Co-authoring with Jonathan Loc.
Customer Service is the face of any product. This face is how users get an understanding on the sort of team behind the product. And it’s this experience that affects how they feel and think about you and your product. Ultimately, what a user does, and what he says about your product, is significantly influenced by your communication.
Here are the seven things we learned by building a Customer Success team at BandLab.
1: Respond fast
People who ask for help have a problem. Right now. Today’s users expect a solution within 24 hours. (you’d honestly inform them what your average waiting time is, right?)
Your quick responses, right here and right now, build something which we call “service credibility”.
A quick response, coupled with efficiency in handling a problem, shows your team cares, and makes interaction a breeze. This is crucial step to achieving customer loyalty.
2: Solve the problem
No one (well, almost) writes to you just to say “hello”. Most people come with problems, awaiting only one thing from your team: a solution.
Make sure you are able to ask your customer as less as possible. Make information about him being easy accessible to you. We use our server database and MixPanel to know better what person contacted us, what is she using and what she was doing last time. A good background check helps weed out redundant questions, saving both you and your user’s time. Just make sure you don’t come across as a creepy stalker.
Try to solve the user’s problem in one touch. Beating around the bush, procrastinating with regards to your user’s problem, decreases your loyalty karma.
3: Mind the distance between you and your user
Imagine you’re using an app, and you can’t understand how to use it. You need help, but the only information you’re given is their email address. You give up. It’s too troublesome to craft an email and wait for a response.
To avoid this, you should be as contactable as possible. Ideally, a user should be one-two clicks away from you.
The first time someone uses your product they are bound form an opinion. They may also run into the odd roadblock. When you’re just a click away, it encourages a user to ask for help, or give feedback.
How, whom and when you send a message is only your product question. It is important to make this small step first. Don’t wait till users turn and walk away from you, it’s too late then.
4: Talk about what they can do, not what they should do
Be yourself. Don’t just tell customers that you miss them. If you didn’t do anything to retain your users it is not mean you feel sad. You lose your money and customers whom you paid for (yes, your users are essentially Acquisition Cost!)
You spent weeks designing a user flow, trying to guide users to using your product the way you intended it for. But not everyone thinks like you. Instead of forcing a particular flow you expect a user to follow, empathise with them. Understand how they intend to use your product, and tell them how and what they can do, not how they should be using it.
5: Know the short and long-term goals of your product
Why? So you can direct your users on the path that will help to achieve them. Check regularly with your Product Team about their goals and plans.
For example, a current short-term goal is to get feedback on a new feature. This feedback will influence the decision to take the next step.
When you solve a current customer’s issue, guide them to this new feature. If they’ve already tried it, don’t hesitate to ask for feedback.
Making money on your product? Congrats! Understand which path user should be guided along to be converted into customer and help him move through this sale funnel (Help, not push!)
6: Your users are happy? Talk to them! More! :)
You customers happy? Well, this is a good chance to:
- Move him through your sales funnel
- Ask for feedback
- Request to have him share your product with his friends, colleagues.
- Your option
7 Be thankful for negative feedback
This might sound obvious, but if there isn’t any feedback, there’s a high chance your users simply don’t care. And this is worst than having to sieve through waves of complaints.
Complaints mean one thing: the user actually cares about your product enough to do something about it. Constructive feedback from users cannot be more valuable, especially with a user-centric product. This is a chance for you to improve on a feature or concept you initially thought was great.
Thank the people who give feedback, especially constructive ones, genuinely. It can be difficult to say thank you to someone who just blasted your hard work, but in the long run, you’ll see how valuable some of these comments are.
So if you don’t receive feedback? Just ask. Asking shows your users that their opinion is valid, and that’s a big deal.
Epilogue
Always stay flexible and keep an open mind to learning. Make assumptions and validate them with experiments. Make permanent self-analysis a habit.
A strategy that you will choose to work with your customers will directly affect on your product’s development. People only go to the place where their problems are solved.