How to Slay the Customer Support Beast

The importance of customer support as the original Growth Hack and tactics to how to support your customers better.

Transcript

1. How To Slay the
   Customer Support Beast
   Illustration: Nathan Scheck
   

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2. Ian Landsman
   

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4. Bootstrapped.fm
   

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5. discuss.Bootstrapped.fm
   

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7. Customer Support
   The original
   growth hack
   

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8. metrics all the things
   

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9. Churn
   Avg revenue per user
   lifetime value
   

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13. support == sales
    

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14. Userscape
    2005 to 2008
    

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15. No employees
    

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16. No marketing
    

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17. No advertising
    

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18. No email list
    

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19. No A/B testing
    

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20. No tracking at all!
    

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21. a little SEO
    

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23. Revenue
    2005 2006 2007 2008
    $488K
    $264K
    $123K
    $15K
    

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24. Revenue/ads
    2005 2006 2007 2008
    $14k
    $1k
    $4k
    $0k
    $488k
    $264k
    $123k
    $15k
    

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25. our first 100
    customers
    

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26. 1,700
    tickets
    

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27. $ from first 100
    Initial license purchase 2006 Through Today
    $297K
    $90K
    

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28. $207,316
    

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29. Support
    125
    250
    375
    500
    

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30. First Response
    0
    30 min
    1 hr
    1.5 hr
    2 hr
    

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31. Support Categories
    Account Bugs Features Pre-Sales Technical How To
    641
    2,008
    2,827
    250
    201
    983
    

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32. How?
    

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33. Support Tools
    

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34. Support Channels
    • Help Site
    • In App
    • Email
    

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35. marketing != support
    • twitter*
    • Facebook
    • Pinterest
    • Blogging
    

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36. Help Site
    

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37. Help Site Content
    • Detailed info on initial setup
    • in depth on settings
    • advice/best practices
    

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38. http://help.besnappy.com
    

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39. http://help.besnappy.com
    

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40. http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/support/helpdesk/
    

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41. http://help.campaignmonitor.com/support
    

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42. help site tips
    • Don’t require registration
    • Don’t expose internal metadata
    • organize content for customers
    

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43. In app
    

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44. http://customer.io
    

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45. http://besnappy.com
    

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46. http://besnappy.com
    

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47. email
    

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48. A - Always
    B - Be
    C - Compassionate
    

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50. apologize &
    Ignore frumpiness
    

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51. Replying: intro
    Hi Tina,
    

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52. Replying: outro
    If you have any other questions, just let
    me know and I’ll be happy to help.
    And have an awesome Monday!
    -Chase
    http://supportops.co
    

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53. canned responses
    Respond
    5000%
    faster!
    

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54. Organize tickets
    • Categorize
    • assign to individuals not groups
    • Prioritize
    

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55. Schedule
    • First thing in the morning
    • After lunch
    • End of day
    

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56. scale support
    

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57. Hire early for
    support
    

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58. First Response
    0
    30 min
    1 hr
    1.5 hr
    2 hr
    

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59. Support Categories
    Account Bugs Features Pre-Sales Technical How To
    641
    2,008
    2,827
    250
    201
    983
    

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60. eliminate low
    hanging fruit
    

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61. this is why ticket
    organization is
    important
    

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62. everyone does
    support
    

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63. Feedback
    mechanisms
    

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64. Feedback
    • your team keeps you in the loop
    • problems *AND* SUCCESSES
    • use chat, support tools
    

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65. SURVEYS?
    • PERIODIC ARE EFFECTIVE
    • SURVEY’S IN EACH SUPPORT EMAIL?
    • follow up survey a few days later?
    • We all hate these right?
    

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66. support == sales
    

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67. Support Channels
    • Help Site
    • In App
    • Email
    

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68. be organized & scale
    your support early
    

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69. Thanks!
    

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70. Ian Landsman
    ianlandsman.com/talks
    @ianlandsman
    

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