how to slay the customer support beast

How To Slay the Customer Support Beast

Illustration: Nathan Scheck

Ian Landsman

Bootstrapped.fm

discuss.Bootstrapped.fm

Customer Support The original

growth hack

metrics all the things

Churn Avg revenue per user lifetime value

support == sales

Userscape 2005 to 2008

No employees

No marketing

No advertising

No email list

No A/B testing

No tracking at all!

a little SEO

Revenue

2005 2006 2007 2008

$488K

$264K

$123K$15K

Revenue/ads

2005 2006 2007 2008

$14k$1k$4k$0k

$488k

$264k

$123k$15k

our first 100 customers

1,700 tickets

$ from first 100

Initial license purchase 2006 Through Today

$297K

$90K

$207,316

Support

125

250

375

500

First Response

0

30 min

1 hr

1.5 hr

2 hr

Support Categories

Account Bugs Features Pre-Sales Technical How To

641

2,008

2,827

250201

983

How?

Support Tools

Support Channels• Help Site

• In App

• Email

marketing != support• twitter*

• Facebook

• Pinterest

• Blogging

Help Site

Help Site Content• Detailed info on initial setup

• in depth on settings

• advice/best practices

http://help.besnappy.com

http://help.besnappy.com

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

http://help.campaignmonitor.com/support

help site tips• Don’t require registration

• Don’t expose internal metadata

• organize content for customers

In app

http://customer.io

http://besnappy.com

http://besnappy.com

email

A - Always B - Be C - Compassionate

apologize & Ignore frumpiness

Replying: intro

Hi Tina,

Replying: outroIf 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

canned responsesRe

spon

d 500

0%

faste

r!

Organize tickets• Categorize

• assign to individuals not groups

• Prioritize

Schedule• First thing in the morning

• After lunch

• End of day

scale support

Hire early for support

First Response

0

30 min

1 hr

1.5 hr

2 hr

Support Categories

Account Bugs Features Pre-Sales Technical How To

641

2,008

2,827

250201

983

eliminate low hanging fruit

this is why ticket organization is

important

everyone does support

Feedback mechanisms

Feedback• your team keeps you in the loop

• problems *AND* SUCCESSES

• use chat, support tools

SURVEYS?• PERIODIC ARE EFFECTIVE

• SURVEY’S IN EACH SUPPORT EMAIL?

• follow up survey a few days later?

• We all hate these right?

support == sales

Support Channels• Help Site

• In App

• Email

be organized & scale your support early

Thanks!

Ian Landsman ianlandsman.com/talks

@ianlandsman