HTF Do People Do It? Seriously About To Jump Off My Roof

Most support questions revolve around a few key issues.

Can you record video answers for a high percentage of the support solutions?

How about creating an FAQs (questions and answers) which is searchable and let them search first before they can create a ticket.

Jeremy, of those 215 tickets were any of them the same or similar enough where copy and paste answers could have been used? Secondly, how fast do you type? My staff n I use Dragon Naturally Speaking to answer people's questions when a copy and paste type of answer simply won't do (we average 175 wpm on that bad boy). Thirdly, do you offer up any kind of knowledge base/ FAQs (text and/or video) after people make a purchase to lessen the amount of questions you get?

I'm not in the IM niche so it's possible there might be some things unique to that niche that I'm not aware of.

RoD

P.S. Don't jump off the roof......we still need ya around here!

Yes, I have a solution...

Hire me.

Sorry hun, but not enough info to go to the end of the question...

if the question is technical (website navigation, etc) you create a knowledge base with the questions and refer people there first.

if it is about the way to implement the product, you are probably missing "how to" material.

I always take the challenges of my clients as opportunities to make the products better. And yes, I answer a lot of stuff myself. But make sure of answering each question only once, the next day you have a solution created or a new faq post.

To make weekly calls is a good way to get out of the problem in your case probably. People will get used to wait for the solution.

But again, without specifics, it is difficult to give an answer...

Question then... why the heck I'm writing? don't really know.

Laura

I agree with Thomas; setting up a forum will probably cut down on support a lot, as others will join in on your answers and flesh out other aspects of there questions.

Also, I wonder if you're answering TOO much for them. I mean there's a difference between "SUPPORT" and "COACHING". If they want more attention there support tickets, you can do what 1shoppingcart has done and charge a monthly premium for support.

This might be completely left field, but is it worth adjusting your product in relation to the questions you are getting in order to resolve these issues?

Just a thought

Hey Jeremy,

I'll have MY help desk get an answer to you ASAP!

LOL

~M~

Rather than a forum like you did with the Easy Bank Method, why don't you set up a moderated or a private group here on the WF?

Can't you see who purchased the product? Invite them to the group. It may be front loaded work with first initial burst of sales, but it would still be better than continual support tickets and PMs in the long run.

Encourage the other buyers/group members to help each other out. This would probably also cut down on people asking stupid questions in the actual WSO thread.

Then, you and Don could just kind of moderate the group rather than having to go through so many PMs. This would probably cut down on stupid questions because people wouldn't want to ask them publicly (or not lol).

Not sure how big your operation is (aka your budget), but have you considered hiring some local college kids part-time (that are tech savvy)? They will usually work for cheap and have a pretty strong grasp when it comes to technical questions.

Seriously, though, here's a thought.

For those who are asking "what if" questions, try switching it around. Ask them what actions they have taken so far, and request that they be specific.

If they haven't actually done anything yet, you can have a cut and paste response ready. Something like...

That's the general idea. It will minimize time on support issues, and spur people to get results as opposed to getting hung up on analysis.

Feel free to tweak the above message to best fit your product and situation.

All the best,
Michael

p.s. Of course, you could hire me to send similar messages. After all, I know how to write more than 10 characters.

My best advice? Train your help better.

The best way to train them? Give them the product, and require them to use it. Now they become experts in a New York Minute.

How about creating a Support Forum for your customers?

(Edit: just realized Woody had the same basic idea

Benefits to your customers:
- They experience that they are not alone (they like this)
- They get to interact with other like-minded folks
- They can get a lot more help and feedback than if they keep sending one-shot questions in to you

Benefits to you:
- You create a community that's all about YOU and your products
- Much less of a burden on your support staff
- You mainly have to train your support desk folks how to moderate a forum
- The discussions can help you cross-sell customers into additional products

Ken

Simple solution - get out of IM niche and use the time and money saved to ramp up your other 4 niches.

Martin

Charge for premium support like every software company on the planet.

That will cut down the BS tickets with a quickness.

