Comments on: On Service: Phone Support is Gold http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/05/17/on-service-phone-support-is-gold/ A blog about our thoughts on entrepreneurship, teamwork, our services, the Web and anything we find interesting. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:27:46 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: On Service: Invest in a good headset http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/05/17/on-service-phone-support-is-gold/comment-page-1/#comment-43731 On Service: Invest in a good headset Tue, 05 Jun 2007 17:08:09 +0000 http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/05/17/on-service-phone-support-is-gold/#comment-43731 [...] and I was often forced to hold the phone in between my head and shoulder to keep my hands free when speaking with clients.  This resulted in my painful experience described [...] [...] and I was often forced to hold the phone in between my head and shoulder to keep my hands free when speaking with clients.  This resulted in my painful experience described [...]

]]> By: Andrew http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/05/17/on-service-phone-support-is-gold/comment-page-1/#comment-42646 Andrew Thu, 24 May 2007 21:12:08 +0000 http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/05/17/on-service-phone-support-is-gold/#comment-42646 I like the statement about considering your phone/support costs as a marketing expense. We feel strongly about that at our company. You want your customers calling and interacting with you. One helpful way to think about this is how we can easily demonize that we've never met. Think of Al Frankin or Rush Limbaugh (depending on your political bent). You may think of them as unintelligent monsters, but after a personal lunch with them, you may think that they're both alright people with terrible views in politics. My point is that a person is not a person until you've talked to them. Email does not cut it. One final note: Don't put your newest hires on the phone, or if you must, provide them with extensive training about not only your products, but also your company and the stance you are going to take on different issues. For example: how much troubleshooting are you going to do before replace the customer's system? How do you properly apologize for mistakes? How do you handle feedback and where is it stored and who reviews it? How long have we been in business and what do we pride ourselves in? All of your customer facing activities are ultimately sales activities. I like the statement about considering your phone/support costs as a marketing expense. We feel strongly about that at our company. You want your customers calling and interacting with you.

One helpful way to think about this is how we can easily demonize that we’ve never met. Think of Al Frankin or Rush Limbaugh (depending on your political bent). You may think of them as unintelligent monsters, but after a personal lunch with them, you may think that they’re both alright people with terrible views in politics.

My point is that a person is not a person until you’ve talked to them. Email does not cut it.

One final note: Don’t put your newest hires on the phone, or if you must, provide them with extensive training about not only your products, but also your company and the stance you are going to take on different issues. For example: how much troubleshooting are you going to do before replace the customer’s system? How do you properly apologize for mistakes? How do you handle feedback and where is it stored and who reviews it? How long have we been in business and what do we pride ourselves in?

All of your customer facing activities are ultimately sales activities.

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