Support Ops

Learn to be a customer support pro.

Archives for December 2012

The Worst Kind of Correctness

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Mathew Patterson from Campaign Monitor:

Being correct is important; the friendliest, most helpful response will still cause problems if it isn’t accurate. It just isn’t enough to churn out the correct answer.

Mathew’s experience is one I’ve run into as well. Sure, your app may not be able to technically do something exactly like I want, but there might be another way I haven’t thought of. Make sure to give your customers som alternatives to help them. As long as they get where they’re going, the route they take isn’t as important at the moment.

You and the Customer

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frustration

Via Flickr Artist Jon Watson

It’s easy to get frustrated with a customer. I’ve been there, done that, and got the t-shirt.

They’re not answering your questions. They’re not trying what you ask. They just keep complaining about the problem while expecting you to magically fix it.

I get it. Some customers can be irritating. But the moment it becomes you versus the customer, all hope is lost.

Make sure it’s always you and the customer versus the problem.

You’re their advocate.

Their problem solver.

The person who actually cares about fixing the problem.

You’re on their team just like your mom was on yours even though you sucked it up at junior pro basketball.

It’s you and the customer versus the problem. Never forget that.

Episode #5 – Seeing it the Squarespace Way

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Christa Collins from Squarespace is on the show this week. We talk about her early days at Nordstrom and Gap then move into the fun part with her team at Squarespace. She’s leading a pretty big team there so she’s full of advice on what does work and doesn’t work.

Listen to the show

Subscribe to the podcast: RSS |  Instacast | iTunes | Download

Show Notes and Links

What did you think?

If you have an idea for an episode you would like to see or a question, e-mail me.

Oh, and if you enjoyed the show, please rate it on iTunes. That’d go a long ways in getting the word out. Plus, you’d get cool points.

On the Customer Being Right

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Living in the restaurant world for so long, I continually heard the phrase “The customer is always right.” From managers, “coaching gurus”, and even the customers themselves, that phrase as percolated throughout our society. Most people put it up there with their Constitutional rights.

But the truth is…. they’re not. 

Customers are humans just like you and me. That means they get it right sometimes and wrong sometimes. A better customer “line” or whatever you want to call it is this:

The customer isn’t always right but they are always the customer. And right or wrong, you want them to stick around.

That means working with them. If they mention seeing a discount for your product, go ahead and give it to them. It doesn’t matter if it’s been expired for two months. If they say they remember your app doing something it’s never done, they’re wrong but be nice about telling them that.

You want your customers to stick around at the end of the day. So remember that whenever you jump on the “the customer is/isn’t always right” bandwagon. There’s a middle ground in there that you want to be in.