Carsonified

I’m very excited to announce the acquisition of DropSend, our web app for sending large files. The buyer is Webminds, Inc.

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I love posters in Airports becuase they have to convey a simple idea to you very quickly. You’re walking by and the poster has about 1 second to capture your attention, communicate a message and make you remember it.

I saw this DHL poster in the airport in Berlin and loved it:

Ithink it’s the perfect summary of good customer service. I’ve made some customer service mistakes in my time, but the one thing I’ve learned is that you just need to practice saying “Sure, I’d be happy to do that for you.”

Real Life Example

This happened the other day with DropSend. I had a customer email me because he wanted to cancel his account. Well, one of the nice things about DropSend is that you don’t have to ask us to cancel your account. You can do it yourself by just going to the ‘My Account’ page and clicking ‘Please cancel my account’. Bam, your done.

I started writing this response:

Hi xxxx,

We’re sorry to lose you as a customer! All you have to do to cancel your account is login, go to the ‘My Account’ page, and click ‘Please cancel my account’.

All the best,
Ryan

However, after a second of thought, I changed it to:

Hi xxxx,

We’re sorry to lose you as a customer! I’ve cancelled your account for you.

Hope we can serve you in the future.

All the best,
Ryan

It meant I had to spend time logging into the DropSend Admin, searching for his account and clicking ‘Delete’. Time I didn’t want to spend, but looking back, I think it was important.

I never heard from that customer, thanking me for doing this. And I didn’t expect to. But hopefully it made his life a little easier.

Yikes. Lisa (our new DropSend manager) just came across a project on GetAFreelancer.com asking someone to build a DropSend clone.

In a way I’m flattered, and in another way, it creeps me out.

I guess someone has seen all the figures I’ve been publishing for DropSend and has decided they could do it as well. I probably shouldn’t be surprised.

I’m not worried though - ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s all in the execution.

Wanting to “build a DropSend clone” is one thing. Actually doing it and being successful is another thing entirely.

For a great post on this subject, head on over to Dick Costello’s blog and read Strategic Advantage (part II).

Exciting news for us and I wanted to share it with you all.

The mighty Register has listed DropSend as one of the top 25 Web 2.0 Startups in the UK (see #21).

We’re honoured to make the list. Thank you to all of our wonderful fans and customers - we couldn’t do it without you.

I got a pretty good beating on the blogosphere :) for my post about handling abusive customers. It was well deserved and I’ve learned my lesson.

Another important lesson

In addition to remembering that the customer is always right, the most important thing I’ve learned through doing all the support for DropSend and Amigo is this:

Make it easy to help your customers.

Sounds obvious right? Well, believe it or not, it’s the small details that happen during the build of the app, that will determine how easy it’ll be to help your customers.

Here are some things you should build into your app’s back end in order to make customer service easier:

Simple search for users accounts

You will get tons of emails from customers saying things like “Please cancel my account” or “What plan am I using?” or “Can you re-send me my last two invoices?”, etc.

It’s insane, but I actually have to page through thousands of accounts in DropSend, in order to find someone’s account so I can answer those questions. I can’t do a simple search based on their first/last name or email address.

Building a simple user account search (name or email address) will allow you to quickly help your customers. If it’s quicker for you, you’re more likely to be helpful to your customer because it takes one minute, instead of ten!

Allow token gestures of kindness

There will be plenty of times when a user encounters a bug and they’ll be pissed off.

You can apologize and promise you’ll fix the bug ASAP, but that won’t really make your customer feel any better. If you can easily do one of the following, it’s likely they’ll forget about their frustrations and they’ll keep using their account:

1. Give them one free month of service
2. Refund their last invoice
3. Give them some extra free usage (ie in DropSend, we can give them an extra 15 files sends for that month)

If you can’t easily do these things in your app’s backend, you’ll find yourself dragging your heels when it comes to helping your customers.

For example, if you have to contact your book keeper to refund invoices, instead of simply clicking a button in the app’s backend, you won’t do it as often as you should.

Reduce that friction

Making it easier for you to help customers will dramatically improve the quality of your customer service.

Make sure to spend the extra time on the app’s backend and you’ll see a huge payoff in happy customers!

If you’re building a web app and you don’t have a lot of cash to play with, you won’t be able to afford a full time developer.

If you’re a young startup and you can afford a full time developer, you’re probably spending too much money and will quickly go out of business. (This still applies to those who’ve taken funding. Don’t waste your cash on expensive payrolls).

Ummmm … now what?

This is a major long term problem and it’s one we’re wrestling with right now at Carson Systems.

Our two web apps (DropSend and Amigo) were built by two different (and very talented) freelance developers. We got them built quickly for a very affordable price (around £6K each).

