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One of my users got angry and send me this feedback email 😠

So today I got this mail from one of the ruttl users in our email marketing list 👇

ruttl emailer feedback

I decided to make a social media to apologize to all those who got irritated by our emailers but couldn't unsubscribe. I am now working on the same issue and will be adding the feature shortly.

Along with that, we are also adding notification setting and account deletion functionality.

Remember guys,
The best way to improve your product is to acknowledge where you are going wrong and to rectify it!

Have you ever received an angry feedback like this too? Share your experiences down below! 👇

Again, I would like to thank the lovely users who force us to improve our designs every single day with honest feedback.

Have a great day everyone!
Harsh 💯

  1. 6

    Too many to count! The funniest part is that often, when you reply in a kind in genuine way, there tone shifts.

    It's real easy to be pissed off, firing emails into a void. It's different when you realize there's a real human on the other end!

    1. 1

      Actually, usability issues has quite unfortunate misinterpretations on the users' side, as they often come across as ignorance and/or arrogance. Users can't tell what is mere design or technical issue, but assume everything on the site was made in a certain way for a reason. Hence, their reading in this kind of cases is that the site owner is an arrogant ah who tries to keep them on board to constantly poke them with ads in the hope of getting some money (and other imaginary stories). It is when they hear from the owner that it was an honest mistake that they cool down and refresh the story they created and as a result, go nice.

      1. 1

        Agreed. I'll also say, especially in consumer apps, users don't often realize either
        a. That edge cases exists and it isnt the experience for everyone, or
        b. How it can be to actually find & fix issues (related to the ignorance part)

        Ultimately the key is to reply with empathy even in the face of frustration

    2. 1

      Haha yes that is very true!

  2. 3

    I have a startup idea...

    All emails you send (we can expand to twitter and facebook posts later) first go to your mum...

    • if she approves it then it gets forwarded on to the real recipient

    • if she disapproves it then it gets posted to publicshaming.com, a public forum and also copied to everyone in your address book, along with a header along the lines of "your contact Steve sent the following arsy email. visit publicshaming.com to throw a virtual tomato and downvote him"

    • anyone with more than 10 downvotes will have all future emails/tweets delayed by 24 hours

    • future employers will check your "tomato rating" before employing you

    probably needs a bit of work, but a bit of fun for a sunny Saturday morning ;-)

  3. 3

    Yes they're a bummer to read. You've got a great mindset about it though. 🙌

    1. 2

      Gotta keep it to succeed @higgins! :)

  4. 1

    We once had a customer send us a really irate email threatening to cancel their subscription with us after a 2 hour server outage happened (the first time we had a major outage in 5 years).

    I wrote back to her with an apologetic email, and explained that I am the one in charge of the servers, and took full responsibility, and explained that the outage happened at 2am my time and it took a while for the rest of the support team to get in contact with me to wake me up to deal with the issue. I also explained that we were taking further measures to ensure that the initial alerts were not missed in the future.

    She replied almost immediately saying that she was working late nights as the CEO as well, and that she was tired and frustrated when she couldn't log in. That human to human connection really helped.

    Now, that particular customer is one of our biggest advocates, and just a couple of weeks ago, she recorded a 5 minute long testimonial video for us to use in our marketing - all off her own back, without any prompting from us!

    In this modern 'self service' era, it is easy to forget that there are people on both sides of a service, and we are in the process of changing our branding and interactions with customers to make it less 'corporate-y' and more personal.

    1. 2

      @Devan Absolutely hats off to you on the story above!
      The human to human connection is exactly what many SaaS marketing teams are missing out. It's very crucial and I loved how you dealt with the whole situation.

      Takes courage to take up accountability and ownership. No wonder the lady became a staunch supporter of your product.

      I would encourage you to share this story by making a long form post of it and put it up on indiehackers community. It might really help lot of people!

  5. 1

    Hi Harsh, Happy that you took it positivelyy. I like your product. Wish to feature your product in my directory someday.
    Good luck.

    1. 1

      I'd be happy to be a part of it @venkatworks! If you need to reach me for the same, just drop me a message over email at [email protected]!

  6. 1

    Sending you some positivity to balance out the haters!

    Had a similar thing (but actually much ruder) a few weeks ago, it doesn't help start the morning well!

    1. 1

      Just what is needed once a while!
      Haha yes i agree with you. Not the most amusing kind of messages to read in the morning.

  7. 1

    This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

    1. 1

      Haha that is very true indeed @botvader!

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