

How I almost ignored our single best source for customer feedback. - hillel
http://www.jacksonfish.com/blog/2010/06/03/how-i-almost-ignored-our-single-best-source-for-customer-feedback/

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johns
(Disclaimer: I work for Twilio) You can do this for less money than you think
too. For instance, with Twilio toll-free numbers are $2/month+$.05/minute and
you can easily program them to have quiet hours or just do simple forwarding
with one of our pre-built Twimlets: <http://labs.twilio.com/twimlets/>

~~~
gridspy
How could I have a toll-free number in the states, another in New Zealand and
forward those calls to Skype, a pair of mobile phones and a landline here in
NZ?

~~~
m_eiman
You could set up a Twilio number for the US, get a local New Zealand number
that forwards to the US number, then forward the US number to a "ring on X
phones until one of them picks up" twimlet.

The per-minute cost for a call to the New Zealand number would probably be a
bit on the high side, but not a major problem, and in the worst case you could
just ask for the customer's number and call them back. I assume that the
CallerID will get lost along the way.

You'll have it up and running in less than a day, you just need to email
support and have them enable international calling on your account.

~~~
dmor
[disclosure - i work at twilio]

Thanks for explaining this, I actually wrote a blog post (with working sample
code) on exactly this topic, because we had some friends in town for Christmas
who wanted to call home on Christmas morning without using those really
expensive calling cards they were carrying. Basically they called into a U.S.
local number with their cell phone, picked from a menu of potential options,
and then Twilio dialed to the international number and connected them. Check
out my Christmas Eve hack here: [http://blog.twilio.com/2009/12/creating-a-
custom-internation...](http://blog.twilio.com/2009/12/creating-a-custom-
international-calling-card-with-twilio.html)

By the way, Twilio rates to New Zealand are 5.2 cents per minute (except for
to some mobile lines, which are 47.4 cents per minute - depends on the
carrier). <http://www.twilio.com/international-calling-rates>

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nandemo
_One day I discussed with her when to give a refund. I told her we had a no
questions asked 7 day refund policy. She asked what to do if the person wanted
a refund on day 8? I told her to go ahead and give it anyway. There were a lot
of situations like this that had to be spelled out. To the letter._

I think it's a fair question. The answer is not obvious: in fact, if it were
my business I probably wouldn't give the refund in that case.

She seems good. In my experience, most people doing customer service wouldn't
bother to ask and would just follow the procedure. If she asked that before
someone actually asked her for a refund on day 8, then she's a keeper. The
poster's expectations seem a bit too high.

~~~
ComputerGuru
I think that's the point that the OP is making, though. No matter how great of
a customer support agent she was, she wasn't the founder of the company. She
_can't_ know how he feels on all matters, his attitude towards things, the
perspective with which to treat these incoming phone calls. But he does.

~~~
hillel
Exactly.

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csmeder
From my experience this article is spot on! The only thing that is missing is
the bonus fact that this will save you money on support if you are currently
using email. In my experience you can answer questions over the phone 3-5
times as quick as emails. So if you are going to give out your email, might as
well give out a phone number as well.

~~~
reitzensteinm
That may be true, but you can batch email up and answer it all at once, two or
three times a day. Calls are likely quicker, but the context switching of
being interupted at random times throughout the day should not be taken
lightly.

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terpua
I'd go one further and say that everyone (especially engineers) should spend
time (either daily/weekly) on customer support (forums, emails, etc.). There's
nothing like a customer gripe that gets engineers to prioritize stuff.

Having said that, I couldn't find Jackson Fish's 800 number.

~~~
smallblacksun
The problem with that is that you are having engineers who cost the company
$75+ an hour spending time doing the job that can be done by someone costing
~$30 an hour. Also, you run the risk of annoying your engineers.

~~~
terpua
It has to be part of your culture (ie when hiring). As for the cost, it pays
back in understanding your customer better and getting engineers working on
the right things.

