Both xyproto and Gustomaximus have solid examples.
Here's more:
- Be direct,
Hi, the xyz feature is available on the PRO plan. You can upgrade to the PRO plan at app.saas.com/billing
- Be brutal,
Hi xyz, your card couldn't be charged for your Saas subscription, and hence your subscription has been deactivated. To reactivate, enter your card details app app.saas.com/billing
- Be honest,
Hello xyz, thanks for the feature request. We'll put it in our wish list but can't guarantee it will make the cut.
- Be generous,
Hey xyz, thanks for pointing that out. We have identified that as a bug and have pushed a fix for it. In the meanwhile, I've extended your trial by 7 days, on the house.
Couple of other tips:
- Dumb down your reply as much as possible. If you can't, throw your reply through chatgpt and make it dumb down.
- Unless a support issue is very basic, reply after a few minutes if you're near your computer. Usually users figure out things on their own if given some time.
- But don't allow issues to go stale. To really wow customer service, reply as humanely quick as possible, especially for existing customers.
- Make your support timelines clear somewhere in your product, eg: Our support will respond within max 48 hours, but most responses take 2-3 hours.
- Make your terms and privacy policy pages clear. People do read this. getharvest.com is a gold standard in this area.
Just wanted to say thanks, I think you've given great advice. In particular this bullet point:
> But don't allow issues to go stale. To really wow customer service, reply as humanely quick as possible, especially for existing customers.
As a customer, the absolute worst possible thing for me is to be left in limbo, not knowing if my problem will be fixed in the next minute, hour, day, or never. While I may not be thrilled if the answer is "never", at least at that point I can move on and know that I'll need to solve the problem some other way.
But if you respond consistently quickly, then some lazy customers will email you rather than bothering to look in the documentation. So there can be a downside to being too responsive.
> Make your support timelines clear somewhere in your product, eg: Our support will respond within max 48 hours, but most responses take 2-3 hours.
This is the biggest thing I struggle with. I have a couple of semi-successful side projects. They bring in some money, but not enough to hire someone to help with support. I have never been at a place in my life where something like "I will response to all support requests within 48 hours" is remotely realistic for me. I'm lucky if I get to a support request within a week or two.
I don't know what the answer is beyond just "don't sell products", because I hate dealing with support more than I enjoy making stuff to sell.
Sometimes it's valuable to receive a (clearly non-automated) support response indicating that the message was received and a proper response is in the works, just to confirm that the support channel is actually still functional.
Even just confirmation that the website form isn't a black hole and that support tickets aren't now exclusively accepted through Twitter, Instagram, or a secret discord server can be very reassuring.
A large part of my job is end user support in a corporate environment. I always do this - even if I know an issue is going to take a while due to me having to reach out to other departments/a vendor, wait for an answer, and potentially go back and forth, I always reach out to let people know I got the email, that I'm working on it, and that I'll reach back out when I know more. If possible, I also suggest workarounds/alternatives for them to use/do in the time while I'm working on the problem.
Here's more:
- Be direct, Hi, the xyz feature is available on the PRO plan. You can upgrade to the PRO plan at app.saas.com/billing
- Be brutal, Hi xyz, your card couldn't be charged for your Saas subscription, and hence your subscription has been deactivated. To reactivate, enter your card details app app.saas.com/billing
- Be honest, Hello xyz, thanks for the feature request. We'll put it in our wish list but can't guarantee it will make the cut.
- Be generous, Hey xyz, thanks for pointing that out. We have identified that as a bug and have pushed a fix for it. In the meanwhile, I've extended your trial by 7 days, on the house.
Couple of other tips:
- Dumb down your reply as much as possible. If you can't, throw your reply through chatgpt and make it dumb down.
- Unless a support issue is very basic, reply after a few minutes if you're near your computer. Usually users figure out things on their own if given some time.
- But don't allow issues to go stale. To really wow customer service, reply as humanely quick as possible, especially for existing customers.
- Make your support timelines clear somewhere in your product, eg: Our support will respond within max 48 hours, but most responses take 2-3 hours.
- Make your terms and privacy policy pages clear. People do read this. getharvest.com is a gold standard in this area.