Build the Arc Before the Flood – Preparing For Customer Support Inundation
I recently purchased another MacHeist bundle. This was my second one and probably my last. MacHeist is great at putting together very compelling bundles of software. But after several months of owning these bundles I find that I don’t use much of the software I purchase.
It’s not MacHeist’s fault. It’s due to software vendors being totally unprepared for the flood of new users they are guaranteed to receive when they participate in something like the MacHeist bundle.
Here is a summary of my experience with several software packages in the MacHeist bundles*:
Purchase the bundle and download the software. This usually goes quite well. MacHeist does a pretty good job of making sure the purchasing and retrieval of the software keys goes smoothly.
Install and start using the software. Sometimes I get far. Sometimes I don’t. A lot of the applications in the MacHeist bundles are basically in a beta state. There are often bugs or incomplete/unintuitive features.
Go to company site to look for information. My first step is always to see if there is some documentation or at least a user forum. Of the product sites I have visited from the MacHeist bundle I have never seen any form of legitimate documentation. There might be 3 or 4 FAQ’s but not much more than that.
Contact support. Since there seems to be no hope of getting help on the website I contact support via email. Inevitably I get an email back that says something to the effect that they are buried in emails and will get back to me as soon as possible. I have never heard back from any of them.
So what is the result? I have a bunch of software that I got a great deal on that I never use. This is a missed opportunity for the vendor (I am certainly not going to recommend their product to anyone) and MacHeist since the whole process leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
I have essentially come to equate MacHeist products with terrible customer support. I doubt that is what the developers want. They are probably very nice people who work very hard. But they got flooded in support requests and weren’t able to keep up. They are like someone living in the time of Noah who decides to build an arc after the rain starts to fall. Guess what? It’s too late. You aren’t going to catch up.
Build the Arc Now
So, if you are thinking about having your product in one of these bundles consider me the crazy old man with the long beard who is telling you that the flood is coming. BUILD YOUR ARC NOW.
How do you build your customer support arc? It doesn’t have to take a lot of time or a lot of money. Here are 3 simple things you can do to make sure you don’t drown. (Note: If you don’t like the services I recommend here then swap out your own. Just make sure that you have a solution in each product category.)
3 Steps to Surviving the Flood
1. Get a Help Ticketing System
If you get any volume of support emails, your basic email inbox is going to break. Immediately. You need to have some sort of ticketing system. There are all sorts of solutions out there, but for the independent developer I am going to recommend Zendesk. If you have other suggestions for 1 or 2 people shops please post them in the comments below. Zendesk costs $9/month for the solo plan.
With a ticketing system you will be able to track which customers you have responded to and which you haven’t. If you keep getting the same questions over and over again you can set up macros with automated responses.
Also, remember that all help ticketing systems are not created equal. A free help ticketing system that is hard to use will end up costing you much more than $9/month. Zendesk is simple to set up and at $9/month your ticketing system will pay for itself in the first 30 min. Don’t be cheap. Do it.
2. Prepare two or three screencasts
This costs a little more money and takes more time. We personally use Screenflow which costs $99. It’s worth it. Record one or two videos giving an overview of what your product does and some of the features in the product. Don’t try to document your product using video. That will take too long and you don’t have time. You should be able to create 1-3 two minute videos that you can publish to YouTube and embed in your site. As an added bonus, YouTube videos will be playable on iPhones and iPads.
