

Pregnant Rock Stars - My Approach to Customer Service - natgordon
http://natgordon.posterous.com/pregnant-rock-stars

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espinchi
I'm glad this works for this product.

However, I'd argue it is generally not applicable. Say you launch a free
application (perhaps monetized by a supporting PRO version, in-app purchases,
or ads) that gets a few thousand downloads per day. As a CEO, you can't spend
your precious time replying to those (99% trivial) questions.

You may do it for a few months, or a percentage of the user questions, to gain
insight into your customers. But, as a rule, I'd rather outsource it.

~~~
sivers
At some point, you will need to hand over the customer service job to someone
else, but when you do, it should be someone amazing. In her case, probably a
very caring mother. Someone who can fully relate to her customers, because
they would be (or are) a BabyList customer themselves.

When I stopped doing all my own customer service at CD Baby, I found someone
even more patient, playful, and charming than me. It sets a high bar, so that
if you grow to needing an entire team of customer service people - (I had 28
full-time customer service people in the end) - then you and your first one or
two really set the expectations for how caring, helpful, and charming they
should be.

Definitely don't just outsource to a cheap provider or cheap person. Whoever
is actively communicating with your customers should be the best of the best.

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ktizo
I really like the idea of pretending that all customers are Mick Jagger and
think that it is fantastic, although I now have an image of a pregnant Mick
Jagger in my head and I don't like that at all. It is all bulbous and wrinkly,
like some grotesque anime demon. I may not sleep well tonight.