Give the customer 60 says of included support and after that charge for support, like $100 per incident. If it's a legitimate bug in your product then you don't charge them. If its a BS question you charge them. If it's a question already answered in your FAQ you charge them for 2 incidents

Hi Jeremy,

Here is my thoughts on said subject.

When customers buy something they are not all on the same page. Not all of them have an understanding some may be illiterate some may have disabilities etc.


There are 2 things I will advise you with. one is to create a section for members only in that section instead of answering every single question do a how to video for each product you have in a different category for each. for instance sniper killer would have it`s own video and on down the line. then in the same area have the support forum. this works Jeremy it takes a major load off of you and it increases stickiness as well. member to member support that is it.
you could take suggestions for added features or whatever but the limit of support is to the forum and videos unless they wish to pay a consulting fee of 1000.00 per hr .no one will want that .

you don`t have time for this your losing your mindset I can hear it through your speaking here not your mind your mindset you need to be able to focus on your current projects as well and it will come out in your dealing with the customer . set up a forum use phorum 5 or yabb or phpbb or smf they are easy free and easy to use. set the categories and let er rip
-WD

Sorry, couldn't resist

I think the idea of charging for a premium level of support is a good one, but if the questions can only be answered by you then you might find yourself obligated to put in a premium level of appearance too if people aren't deterred by the charge. I like the user support forum idea a lot as well. If the average user doesn't need much in the way of support then for all those that need some hand-holding there must be others at the opposite end of the scale who'd be happy to answer questions on the product once they've become familiar with it, whether it's from an urge to help people or just a need to show how clever they are. Unlike many FAQs, forums can make compulsive reading too.

I should know. I've spent the last two years trying to stop browsing this one

hi.
Halfway down i stopped reading your answers - so i am hoping that i am not repeating an answer.
Here is my suggestion.
answer every ticket with a video /audio. and then post those up as your FAQ's
eventually there will be so many answers that you would have covered everything.
the ones that repeat all the time - Do a longer descriptive FAQ/answer video that will cover a whole bunch of questions at one time.
you will probably gain a product out of it over time, or at the very least be able to run a membership site on ALLIMQUESTIONSANDANSWERS.COM
good luck with it.
Rob

You should do the one thing that I always did when selling to the IM market and I'm baffled that not one marketer has actually took the time to copy.

You hire one bad ass dude who can answer just about anything and you stick his butt on Ustream and let him deal with people live. Complete transparency, and the problem is almost always solved very quickly and in a manner that the customers will be more then thrilled with.

Done deal.

Quick and easy and nobody gets hurt.

Hire another IM marketer that doesn't mind earning extra cash on the side. Screen them for suitability:

1. When starting a new domain, what can a person expect in terms of being indexed?
2. Explain to me, what "the money is in the list" and why this is not always the case.
3. Explain the best way to get accepted into a CPA network
4. What do you know of linkwheels and what are the recent changes?

You get the idea. I just think you need an all round marketer that knows IM very well and specifically knows your products inside out. But for someone that knows IM very will probably not be suitable for this as they would be building their own business.

Michael

If you already have outsource support guys then I'd definitely consider setting up a support forum to connect your customers. You'll be amazed how much time and effort a few of your customers will put into supporting your product for you. Consider rewarding the best ones with freebies but be very careful about offering to pay them to do what they are doing anyway (see my other ramblings in this thread about the psychology of replacing motivation with money.) Your main task them becomes adding additional training so your existing support guys can effectively moderate a forum as well as their other duties.

Setup weekly support mailings to your customer list. For every guy who emails you with a question five others have the same one but don't ask for some reason. Write answers, record videos or whatever then send out a "product update" with all the cool new free info about it. It'll also help some of the people that would've just worded the question differently and since it's being delivered to their inbox as added value (as opposed to buried in a FAQ somewhere) there's a much better chance they'll read it.

View support as a profit centre not a cost centre. How many times would you have happily paid 20 bucks to get a prompt and detailed answer to your query that isn't just a copy/paste from a FAQ that you've already read? If a well trained employee (possibly someone you hire from your own list) can handle just 3 requests an hour that's $60 an hour in revenue and happier customers.

