I’m an avid reader, especially when it comes to other blogs.  My Reeder app has some two hundred feeds that I comb through at the start of each day.  Out of all those, here’s the five best that you should be reading, especially in the customer support field.

UserVoice

http://www.uservoice.com/blog/

A lot of times, a support tool will have a decent blog to go with it.  UserVoice actually kicks it up and has a stellar blog along with their support app.  Lots of great insight when it comes to supporting your customers.

Zengage

http://www.zendesk.com/blog

Another one from an online support tool that’s again top-notch.

CoSupport

http://cosupport.us/blog/

Sarah’s been doing support for a while and knows it like the back of her hand. When she talks, make sure you’re listening.

Sweating Commas

http://sweatingcommas.com/blog/

You’re a writer and Jason helps you get better at it.  It’s really that simple.

Brains on Fire

http://www.brainsonfire.com/blog/

The team at Brains on Fire just gets customers.  They’re a marketing company but I put them on this list because you need to think about customers outside of your support interactions too.

 

The infamous canned email reply.  You have a huge problem, send in a support email about it, and you get back a standardized email asking you to check the power cord running to the computer.  The support team didn’t even read your email and now they’ve wasted your time, their time, and killed a tree along the way (or a byte I guess since it’s an email).

That’s the horrible downside to canned replies.  It’s impersonal.  It takes away the trust the customer has with you.  It breaks an already fragile relationship.  They’re in the midst of a crisis and you didn’t even read their email.

Rule number one: Never use an automatic canned responses.

They don’t work, never worked, and sure as hell won’t ever work.

But like all good math rules, there’s a corollary to that.

You CAN use pre-set snippets to help speed up your responses.

For instance, we don’t have templates in the new Basecamp yet.  It’s something we’re working on rolling out.  But I see 15-20 emails every day asking about templates.  Sure, I could retype each and every email to a customer.  But that’s wasting the customer’s time and my time.  They just want an answer.

I use Text Expander to plug-in the bulk of a reply quickly to them.  I still take the time to customize it with their name, anything that catches my eye (cheering for my fellow Auburn fans that write us), and such.  By using a snippet, I can get them detailed information without having to spend time retyping everything with each new email.

The Big Difference

With canned automatic emails, no one but the computer ever reads them.  That’s wrong… so utterly wrong.

But with snippets, a person actually reads the email, understands what’s going on, and then replies back quicker than having to compose that email from scratch.

Kill off your canned responses and let snippets reign in their place.

Once upon a time (because all great stories start with once upon a time), I moved to the country and picked Exede/Wild Blue for my Internet. And I say picked but really, it was the only choice out there.

I was happy in the beginning. The satellite Internet worked great, the speed was awesome for satellite (12 mbps download speeds), and all was right in the land.

Then, something happened to my modem. It’d be fine at times but then randomly shut off for 5 to 10 minutes. So I called the Exede/Wild Blue support team.

And then it began.

It was quickly established I had a faulty modem. No big deal – in an ideal world, a tech would come out, swap the modem, and all’s right again. Should take 10 minutes.

The support agent set up a service call two days ahead. Not ideal but again, I can understand being busy so two days was okay. The day of the service call comes and no one shows up. Turns out I was never really scheduled according to the new support agent. They were apologetic (I’m sorry for the inconvenience type of crap) and rescheduled.

Service call number 2 – no one shows up.

I’m now at seven days with intermittent Internet. I call back and get support agent number three (why can’t I just have one person?) who says that it still wasn’t entered correctly but he’s got me all set now. Lovely.

Service call number 3 – no one shows up.

I’m furious at this point but still polite with the newest support agent – number four. I explain what happened, how I have to be online to do my job, and just want a quick service call to swap out the modem. Again, the agent is apologetic and says the next available tech visit possible is July 5th.

 Two weeks out.

I was silent to the point that he asked if I was still on the line. I demanded a sooner date since at this point, my modem has completely failed. The agent says that’s the first open slot. I ask to speak to the next tier of support. Surprise, they’re all gone for the day. Along with a few choice words, I say they’ve got 24 hours to call me back and then hang up.

I get a call roughly ten hours later with the new tier 2 agent. Again, lots of apologies (at least this time with “I’m sorry. I know it’s a huge frustration and hassle.”). Still, there’s nothing open before July 5th although he’s trying to get me in an earlier date.

And that’s where I sit. No Internet at the house with no real hope of it until July 5th. And it’s a total nightmare experience from which I don’t’ have any real choice since it’s the only real satellite Internet out here.

So what do we learn from these types horrible support experiences?

1) Say You’re Sorry

It shouldn’t take four different support agents for me to hear the words “I’m sorry”. It just shouldn’t.

2) Be Prepared

This new high-speed satellite Internet was poised to be huge. People where I live were hungry for those fast speeds (10x faster than the closest competitor Hughes Net). So Exede/Wild Blue knew it was going to be big.

And they weren’t ready with their staff. If you ever utter the phrase “It’ll be two weeks before I can have a tech at your house”, hire more people. That’s far too long to have a customer wait.

3) Have An Alternate Plan

I know my modem’s busted. Have it where you can mail me a replacement one. FedEx it over to my house with some return postage for the bad one. If it fixes it, you’ve saved a tech call and some money while providing a quick solution to your customer.

4) Have Direct Lines to your Agents

I had to explain my story to four different agents. That ties up my time and yours. Just give direct lines to your support agents so I can talk to the same one each time. I don’t mind waiting for them to start their shift if it saves me ten minutes of telling the same story a billion times.

Bad customer support happens because the agents don’t care. There was no empathy, no promises of a quick resolution, no indication that they would change their busted methods. Don’t let yourself fail your customers like this. Because at some point, no matter how great your product is, they’ll find the frustration too high and simply go elsewhere.

As for Exede/Wild Blue, I’ll let you know how it goes… in two weeks.

Speaking of worst support experiences, lay them on me. What’s the worst you ever experienced?

From Flickr Artist xlibber

We all know the power of words. They can build up great empires and cause immense pain. In the world of online support, your words are your lifeline.

Most of my interactions with customers are text based. Emails make up 95% of that with calls or live chats filling in the rest. That gives me hundreds of chances a day to get it right (or wrong) with my choice of words.

Let’s break it down and see a few scenarios. Here’s the three big places that are easy to get right – your opening, saying your sorry, and your closing.

1) Opening

If your support tool isn’t pulling in your customers’ names, chance to one that does immediately. It’s just the difference between

Hi!          vs          Hi Chase!

but it makes a ton of difference. People have a name – use it. It goes a long way in showing that you know who they are and that you’re there to help them personally.

 2) Saying Sorry

You’re in support – that means most of the people that contact you will have some sort of problem going on. Something’s broke and you need to help fix it. I mean really, when’s the last time you called your cell phone company just chat?

Try these on for size.

 I apologize for the inconvenience that this problem has caused you. We’re determining the cause of that problem and will let you know when we have more information.

vs

I’m so sorry for that trouble! I’ve got one of our programmers taking a look right now to see what happened. I’ll let you know what exactly’s going on as soon as I have an update from him!

3) Outro

You’ve fixed the problem and saved the day. So let’s end the email with an upbeat line or two.

If you have any other problems, just let us know.

vs.

If you have any other questions, just let me know and I’ll be happy to help. And have an awesome Tuesday!

Short and sweet but it lets your customer know you’re always there for them. *Queue that song from Friends.*

If you’re in support, you’re a writer. So write clear and concise.  You owe that to your customers.