Solo Hackers: How did you outsource customer support?
Currently, I handle customer support via email (~30 emails avg per day, ~1 hr of work per day). I'm planning to outsource this in the coming months, probably based on the request type, easy stuff first.
Have any other founders done this recently and have advice? I am specifically looking for advice from solo founders who outsourced customer support from themselves to one or two other people. ~50 tickets per day at peak.
Also curious about support tools. I am aware of tools like Zendesk, but am not sure if it's a good fit for support staff of 1-3 people. Right now, I just use Gmail. It works well when I am the only one doing support. But with multiple people responding to customer support, I'd like to, at minimum:
- Still view every incoming request
- Assign (and auto-assign based on keywords) them between 1-3 people
- Hijack a thread if needed
- Have the end user still interact via a single support email address; I don't want to complicate their lives or change their behavior
Thanks.
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I like helpscout. Does everything you said and more depending on plans.
Okay, well, this post caught my attention.
I recently finished coding an MVP for a customer support widget for my startup. It works pretty fine. I would love if you would take a look at it.
It's not built for companies with huge customer base so for a company like you, perhaps it can help.
The idea is to give self-service FAQs, etc to users via Widgets(If you are a SaaS).
I would love to talk with you via your requirements(because I could actually build a product you want and you wouldn't have to pay until you are satisfied with it)
If you have time, do visit https://insteps.io
We plan to upgrade and update several features like different FAQs for different pages. Eg. Separate questions for EDIT PROFILE page, Separate for PRICING PAGE, etc. All questions and performances would be monitored from your profile in our app.
We also are planning to make a to-do list for FAQs so that you would get insights on whether your customers solve their problems or not. These features are what we have been building behind the scenes and we are working towards implementing them soon. If you think something like this can be helpful, it would definitely be a good thing.
Let's talk. :)
I had a look. I think it is a concept worth testing out. I am not sure it will be a good fit for my site, and I'll give you my reasons:
Around 25% of my support requests can be answered with a general FAQ type answer. The rest of the support is custom depending on the user, and many of them are not tech savvy, so the human touch is important.
It looks like this will have to replace my chat widget? I'd prefer to keep the chat for two reasons: some users prefer chat over poring over FAQs, and to piggyback on my first point, many support queries cannot be answered with a general FAQ.
This is interesting criticism for the idea I am currently trying out.
So your point is that customers don't always prefer FAQs and they need something like CHATBOT or someone to talk to because not everyone is tech-savvy and not every questions can be answered by FAQs.
I see where you are going. So you are suggesting that I should find a way to implement Chats & FAQs in one same widget so that it will be easier to persuade users to try out our product?
Did I get your point?
Yes, you got my point.
However, there might be businesses out there where a FAQ-only solution will suffice. One option is to consider focusing on those businesses first, assuming the market is big enough.
Later, you can expand to also reach businesses like mine, which are looking for a chat component.
That's very true. It's important that I first try to see if there is a market for FAQ only. Thank you for the suggestions. I wish you all the best in your search. :)
Is there such a thing as a service that answers your service emails for you? Like if you don't have enough work for a FT position, but need an hour or two a day?
Yea, hire a virtual assistant. I use UpWork.
Why do you have so many requests? How about writing an FAQ, articles or fixing the issues?
There is a FAQ already, but I haven't made it searchable yet. I can implement some features make things more self-serve, but haven't found time to do that yet. The volume can certainly be reduced, but even so, I expect some delegation will be inevitable later this year, so I want to start thinking about it.
In my case the volume is much less, but say 70% of the emails I get are rather feedback and not completely support. I still spend 1-2 hours a day replying though (email, twitter, reddit). Or some questions. And each time its an opportunity to give really good service and learn new things (feature ideas) about those people. So Im a bit divided on delegating support. But that depends a lot on what kind of emails you get.
I wasn't including feedback emails in my counts. I agree those should still be handled by me.
I am referring to strictly support (ex. "I'd like to change my email address"). Even then, there is something to learn; many support issues about the same thing = a feature idea / improvement.
I'll probably still read all incoming requests, but I want to cut down my time investment on responding to things someone else can easily do on my behalf.
1-2 hrs per day is phenomenal - kudos.
Facebook which I am using for one of my projects has this very handy option that you can add questions and answers
Very often users have similar questions, so they can just click on the question and an answer will pop-up.
Is it possible for you to redirect your support to a Facebook page? Maybe it can take some of the load.
I've recently created a help-desk with common questions and good searching features. This has lowered the support significantly. I use Crisp.chat for all support related stuff.
I can recommend HelpCrunch, in terms of software that makes your life easier. Was primarily looking for a clean knowledge base solution when I came across it. Seems to do everything you're looking for, starting at $15-25/m per seat (which is why I chose it over Crisp or Intercom).