Surviving Support

10 Tips for Saving Your Users and Yourself

Julie Cameron   |   @jewlofthelotus

Julie Cameron

@JewlOfTheLotus

SlickQuiz

An open source plugin for creating pretty, dynamic quizzes.

https://github.com/jewlofthelotus/SlickQuiz

https://github.com/jewlofthelotus/SlickQuiz-WordPress

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/slickquiz

but then...

Tech Support

SlickQuiz Support

Blog Comments

WP.org Support Threads

GitHub Issues

Stack Overflow Posts

Twitter Messages

Email Inquiries

SlickQuiz Support Challenges

jQuery / WordPress Segregation

Question / Response Repetition

Time for Support vs. New Features

Challenges of Good Support

Organization

Time & Resources

Communication

Perception*

Empathy

Benefits of Good Support

Happy Users

Better Reviews

Increased Exposure

Higher Adoptance

Saved Time & Money

10 Tips

For Saving Your Users and Yourself








Tip 1 Actually provide support

Respond to your users

... and do it quickly

... but not too quickly.

Don't wait, act now!

Tip 2 Have a plan

And make that plan clear to your users.

Who:
You?   A team?   The devs?   Other users?
When:
24 / 7?   2x / day?   1x / week?   Whenever?
What:
Directly related questions?   Sorta related?   Everything and anything?
Where:
Tickets?   Github?   Forums?   Blogs?   Stack Overflow?   Twitter?   Email?   Phone?

Tip 3 Know your product

...and make sure your users do, too.

  • Establish product development guidelines.
  • Be prepared to tell users that their request is out of scope.
  • Let users know what features are in the pipe.

Tip 4 Provide instructions

...and be very... thorough.

  • Have a well organized, comprehensive, and clear README.
  • Incorporate how-to videos and screen shots.
  • Encourage users to RTFM BEFORE contacting support.

Tip 5 Embrace the FAQ

And stop repeating yourself.

  • Anticipate questions before they come through support.
  • Include responses to even the most basic of questions.
  • If you answer the same question more than once, add it to the FAQ.

Tip 6 Make it better

A support request indicates a way to improve.

  • Look for patterns in your support requests.
    (Hint: Use a tagging system)
  • If you have to put it in the FAQ, start thinking about how to improve it.
    • Clarify / simplify the UI
    • Adjust functionality
    • Add a new feature

Tip 7 Broadcast your updates

Socially. Via a blog. Via newsletters. Via push notifications.

  • Make sure people know you made an improvement, fixed their bug, or added their feature idea.
  • Provide detailed descriptions of these updates.
  • Keep READMEs and FAQs up to date, too.

Tip 8 Listen and relax

Don't take frustration or ignorance personally.

  • Empathize with your users.
  • Communicate clearly and proof-read.
    • Reiterate and confirm your understanding / interpretation.
    • Use clean formatting. Paragraphs, bold, code blocks, images, etc.
    • Numbered lists for steps.
    • Quotes to reference named elements of your product.
  • Be gracious, personable and thankful.
  • Know when to walk. Don't get mad. Don't take abuse.

Tip 9 Establish a fan base

Happy Users == Happy Support == Happy Advocates.

  • Make support easy. Help them... help you... help them.
  • Be friendly and thank users for trying your product.
  • Credit users for their finds and ideas.
  • Add the features they're all asking for.
  • Check in with your users on occasion.

Tip 10 Be your own user

Geek & Poke

Eat your own dogfood.

Especially if you're not the developer.

Know the tool.   Know the bugs.   Know how to improve.

Final Words of Wisdom

Treat your users how you'd want to be treated.

Questions?

#SurvivingSupport   |   @JewlOfTheLotus