Customer Support Professional Blog

The conclusion of the Getting Real series. See post 1, post 2 and post 3 as well.
Get bad news out there and out of the way.
If something goes wrong, tell people. Even if they never saw it in the first place.
For example, Basecamp was down once for a few hours in the middle of the […]

Continuation from the series of posts inspired by Getting Real book. See this previous post and this previous post. Please note that what works for 37signals may not work for you as a smaller team or a bigger corporation.
Use forums or chat to let customers help each other.
Forums and web-based group chat are a great way […]

This is a sequel of the previous post. Time in support is of the essence.
Quick turnaround time on support queries should be a top priority.
Customers light up when you answer their questions quickly. They’re so used to canned responses that show up days later (if at all) that you can really differentiate yourself from competitors […]

I’m starting a series of articles inspired by Getting Real book by 37signals. Chapter 14 of this book tells about customer support in software development. And guys from 37signals (creators of Basecamp and Ruby on Rails) have some good points worth sharing.
In the restaurant business, there’s a world of difference between those working in the kitchen […]