From Luke Francl:
An important lesson I’ve learned from doing support this way is: Don’t ignore the little guys. Customers of all sizes discover important problems that may affect many other customers. Obviously, it makes sense to pay more attention to your big customers. But if you fix the little customers’ problems, the first time a Fortune 500 customer sits down to try your product, chances are that it’s going to go a lot more smoothly.
Many companies provide tiered support, i.e. the more you pay us, the more attention we pay you. Sure, it can make some money. But by treating all your customers as equals, your app gets better while your support gets better. It doesn’t matter who told you about the big as long as it gets fixed.
Head over and read Luke’s whole article. He’s got some great thoughts on this along with the idea of support driven apps. Having developers on the front lines interacting with customers is a win for everyone.
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