Feel the pain

When you’ve outgrown your freelance developers, you’ll know it. Trust me. Here’s the dead give away:

Getting bugs fixed and new features implemented starts taking fricken’ forever.

So what if you find yourself in this situation, but you still can’t afford a full time developer?

You’ve got three options:

1. Figure out how to increase your revenue so you can hire someone
2. Raise some funding
3. Go offshore

We’re taking option #3. DropSend and Amigo don’t really generate enough revenue at this point to justify a full time developer (we could, but it wouldn’t be a wise business decision).

The problem is that things are stating to take way to long to get fixed.

So we’ve decided to create a two person team (one full time developer and one part time project manager) in Russia that will work for us full time. Gone are the days of battling our freelancer’s other clients for their time!

It’s working

We just started with our Russian team, and you know what? I absolutely love it.

We were fortunate enough to have friends who already had in-roads in Russia, so they could help us find the right team. This is vital. I don’t think you have a prayer if you hope to go through rent-a-coder or some other 3rd party service.

You really need someone you can trust, and that can only be done through recommendations.

So we’ve got a full time developer for a very affordable price. This includes: desk space, hardware, broadband and a little bit of project management by a second person (our developer doesn’t speak fluent English so we go through a project manager).

Rock and roll. DropSend and Amigo are really going to get a kick up the pants and you should see some great new improvements and bug fixes soon. I can’t wait!

Every once-in-awhile I get a really angry (and slightly abusive) customer support email for DropSend. It’s always tempting to lash back in anger - but it’s never the right thing to do.

Here is a recent example:

Refund me the 5 dollars ASAP

No attempt whatsoever at civility or courtesy. Not even a “Hello” or “To whom it may concern.” Just a one line demand for a refund . To be honest, it didn’t ruffle my feathers at all. I’ve grown a pretty thick skin and have come to accept that people will often say things in email that they would never dream of saying to someone in real life.

So I just took a deep breath and responded with this:

Hi XXXXXX,

I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Why should we refund your money? Did you not mean to upgrade? Have you used your account?

Kind regards,
Ryan

My hope was that he would respond with a story about how he tried the service and it just wasn’t right for him. Every once-in-awhile, we get someone who says “I upgraded and then immediately downgraded as I realized I didn’t need the service any longer. Would you please refund me?” And of course we happily oblige.

But then I got this one back:

What the fuck is wrong with you guys?

I have emailed you guys several times now. REFUND ME ASAP

Wow, now that’s not nice. Normally when customers ask for support, we happily help out. Even if it’s annoying and time consuming. However, verbal abuse just isn’t cool. So I sent this back:

XXXXXX,

We do not tolerate verbal abuse. It was your choice to upgrade and then downgrade immediately. It states clearly that you will be charged for a pro-rata amount of the month.

If you’re not happy with the service, feel free to cancel at any time. All you have to do is log in to your DropSend account (https://myaccount.dropsend.com/login), go to the “My Account” tab (https://myaccount.dropsend.com/account), scroll to the bottom and click “Please cancel my account”.

Sincerely,
Ryan

I kept my cool and stated the facts. I took the time to explain how he can easily cancel the service if he’s not happy with it. Seemed like a fair way to handle the situation.

Then I got this zinger:

I downgraded immediately, because the dropsend application didn’t work for uploading my files.

Just refund it asap; I don’t have time for this shit.

And don’t tell me something that I have already done. I want you to REFUND me, not cancel. What part of the word REFUND do you not understand?

Hrmmmm. So he wants to continue using DropSend, but get a refund for his last invoice. That just isn’t fair and this email exchange is starting to spin out of control. So I responded with this:

Hi XXXXXX,

As I said, our policy states very clearly that the charges would be made and you agreed to our terms and conditions by checking the box.

If you weren’t so abrasive and rude, I would’ve refunded your money - even though we are under *no* legal obligation to do so.

I am now marking your email address as spam and your communication will no longer get through. If you don’t want to use our service any more, please cancel your account.

All you have to do is log in to your DropSend account (https://myaccount.dropsend.com/login), go to the “My Account” tab (https://myaccount.dropsend.com/account), scroll to the bottom and click “Please cancel my account”.

Sincerely,
Ryan

Usually I get angry customers emailing me demanding for help. I always respond with a friendly response, doing my best to help them out.

But every once-in-awhile, you get a customer who is just cruel and really doesn’t want to be helped. In those cases it seems best (to me) to state the facts to them in a professional manner, and move on.

I actually got sucked into this one a bit too much, but like any fight, it drew me in.

What are you opinions on this one? How would you have responded?