Archives for October 2013

Buffer was hacked. How did I find out? Not a corporate blog post the next day. Not a news article reporting on it. Instead, Joel sent me an email an hour after it started.

Hi there,

I wanted to get in touch to apologize for the awful experience we’ve caused many of you on your weekend. Buffer was hacked around 1 hour ago, and many of you may have experienced spam posts sent from you via Buffer. I can only understand how angry and disappointed you must be right now.

Not everyone who has signed up for Buffer has been affected, but you may want to check on your accounts. We’re working hard to fix this problem right now and we’re expecting to have everything back to normal shortly.

We’re posting continual updates on the Buffer Facebook page and the Buffer Twitter page to keep you in the loop on everything.

The best steps for you to take right now and important information for you:

Remove any postings from your Facebook page or Twitter page that look like spam Keep an eye on Buffer’s Twitter page and Facebook page Your Buffer passwords are not affected No billing or payment information was affected or exposed All Facebook posts sent via Buffer have been temporarily hidden and will reappear once we’ve resolved this situation I am incredibly sorry this has happened and affected you and your company. We’re working around the clock right now to get this resolved and we’ll continue to post updates on Facebook and Twitter.

If you have any questions at all, please respond to this email. Understandably, a lot of people have emailed us, so we might take a short while to get back to everyone, but we will respond to every single email.

– Joel and the Buffer team

Yes, I know Joel didn’t personally send it to me. It’s a mass email to every Buffer user. But that’s okay since he’s dealing with bigger issues when he sent it.

 We’re getting a fantastic lesson in the power of transparency surrounding horrible situations like this.

The entire team was called in to help fix the problem and reply to customers. I can only imagine how many Tweets, comments, emails, etc. the Buffer support team is answering right now. But they’ve been on top of every single one and promised to answer every single one no matter how long it takes.

They’ve also got a central place to give out updates on the hack. Go check out the comments there. Tons of love and praise for how Buffer is handling everything. Lots of Buffer fans who will remain loyal Buffer fans.

That’s the power of openness. 

Keep an eye on that Buffer update post as well as their Twitter stream. Take notes. You and I are going to learn a lot on how to handle this situation if it ever happens to us.

Let’s face it – getting the right info from customers can sometimes be a challenge. Some customers give you a three page email about what went wrong while others give you a single line. Especially with email support, you want to limit the number of back-and-forth emails, which only add to a customer’s wait time.

But how do you help customers help you? Let’s look at a few ways.

Tell them what you need

Most customers don’t really know what you need to help them. That’s why they either overload you with information you don’t need or make it so short you have to ask for more info. You need to tell them what you need.

I tell customers to think of it as those old stories where you focus on the five w’s – who, what, when, where, and why. Who’s this happening to? What’s happening? Where and when did it happen? That way you can figure out the why behind what’s going on.

When customers know what you’re looking for, they’ll give it to you in the first email.

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If you’re a regular reader of this site, you already know that solid customer support is worth every penny a company spends on it. But what if your boss doesn’t believe you? I’ve worked with quite a few teams that ran into this same challenge with their company’s leadership. The executive team just didn’t place the same priority on customer support as they did on the product, marketing, etc.

Let’s arm you with some facts (awesomely provided by Help Scout) so you can show them how important providing that great support experience really is.

Bad support costs money

• 86% of customers quit using a service because of a bad customer experience with the company.
• 51% said they would try only once to contact support. After that one try, they give up on buy the product entirely.

You only get one shot with most customers. It’s kind of like first impressions. If you leave a bad first impression, customers will leave and go somewhere else.

I’ve been a customer in this situation before. My wife and I were headed to St. Lucia earlier this year. We used American Airlines, an airline we typically don’t fly since Southwest is our go-to choice. The flight to from Nashville to Miami went fine. But when we arrived at the gate for the last leg to St. Lucia, we found out that the “tickets” we were holding actually didn’t guarantee a seat on the plan. And oh by the way, the flight was oversold by a dozen or so seats.

The entire time at the gate was spent with the American team ignoring customers and repeating the same “It’s standard practice to oversell some flights. We’ll work to get you on this flight or the first one in the morning”. My wife and I were helpless to do anything the entire time. We only barely got on the flight at the expense of another couple who didn’t have valid passports.

I sent American an email detailing our experience so other customers wouldn’t go through the same thing. Their team never responded and I’ll never fly American again. That one bad customer experience cost them a customer who flies quite a few times a year.

86% of your customers will leave just like I did with American. You can’t run a business churning that many customers.

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