

Customer service fun - setori88
http://spencerfry.com/story-time-with-carbonmade

======
waleedka
That's all nice, but what do you do when you get so many custemer emails that
you don't have time for coding anymore? I used to answer support emails within
the hour and our users loved it. But as we grew it started to take it's toll
and slowed down development. I still answer all customer emails everyday but
now I do it once a day at night. It takes about 2 hours a day, so it's still
manageable, but at some point it won't be. Suggestions?

~~~
weaksauce
Do the support emails have a few general patterns? Or are they all unique? If
it is the former you can have a few canned responses and use a keystroke
program to expand a few words into the support email. (e.g. something like
this: <http://www.smileonmymac.com/TextExpander/> note I have not used this
program so I cannot attest to the quality but I am sure there are others out
there that will fit the bill if this one is lacking.)

Another way to reduce your email overhead is to have a good search feature on
the website with an indexed FAQ.

Just a couple ideas for you. Not sure how intense your customer support
queries are so this might not work for you in a cost effective manner.

~~~
waleedka
Thanks, I'll check that app. I have FAQ and help pages. And, when I see
patterns in the questions I update the user interface to make it clearer and
those emails stop. I've optimized it to a point where most of the questions
are unique or are hard to optimize further.

------
kogir
Summary: customer discovers double billing for the last six months, and
inquires with company. Company investigates, finds it's been happening for 8
months, and refunds the user in a timely manner.

~~~
roc
A prompt refund is good customer service. But what pushes it up to 11 in my
eyes, was that they refunded her $100 for a $96 overcharge.

Not because $4 is fair compensation for her trouble. Or because $4 is so much
money that she should be happy.

But because they actually took a moment to consider what message a $100 refund
sent to the customer vs what $96 would send.

~~~
tome
Can you help me out here because I can't understand what message a $100 refund
would send.

~~~
jodrellblank
$96 sends "The overcharge on transaction 677348921 has been refunded to
purchaser 2475244. If you have any futher questions please dial our busy call
center at our convenience. <beep>."

$100 sends "Hi, we overcharged you how much? Nintety six dollars? Here, call
it a hundred, keep the change. We weren't trying to skim six months interest
on $96 from you maliciously and we're human and take a personal interest in
your problem caused by our company and by us, we're not faceless and
mechanical, we have kept your money but we've paid it back and more, have the
small benefit of $4 and please consider giving us the benefit of the doubt and
dealing with us again in future".

~~~
colinplamondon
Exactly- we do the same thing when people ask for refunds of our iPhone app.
It's only $1.99 so if they go to the trouble of providing their PayPal, we
send them back $5. Half the time they return it and take another look at the
application.

In general, most people have such terrible experiences with customer service
that they go in expecting a negative experience, placing them on the
offensive. If you're responsive, helpful, and personable then they'll flip
right around and tell their all friends about how awesome you are.

