As an indie maker, I prefer working with contractors and software rather than hiring a team. Customer support is one area where I have automated repetitive work.
Selling to consumers brings a steady stream of support questions. It took years before I was ready to automate the answers.
I think founders benefit from answering support questions themselves in the early years. It helps them learn what customers want, where they get stuck and what needs fixing.
Eventually, the same questions began to repeat. That was my signal to automate the responses.
By then, I had identified the most common problems and improved the product where I could.
There will always be things you can't fix technically, and customers will always keep asking questions. Identify the four or five questions customers ask most often. If these do not account for most support tickets, you may need to improve the product further before automating support.
For Pasfoto.nu, I identified the four main problems:
- I didn't receive my confirmation email.
- My shipping address is incorrect.
- My order hasn't been delivered.
- My photos haven't been accepted.
These four accounted for 97% of the questions I received. Answering them proactively reduced the need for customers to contact me.
Here is what I changed:
- On the website, I created a customer service section that can be found in the main menu. All incoming questions are listed and answered here. Creating a new page for each question added a lot of SEO value to the website. Content is content, and customer service questions serve the long tail.
- In the customer service section, the four FAQs are highlighted and answered, before all other questions.
- In the order confirmation email, I added a link to the customer service section on the website. This single action reduced 90% of incoming support tickets.
- The next day, there is an autoresponder sent out to the customer, introducing the customer service again, and answering the four FAQs and linking to the service section on the website.
- When a customer emails us, an automatic reply answers the FAQs and links to the support section.
- In the customer service section, all answers that require action have a self service form where customers can resolve their issues within minutes, after identifying with order number and email address.
The aim must be to help the customer. Self-service gives customers a quick answer, often faster than I could provide one manually, and helps me keep prices low.
It helps to explain to customers why support works this way. I found out that almost everyone happily accepts this.
The system relies on trust: customers can even arrange their own refunds. I'm sure this will be abused every now and then, but that does not outweigh the benefits and time saved.
I no longer answer the same questions every day, and I can focus on improving the product while keeping support available.