How to Run Customer Service for Maximum Happiness Top Prio
CS is a really easy way to get users to stay and pay you It helps with them the setup, feature requests, and if they are experiencing any errors Do not outsource your CS at the beginning; you need to talk directly to your customers Only use email
Dont use live chat, peoplem have expectations about response times for each medium Try to respond in the 3 - 12 hr time window, 12 hrs only occur if go to bed and when log on the next morning Dont leave notifs on, need to get into a flow state, but will need to check everything few hours Automation
Use lots of docs, once a month I go through and add to the docs based on customer requests Try to automate anything that getting repeated questions about Autoresponder email to tell them the response times Bonus tips
Be personal, address convo as the founder and CEO of the app, embrace the fact that your product team is small, customers actually love to see it Set hours for example, 9-5 ET, we can still answer but it's nice to set hours Tools
Use to start and have a basic FAQ page Help Scout, make it super easy to create a docs section in the widget Customer convo are easily organized Stripe Startup Partner Program What?
The rate at which customers discountinue or cancel their sub to your product Directly impacts revenue and growth 3 reasons why users churn
1 - The product didn't get the job done. This situation arises when the SaaS tool lacks product-market fit or lacks essential functionalities 2 - Didn't meet expectations. This occurs when the customer is presented with a misleading or inaccurate perception of the product, either intentionally or unintentionally 3 - Customers didn't get to experience any value. This may be attributed to difficulties in product usabilities or a failure to expedite the time-to-value, resulting in customers leaving after encountering initial obstacles or friction Calculating Churn
User churn: (# of churned (lost) customers during the period / # of customers at the start of the period) x 100 Revenue Churn
((Churned MRR - Expansion MRR) / starting MRR) x 100 Expansion MRR: 20 upgrade to 50, expansion MRR is 30 Churned MRR it the revenue lost due to churn during the period of time Learning why there was churn
How would you feel if you could no longer use [product name]? Not disappointed (it really wasn't that useful) This survey comes from Superhuman NPS Survey
It asks a simple question "On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend our software to a friend or colleague"" 9-10 is called a promote, score 7-8 is called a passive, score 0-6 is called a detractor Exit Surveys
Asking them to understand why they are leaving, can do so on the way to caneling a plan, can follow up with them by email as well What would we have done better? Would you recommend [app name]? Why did you uninstall [app name]? Can use Help Scout or Sprig How to reduce churn
Acceptable Churn
This will depend on your customers Typically yearly churn is around 3-8% Pre-60 days can be 20-40%, aim for the lower end Net Negative Churn
(Churned MRR - Expansion MRR gained) / Total MRR The Feature Request Framework Balancing Act
You're going to have to balance between what you think is part of the long-term vision and what customers want You don't want to bend to the loudest customers Simple Framework
Demand (1-3, 1 is high demand) Effort (1,2,3,4,5,6) - higher is more time How to Handle
What we'll also say is that we'll add it to the feature list But we'll preface taht we won't be able to give an exact timeline Some founders will say they don't have plans to build it You don't necessarily want to give a timeline Save $$$ on Currency Conversion Fees → Use Wise
When there is Smoke There is Fire When does this happen?
This is something I've noticed for customer requests When you get a customer request that something isn't working. It's probably not this one person Most people if something doesn't work will not contact you they might choose to cancel their subscription or just not open it up again What to do about it?
So make sure you investigate why this bug or issue is happening just in case it's impacting other people Try to recreate the error Automating Back Your Time Why do this?
In the beginning, everything will be manual, you will constantly be finding workarounds But as your product starts to grow it's important to think about what can be automated that was done manually before This gives you less time to think about the overall I once met a founder who was doing a full-time income from his SaaS. But he still sending out invoices and licenses manually! It meant he was constantly on his phone and his computer Where to look for automations?
What do they keep asking about? Are certain settings confusing? It can be as simple as a clarification Customer cancellation or plan upgrades Feature Automation Example
For features taking a look at my own workflow, many users would request their accounts to be linked together I would manually send email confirmations to ensure they were owned by the same person. Although this didn't take too long. It was still a few requests every few weeks Error Message Automation
Tell the user exactly what went wrong so they can fix it themselves nobody wants to message support and wait For example, integration errors may just need a simple re-sign-in Zapier Automation
This works great for things such as orders or email confirmations It's quite easy to setup and can save you time trying to code an integration yourself What is it?
So if you've automated everything you can automate, you can also buy back your time The process of this is outsourcing tasks to other VAs or employees This is going to depend on your business and your product, also what you're looking to pay for This allows you more time tow work on the business instead of in it Pay for low-level, uninteresting, or repetitive tasks If your time is worth $100/hour, hiring someone at $15/hour nets you a $85/hour difference What tasks to pay for?
Social media posting and scheduling How much does it cost?
It will depend on which country you are hiring from The cheapest countries: India, Pakistan, Phil Hourly ranges can go from $5 USD and up This can be cheaper if you are hiring for longer timer basis The Process
This will depend on a few things Why was the refund requested? How much is the refund for? Are you worried about negative reviews? Did it cost you to provide them a service? This will be up to you whether to issue a refund. Personally, I will always issue a refund if it's a reasonable amount. If it's a lot - I will negotiate down Not issuing a refund can lead to: CC chargebacks - also come with a $15 fee Be Mindful of Power Users How to thing about additions
Power users are often the most vocal and engaged users Their needs and prefs can heavily influence product development Focusing solely on pwoer users can lead to a more complex product New users may struggle to understand and navigate it Can you hide these power features? Can you remove something else that is not being used or that is not core to the product's goal/mission?
Running Your Micro SaaS