For everyone else reading this thread here's another thought for you. If someone as talented as Jeremy is having difficulties with this one there must be a wealth of demand for decent support services. Figure out how to provide cost effective (or even profitable, as in point 3 above) support for other people's products and you're in business.

Thought two. If your reaction to the last paragraph was "awesome, I'll hire some of those $1 an hour VAs I keep reading about" then please don't bother. I don't want to be responsible for a dozen "support" companies appearing on the scene.

Hope this helps someone,

Andy

You say you have other niches that are working out fine and don't require time intensive support from you personally. As I read your post I started thinking how many of these other niche products that don't eat up your time could you create and launch in the time it's taking you to fulfill the support tickets on this one niche? As much as it hurts to do it, your best business decision may be to just close the doors on this niche and invest your time somewhere else. Even if it's your biggest money maker, over the long term it's probably better to just pull the plug and continue working in other niches where your time investment has a greater ROI.

Probably not what you wanted to hear, but I think it's a valid angle to look at and is often hard when there's an emotional connection to the niche (which I think a lot of us have with IM, obviously). Hope you get it all worked out!

Hey Jeremy,

I think your problem has a huge connection with the way you have "positioned" yourself within the IM niche.

You have obviously done this very well and have a great reputation which is clear by the amount of sales you generate but more importantly the fantatstic feedback you recieve.

As you continue to become more successful, which means more and more time consuming tasks, you are still left with the original "position" you have created for yourself, which is "the sucessful Internet Marketer next door", because of this people feel they can chat to you and ask very detailed questions unbeknown to them is the speed at which your business has grown and the huge work load you have.

BTW a great and well deserved "position" to be in.

I think the best soultion IMHO would be to go with a customer forum, they usually work very well speaking from a customers POV.

Thanks
Andy

Jeremy, I'm facing a similar problem now. I haven't set up a support ticket system yet but will be doing so shortly. I used to receive anything from 15 - 30 emails per day. Mainly with questions about my products. I usually answer straightaway but I'm finding that more and more emails are coming in and it's easy to lose track of what peoples questions were if they email a second or a third time.

I'll have to set my ticket system up shortly and then look at getting someone else to deal with the support if it gets any busier. The question is whether I can trust anyone else to give the correct information and respond to queries promptly. Yet another dilema.

Hi Jeremy,

It's for this reason I am very wary of outsourcing certain things. We have two people, Chris and Leo in the office that do support for all of our businesses. They are good guys, but I would be lying to you if I said that it all goes smoothly.

I do a lot of tickets myself, as does James - simply because some of them are easier for us to do, and with IM stuff, we can often help out in a way Leo and Chris can't.

I found having good ticket desk software was a great first step. That way, people don't get forgotten about, and I can always see what has been said - with email support, things always go astray.

We also have a quite a few customers in another niche who try and get support off of sales staff on the phone. We've never managed to crack that one...

I suggest using a professional help desk that allows you to build a knowledge base covering all the products (not separate help desk for several products) and that includes a feature that auto suggests the topics while the customer is writing his ticket.

Also having prepared standard responses for the most common problems is a good help desk feature.

Ralf

Edit: not sure if it is the best, but it has the features mentioned:
http://www.kayako.com/

I would recommend Zend desk!

Personally I would go for a support forum and ditch the helpdesk. Not only does it become an FAQ area and heldepsk, but you get peer help as well, so your clients are helping you out.

Failing that, a tiered product with support only on the full version.

Or a better helpdesk that allows you to quickly turn answers into a knowledgebase and that suggests solutions and makes them jump through hoops.

It seems that you are answering questions that you shouldn't be answering. Unless you told them that you will answer "how to" questions about your product you shouldn't be answering anything else besides tech related questions.

