support. So overall process is rather simple - as it should be!
Many users are surprised to learn that when you ping adaptiveblue on Skype you get to talk to me, Alex Iskold, founder and CEO. It should not be surprising, because this is the best way to really get product feedback and to engage with users. Doing this for the last 1.5 years I helped people with install problems, questions about the products, new feature requests and found the interactions always very useful and insightful.
5. Believe in serendipity
Support is really like a box of chocolates - you never know what you are going to get.
Consider how we were selected for DEMOfall. One day a user pinged me via Skype and asked for help - her BlueMarks disappeared from the second computer. After a 20 min session, the bookmarks were restored. Then the user typed:
“Oh by the way, I love BlueOrganizer. I really do. My name is Carla Thompson and I work for Guidewire. What you are doing here is truly fascinating. How would you like to talk to Chris Shipley about DEMO?”
I could not believe my luck. The same night I got a call from Chris Shipley. We talked for 30 minutes about the vision of Smarter Browser and Smarter Web. In the end of the conversation she asked:
“Alex, how would you like to launch BlueOrganizer at DEMOfall?”
I was stunned and flattered. The rest, as you know, is history!
6. Leverage support to build your community
Support is an excellent channel for getting product feedback. Often, after the problem is resolved, we have the chance to
ask users questions that help us learn how they are using the product. We treat the users that reached to us are our best resource for this information because they are interested enough in what we are doing to reach out for help. Once people are engaged and get excited about the personalized customer service they become part of our community.
What worked and did not work for your startup? Please share your customer service tips.
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It’s important to keep track of cs emails/contacts as well. This will help the startup see what types of issues seem to keep occuring and should be viewed on a larger scale for correction.