How to do the technical support of the product

Wade Foster is an entrepreneur with hundreds of desktop application service support experiences, and the following will give us some developer experience in service support. One of the more troublesome things is that you are running a comprehensive function of the product, the user experience in a large extent depends on the associated two to three kinds of products. Because in the end I will be at the same time for all products to do service support (as of this article before writing, there are 150 applications) through such practical experience, we learned a few useful and unworkable experience:

Provides a seamless experience environment that requires no human support

This requires two points: a good product and a clear description of the document. Ideally, your application would be fluent enough that the user would never have to use the Help function, and the user would know how to use it, since the above modules became so obvious that users could easily identify the features above.

If the product settings are slightly more complex, your documentation is best placed in a prominent position and can be bounced out where the user is prone to problems. Wufoo This application is good at this point, almost every interface can easily find a Help document button, users can easily get navigation.

Of course, the documentation also has to be carefully carved, such as keyword to facilitate search, the level of the page is clear, the label is rich enough and so on.

Respond quickly

The reality is, the world can not be perfect, users will always have all kinds of unexpected needs. One of the most important things users focus on is the response speed of the application. Even if your app is displaying a "loading" image, the user is at least aware that someone is working on it, rather than throwing it into an endless black screen.

Use tools like zendesk or desk to let your team know which users need to address what they don't need. We also found help Scout, a very useful tool for monitoring loading progress.

You can consider using instant chat tools such as Olark, the context of this conversation, of course, has to be lifted and trampled, which may allow you to be distracted from other important tasks, but if you divide the team into two pieces, some for online conversation, and some for specialized technical support, this will indeed quickly increase your costs. But this is necessary, we see countless users encounter a variety of small problems, if not resolved in time, the other side will quickly flee from your products. Sometimes a glass of wine can change a lifetime of friends: when you spend a few minutes of time to quickly solve the problem of customers, so as to win customers a long period of word-of-mouth spread, the ultimate benefit or yourself.

Information disclosure

Some big websites and products because of the complexity of the process, their support services are not open, is not Google's help services a bit desperate? Because many products are not likely to quickly search for help. Let users know that you are helping them, and you want to help them solve problems, provide a user with a follow-up question and a chance to get a timely response.

We will use a public help desk (open Consultation window), and many questions and answers will be publicly displayed. We also provide an online communication platform to ensure 100% on-line during working hours. Let the user know that we have been around them and will provide the best commissioners to support them.

Be honest with users

Users do not like to be cheated or to delay time. If you can't solve the problem, you better get it straight, don't always give each other an official reply that is seeking to support the status of the program, the end of waste time is not conducive to your product's Word-of-mouth impact.

Often some companies receive large functional updates that will be available soon. But often to the user to wait a year, better simply tell each other your appeal team has received, but such a large version we have not been able to launch in a short time

Guide users to help you

It is difficult to provide a good support.

If you haven't met a similar "this site can't open, can you solve it?" This kind of general question, that is lucky. In the real environment, if you want to solve the user's problem first to collect enough information, Balsamiq this aspect to do very well, they will pop-up windows to users to provide upload screenshots function, so the problem is more intuitive.

Having other SaaS service users evaluate and collect feedback through smiley faces or frowning expressions is also a chance for the development team to understand the user's psychological feedback on the product, and many times users know what to do, but there is a lack of a way to encourage them to express themselves.

Note: There are also some users who are afraid to point to these buttons and connections, they worry about being distracted by other services or spam, getting information on their social platforms and even stealing money from their accounts, so that users can trust you and let users know that they control the layout, not the developers behind them.

Prioritize

Some users pay you a lot of money, while others are free users. It is clear that these paid users deserve more priority support. But I'm still amazed at how many desktop apps don't have native collection programs to help tech teams differentiate between paying users and free users.

Our solution is to make a Chrome shortcut plugin.

Most users understand that these support services require cost and time, so if the user is dissatisfied with the current service, you can let the other person know that there is a way to upgrade the service to allow the other side to choose.

Identify your official channels, while also paying attention to unofficial

You have to determine how your users get the best technical support. Early in the time users will directly email me, I will immediately reply to each other, but gradually more people up after this became an inefficient support channel, had to give up.

We have to rebuild our user habits and new support channels.

Also watch out for unofficial channels. Many users will still not use the official support channels, only in micro-blogging or other social media to spit on their problems, we have to make sure that someone in these channels to follow up.

Bridge drawing board

Most of the users are kind, but some of them will be very bad. This is inevitable for those who want the world to be free, if they can not meet them, the other side will go to the micro-Bo spit, forget these people put, anyway not your core users.

Focus on the users you really want, and let those who like to disrupt their own play.

Summary

Technical support is a thankless task, but it can also become a very meaningful and valuable thing. This threshold is also set very low, sometimes simply to solve some user problems, to help them learn the solution, they can earn a lot of long-term die-hard supporters.

We often forget a software should give most users the state: The software is a pure magic effect of things, it is to help your users to put a variety of functional effects in their hands to achieve, so that they also feel like a real magician.

Via Zapier