Just because they bought your product that doesn't mean that you give them free consulting...hell if thats how its done, ill start sending emails about every chapter of a book to the product creator with questions like: "I'm having trouble finding good keywords, what can i do?" or "What keyword tool to use?" or "I can't find a good market, can you help me?"...to me all these questions should not be answered.

You got the ebook, everything you need is in it...you want me to help you "more" you pay for my time.

Here's what I did with Wordpress PPC Theme.

Everytime I received the same question twice, I either loaded up Jing and shot a 5 minute video response or simply typed out the response. Then I loaded it in the customer "support" area. I made this area extremely clear in every communication with the customer.

It seems counter-productive at first, but as time rolled on, this worked beautifully. I covered nearly every question out there -once- and people were blown away by my response. It got to a point where I rarely got support emails. If I did, they're usually "lost passwords", etc...but Nanacast helped with that since they have a Members area to securely access the files and videos anytime they want.

I can't stress the importance of having one place to answer common questions AND download. Preferably a membership-style site so you don't need to reset timers.

Don't do it, Jeremy!

You can create a very comprehensive FAQ page first. Try to gather all the unanswered tickets and try to put them in the FAQ. Then you can personally (!) create templates for the hardest (but popular) questions that the outsourced agent cannot answer. He can then just edit it by adding or deleting info. I know it will take some time and effort but at least you'll not get 200+ unanswered tickets per week.

I have a question I need to ask you jeremy. I'll send you a support ticket

Have a look at the support tickets you get, and see if there is a common theme. If there is consider a short report to go alongside the main product, or see if the main product needs to be changed.

Have a FAQ and keep adding to it when more questions are asked.

You might want Don to set up something (program?) which asks the question and then takes the people to either yes or no, this then gives the more questions if they selected no, and so it continues until there are no more options.

At this point they could raise a support ticket which you say is answered Mon to Fri and within 48 hours. If however, they want a priority support answer then it will be $100.

Some great advice here.

Big Mike's experience is the closest match to ours.

In particular, I'd recommend you think carefully whether you really want the headache of a peer-to-peer support forum. Been there. Done that. Hated it. It created as much work as it solved, if not more.

I have attached the support map that we put together for AutoResponse Plus. We make this available to customers too so they know what options are available to them.

As Mike said often problems are with hosting and/or something that the customer or their web host changed. For those situations we refer customers to one of our professional services - a Health Check - that we outsource.

The consultant (for a very reasonable fee) goes in and makes sure that everything's fine with the installation. If the customer doesn't have the latest version, they get it as part of the deal. That's worked well and gets us out of many situations where we're expected to be unpaid consultants when the issue is nothing to do with our software.

Cheers,

Neil

One more thought. Support issues can be a goldmine of new business. They can provide ideas for new products or services, and can also be a point of sale for other things you sell.

If you sell baking equipment and a customer has trouble mixing dough with a mixer, it might be a opportunity to sell them a bigger mixer, an attachment, a warranty, etc.

Something else I just thought of is the importance of managing the expectations of your customers.

If your customers are used to receiving a reply to their enquiry within 5 minutes of sending it then that's what they'll come to expect. In the early days, I used to have fun replying the same minute that the enquiry arrived! That's fine until your customer base outgrows it.

So when you start taking an hour to reply, they'll regard your support as heading downhill. And one whole business day - your support SUCKS now!

But if you set the expectation at the get-go that all replies will be handled within one business day, the customer knows exactly what to expect.

There are many ways of managing this from slowly weaning your customer off instant replies to stating on your support pages when a reply can be expected.

Even, as I suspect some big companies do, set the delay so long that the problem goes away. We've all seen it (in my case it was a MASSIVE power company with hundreds of people in call centres)...

"Thank you for your enquiry. We aim to respond within 5 business days."

5 days later, I had forgotten what the problem was!

Do I need to say it? OK - I'm definitely not recommending that but it is out there!

Cheers,

Neil

Jeremy

If you haven't jumped yet (hope not)!...

As Brandon says, if you have something that says...

"A majority of the questions we receive are answered in the FAQ below,
so before contacting us, please review the FAQ to see if the answer to
your question is there".

