From Twitter:

We are sorry. Many of you came to Twitter earlier today expecting, well, Twitter. Instead, between around 8:20am and 9:00am PT, users around the world got zilch from us. By about 10:25am PT, people who came to Twitter finally got what they expected: Twitter.

From Google:

“Google has recently confirmed that it still has in its possession a small portion of … data collected by our Street View vehicles in the UK… Google apologises for this error.”

Two wildly different approaches here.

Twitter goes down for a good chunk of time.  Millions of people scream bloody murder because they can’t tweet about Twitter being down.  But it’s only for a short time.  Twitter comes back up pretty quick and the team is working to make sure it doesn’t ever happen again. It was pure bad luck with both parallel systems going down.

On the flip side, Google’s Street View cars collected personal data (like emails) while mapping out Britain and other countries way back in 2010.  Years later, it still has that data.  Way bigger screwup than Twitter’s short downtime.

And when it comes to a response, you get two radically different approaches. Obviously, Twitter has won in this little head-to-head support match.  But here’s why they won.

1) Say sorry first.

Right off the bat, they lead with “we are sorry”.  It’s much more personable than “Google apologizes for this error” that we get from the lawyer.  Saying the word “sorry” makes it seem like you really are.

2) Don’t let the lawyer write it.

They’ll say something dumb like Google’s lawyer with his apologies. The best part of Twitter’s response is that it’s readable and written by the VP from the Engineering team.  I know he knows what he’s talking about because he leads the team.  And I know he’s going to fix it to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

3) Fix it.

Twitter states up front what happened and how they’re going to fix it. Google’s response? Well, they said they’d fix it back in 2012 but I’m not holding my breath from that.

Winner: Twitter

Again, Twitter obviously wins on this one. I’m still impressed by Twitter’s response and even found myself going back over it several times just to learn from it.

So what did you think of Twitter’s outage post?

This is part of the Lessons from the Classroom series. Read more articles in the series.

My college degree’s in education so grading is just part of it. You might roll your eyes with thoughts of past exams flashing through your mind.  But I think it’s an important part of getting better not only for you but for your team.

We use so many words for it:

• Rating
• Grading
• Evaluating
• Feedback
• Commentary

Whatever term you want to use, feel free (well, within reason). Just make sure you’re checking yo self out.

What do I mean by that?

Every time you interact with a customer, you should know how you did. Here at 37signals, we have Smiley for that. Each person I talk with can select from three choices – “It was great”, “It was ok”, or “It wasn’t good”. We include the link at the end of every email so you have a chance to see how things are going each time. After you click on the rating, there’s also a chance to describe how things are going more in-depth.

While there’s a huge upside to your own version of Smiley, here’s the big two:

1) The customer knows you’re listening.

Time after time, my customers tell me that they’re glad I listened to them. I wasn’t some automated robot or a soul-less person just going through the motions. I helped solve the problem and then asked to know how they feel now. It’s a way for them to express exactly what they’re thinking without any anxiety or huge survey to fill out.

2) You know how each and every customer feels.

With Smiley, I can see the trends in how customers are reacting to me. Sometimes, it’s a heavy feature request day and I see a row of frowns. That means my wording’s off and I need a better way to express what I’m trying to say about their ideas. Other times, everything’s jiving, the customer feels the support love and wants us to know about it. Seeing those rows of green Smiley’s proves to be an awesome boost and lets you know you’re doing a great job.

Start One

If you don’t have some sort of feedback loop in place, start one right now. And keep it as simple as possible. Three choices (rather than a billion like most surveys) and a simple text box in case they want to let you know why they picked that choice. Your customers will love being able to talk about their experience and you’ll love seeing how your customers think you’re doing.

Are you using any type of system to grade yourself?  Tell me about it in the comments!

We do a lot of tracking with support at 37signals and one of the numbers we look at is wait time.  If a customer puts in a ticket right now, what’s the average wait time look like?

It’s not a particularly new idea.  You see estimated wait times for amusement park rides, heavy highways, and even emergency rooms now.  In the support field, it’s not something most people offer up though, probably because the wait time is atrocious.

We put the average wait time right on the Smiley page so you know exactly what to expect.  You can see what our average score is like and how long the wait is.  If you’re a customer, these two simple pieces of data go a long way in helping relieve that anxiety feeling people get when contacting support.

How good is the team? Well, the last 92 people out of the last 100 that we talked to said great.

How long will I have to wait?  Only about 9 minutes right now.

It’s a short and simple addition to the support page that goes a long way with customers.

What’s the average wait time been for your support team?

I’ve touched on the power of words before briefly. Since our word choice is vitally important, I wanted to give you another example that I didn’t even think of before listening to Sarah Hatter’s Founder’s Talk interview.

Feedback. The word pops up all over the place.

“We truly value your feedback.”

“We’d love to know your thoughts and feedback.”

“Can I get your feedback on this one?”

Add “feedback” to our never, ever, ever use list. As Sarah puts it, feedback comes from a microphone in a very… unpleasant manner. On top of that, it’s on every corporate lingo/buzzword bingo board you’ll ever find. When you talk about a person’s ideas, don’t call it feedback.

If you’re writing a support email, the common place this appears is when responding to a feature request email.

Ticket:

Hi Team,

I’m really loving your app so far. One question – have you thought about adding in a camera component to it?”

– Bob

Bad:

Hello,

Thanks for your feedback! We’re not working on that at the moment. I’ll make sure to pitch your idea to the team and see if it’s something we can get in the next update.

– You

Good:

 Hi Bob!

Thanks for sharing how you’re using our app! We’re not working on that at the moment. I’ll make sure to pitch your idea to the team and see if it’s something we can get in the next update.

– You

I only switched the first sentence but see how much better that works and sounds? The good email stands out from every other feature request email they’ll get. And it shows that you’re actually listening to your customers and how they’re using your app.

Feedback is from a microphone so kill it off in favor of a better word.

What other words and phrases should we add to our list to never, ever use?

Ever wonder about the yellow, happy face guy that floats around Support Ops?  He’s the latest in a long lineage of smiley emojis, emoticons, buttons, posters, and who knows what else.  There’s actually a pretty cool story behind the creation of the iconic smiley face.

Get to know Smiley here.

Customer support is not a hard concept.  Someone has a question/problem and it’s your job to fix it and make them happy.  Not just satisfied but happy.  And yet so many companies and people out there get that fundamental concept wrong.

Support Ops is my effort to help out.  Here, you’ll find articles on customer support and customer service.  Two different concepts but they’re intertwined around you and your customer.  If you ever interact with another customer (both inside and outside your company), you’re in the right spot.

If you’re new, check out the options for keeping up with everything. There’s RSS feeds, Twitter feeds, and all sorts of goodies to make sure you don’t miss anything.  For you avid social fans, Twitter’s going with Facebook and maybe even Google+ happening later.  For now, make sure to follow us on Twitter so we can get to know you.  And here’s a great place to start.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be rolling out new articles, a few series in the works, possibly a podcast, and even an e-book to help out with your support emails.  All I can say is that it’s been a blast getting prepped for Support Ops and there’s even more ahead!

Side note: If you’re interested in getting an article of your own published, check out our guest post page for details on how to make that happen.