Customer Support Course: Day 1 of 4 - The basics

Day 1 of 4 - The basics

Thanks for signing up! In this free techsupport course you will learn:

• Why techsupport is important
• How to stop hating it
• How to make your customers love you
• How to use it as a marketing channel
• and many more...

We, the founders behind Jitbit Helpdesk, have techsupport background, so we decided to share what we've learnt over these years. This is the first message in our short and sweet 4-email course, filled with small actionable pieces, that can be applied to your daily routine right away. But first, the basics...

1. Support is cheap marketing

As a technical support person you are the most important employee in your company. Even though very few people understand that.

You've been given a chance to talk to your customers (or prospects) directly. It's time to make a great impression.

And that's not that hard, because people expect customer support to be awful. If you ever called your cell company or your bank you know what I mean. ""Your call is very important to us, so please enjoy this 30-minute flute solo."". In customer support the bar is so low that going an extra mile will actually fascinate people. Always keep that in mind when answering tickets. People don't expect much, so use this as an advantage.

2. Support is a part of the sales funnel

If you're selling a B2B product, most of your potential customers will have some questions before the actual purchase. And the person who asks the question - is typically the decision-maker. Even in B2B.

Stop targeting executives and suits, instead - target the IT-guys, accountants, the “normal people” who are facing a problem. Solve their pain and they will become your passionate advocates inside their companies. Because when it comes to decide which product to buy, “the suits” will listen to these very people.

3. Support will make you money, plain and simple

A couple of months ago we have started asking our customers “What made you buy our product?” just after they purchased one of our apps. “Great customer support” was one of the most popular answers.

Customer support makes you money, plain and simple. Doesn't matter if you're selling a simple iPhone app (that has reviews right next to it) or a complicated B2B software package that solves an enterprise-scale problem.

4. Invite support people to important meetings

We, Alex and Max, the founders behind Jitbit, switch a lot of hats during a day. We do support, development, product management, marketing, you name it. But still: customer support is where we get the most valuable insight from.

So if your boss thinks he's got “the big picture” in his head without ever trying to do customer support himself - he's wrong. You are the one talking to the real users. Every day. So your executives should stop relying on reports, market research, assumptions and guesses, and talk to you instead.

And if, by any chance, any CEOs, sales agents or project managers are reading this, here is what you need to do. For the first time ever, go talk to your customer support department. Ask them what they think about your product or service. I promise, you won't regret this.

That's enough with the introduction and the basics. Tomorrow we will send you some actionable tactics you can use right away.