And then I would also add something that says...

"Due to the amount of repeat questions that we have that are already
answered in the FAQ section, we will not respond to any questions where
the answer appears in our FAQ section". - Thank you.

Hi Jeremy,

First, it's actually great to have a problem like
yours..It means the dollars are coming it..

Second, I think one of the main focus of your
question here is about delegating..correct me if
I'm wrong but you seem to have a problem with
your outsourcing crew..

Based on your post, I'm assuming that you're not
too happy with your outsourcing crew and have to
do a lot of stuff yourself..

If outsourcing is not working for you, don't give up
hope. Just keep on looking for people who could do
it for you. You don't have to fire your entire crew
but keep on looking for one or two who are intelligent
enough to keep up with the work that you do.

Look for somebody who can replace you, but will be
loyal enough not to run off with your knowledge and
build his own gig.

Now what you should do when you look for people
is to really test them..I once enjoyed a good
relationship with a previous boss who tested me first..

I recommend you do the same with each and every
person you hire..test them and see if they can face up
to the challenge, if within the employment period they
won't be able to do things you expect them to do, then
talk to them and instruct them. If after several
times of doing this, they're still not able to meet your
expectations, then inform them that one more slip up
can cause them their jobs..I think that would be fair enough..

I would recommend Filipino outsourcers..but like everything
else in life, there's no assurance that each and every Fil you
hire will live up to your expectations..

The best thought I can leave you with is test them before
you hire them, then take the time to teach them, if they fail
then fire them. It will definitely hurt but it's business.

All the best,

"It appears that the questions you are asking are beyond the scope of the support we offer for XYZ Product. You'll get many excellent answers to your questions by going to the Warrior Forum and searching for your answer there!"

this does not apear to be a support issue, rather a business model issue.

you are / were new so that 30 min. of support was needed to get business off the ground and get good feedback critical to a new operation. now you are victim of your own success and unable / unwilling to provide that level of support.

so now an adjustment is needed to your business model, a shift in client expectation needs to be implemented gradually through your marketing and products.

I'm with Big Mike re: on having a support forum at this point. I've also been down that road in more than one niche, what a pain in the ass. I wouldn't do it if I were in your shoes. There's too much room for failure. I think a support forum is fine for certain products, but not what you're doing. I prefer to give my customers the one-on-one support they deserve - but within reason.

We get well over 1,000 tickets a day and centralizing most of it has helped tremendously. Look at Armin Morin's set up, while far from perfect, it's one example on how you can centralize your support even if you had a pretty big product line. I think the advice you've gotten about setting expectations upfront is priceless. You may have touched on this already, but having the response time expectation on your thank you page and autoresponder should help a little.

Also you're good at making videos. You can lump a bunch a questions, make a video, and then release it to everyone or place it on your FAQ or Knowledge Base page. I have found that 99% of IMers in the IM niche have a very weak FAQs. I know quit a bit about this because I've helped set up an extensive FAQs for both offline and online companies.

I'm with you on charging extra to a degree. There is a huge difference between offering support and coaching. Basic support should come with every product that you release and if you want to go the extra mile a little coaching might be okay. But once you get far into "coaching" you should definitely be charging for it. I've learned the hard way that no matter how well-intentioned you might be, not all your customers are going to understand it. If you don't set specific parameters upfront, you are setting yourself up for failure. And we don't want you jumping off any roofs.....unless there's a trampoline at the bottom waiting for you.

A quick example of this is that one of my products is a book about dating and meeting women, geared toward men ages 18 to 35. I am very specific that they get unlimited e-mail support for 90 days and 30 minutes of coaching when they purchase it. Anything beyond that they have to pay for (I would consider that a back-end and/or upsell). About 2% of those that purchase take advantage of the extra coaching and support. About 20% have questions such as "I lost the link", "can you send me the attachment again?", and "how many girlfriends do you have?".

I've read the sales copy on most of your WSOs and I think adding some of these expectations on your sales copy would help.

My 8 pesos,

RoD