I have been part of too many engineering teams working on the wrong things
because of a lack of customer interface.

~~~
markkanof
As long as the developers really have the ability to make changes based on the
support requests they are receiving.

I've been in the situation where each developer would take a day of the week
handling support. But the support requests could be for any of the software
built by the entire development team, not just the things that the individual
developer worked on.

So then in many cases the developer was acting as an extremely expensive
email/call filter. And the only lesson being learned was that some of the
other developers weren't very good at their jobs.

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dmlorenzetti
User groups, when the developer is active, can provide similar benefits.

Two of the user groups I follow have significant developer participation
(CONTAM building airflow simulation, and the Sundials suite of numerical
libraries). On both, users actually address the developers by name, make
feature suggestions, and (in the case of Sundials, which has open code)
suggest code fixes. Those groups also have more of a sense of community than
the ones where the developers don't seem to spend much time.

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swies
This is dead on. We do Ninite support over email in our personal inboxes. I'd
say the one-on-one interaction, not necessarily the phone, is key.

I spend about an hour each day answering it all and I've learned an incredible
amount from emailing back and forth with our users.

It's helped us be much more clear in describing what our product does. We'd
change a few words here and there and eliminate whole classes of confused
emails.

We build relationships with our users so when we have a question about a new
product, or how something should work, we can just ask some people. I love
split-testing new stuff too, but that just evaluates if a change works.
Talking with people helps validate your assumptions behind changes.

I'm sort of baffled when I see people using forums or getsatisfaction for
support. You're compromising that important personal connection.

Also, feedback is incredibly valuable information on your strengths,
weaknesses, customer desires, etc. Our main competitors have all this stuff
out in the open and I love checking it out every couple days.

~~~
ComputerGuru
Nothing wrong with using forums. At some point, the sheer number of support
requests can become inundating. Using forums and having the developers keep
track of support requests and interfering/interjecting when necessary, poking
around, asking questions while the support staff do the majority of the right-
out-of-the-FAQ support can work, too. The key is that forums, unlike support
tickets, are open sources of feedback. The developers is in the loop, even if
not the primary "mover" of the loop.

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samaparicio
(Disclaimer: I work for Ringio) You can be up and running with your own 800
number that routes to employees and pops on your screen who is calling (and
match it to a Google Contact) in less than 10 minutes, and try it for free
with Ringio. <http://www.ringio.com>

~~~
transatlantic
(Disclaimer: I'm a potential customer) You don't tell me how much it'll cost
once the free trial is over, which makes my company extremely unlikely to try
it out.

~~~
samaparicio
Hi Transatlantic... our pricing is very straightforward: $99/mo for up to 4
users and then $25/mo per user if you need more. A detailed pricing
explanation is here -- [http://support.ringio.com/entries/171337-ringio-
pricing-expl...](http://support.ringio.com/entries/171337-ringio-pricing-
explained)

~~~
transatlantic
Thanks. I'm curious why this info isn't in an obvious place. Do you convert
better without it?

~~~
samaparicio
It's actually also here -- <http://www.ringio.com/about/pricing/> in our main
website. For us the emphasis since we launched a month ago was to get good
feedback from customers, and since it has been free for all to try, it felt
unnecessary to be more upfront with the trial.

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sstrudeau
I think it's really important for the people building a product to spend at
least some time doing tech support. Right now, my tech team of three
(including me) all "see" every incoming tech support email and we rotate
through who's responsible to answer them. Since I have a tech support
background, it's obvious to me that this is the best way to both understand
what's broken, but also what works and what can be improved in a system. I
don't think we'd bring on a dedicated support person until this strategy
impinges on our ability to get things done.

~~~
bdickason
What system do you use to answer the support emails? I'm looking into this for
my small team (4 of us) but don't want to pay the $30+/month it costs to have
each of us setup w/ Zendesk.

Is it just as simple as forwarding the e-mails to everyone?

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gridspy
My main concern is due to timezones I'll probably be asleep when a customer
calls.

~~~
snprbob86
I'm a bit worried about this too, especially because I sleep odd, always
shifting hours.

I think I'm going to setup a Twilio app which tells customers that we'll call
them back within 24 hours. The app could ask "When is the best time to call?"
and "Please briefly describe the reason for your call". The app could be
interruptible if I am awake and available.

~~~
hillel
you can also specify on the site which hours you are open. We have a dynamic
indicator on our site showing when the phone line is 'open'.

~~~
snprbob86
That's a great idea, but I'd be worried about people forgetting to call later
after deciding not to call while the phone line is "closed".

~~~
johns
If you were really enterprising you could put up a form during off hours that
let them specify when they'd like to be called back during on hours.

~~~
hillel
or have voice mail.

~~~
johns
Or voicemail. But if you want to really empower your users, let them pick a
time to be contacted and then call them then. Voicemail is leave it and forget
it and when I call a company and leave a voicemail it feels like a black hole
that my message may never escape. Maybe that's just me.

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evandavid
We are based in a far off land, with most of our customers in the US. I just
include in my support emails: "If you'd rather discuss anything on the phone,
just send me your phone number and timezone and I'll be in touch at a time
that works for you". It works well - I normally initiate a few phone calls
each day using SkypeOut. We are looking at a SkypeIn number with voicemail to
allow customers to make inward calls, but I am pretty happy with the current
scenario.

------
danielnicollet
Another great option for this live chat services like Olark. Of course you can
also have these routed to your mobile when they offer an app. Needless to say,
having the chat requests manned by founders once in a while is great way to
keep them checked into reality.

