Comments on: 37signals, call me.

By: Stuff 2012 With Successful Strategies | Lyndit Marketing

Stuff 2012 With Successful Strategies | Lyndit Marketing — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:14:18 +0000

[...] number is on the top of the home page. The company even brags on its blog about its commitment to answering the phone … Love doesn’t necessarily pay the bills, of course. But Saul [Colt] says his philosophy [...]

By: Business Pages

Business Pages — Mon, 24 May 2010 11:20:20 +0000

Business Pages
congratulations to freshbooks for considering customers interests. it will be very helpful.
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Alyssa

By: 1 866 toll free numbers

1 866 toll free numbers — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:32:22 +0000

It’s nice to know about this toll free number. This is just an indication the you are serious with the business and that customer service is among your priority.

By: The Demeanor of a Troll Meets Your Business Phone (beware) | Women Grow Business

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:37:03 +0000

[...] Freshbooks and human customer support, small business, and the phone; [...]

By: Deano

Deano — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:05:54 +0000

How about the “prospect vs. customer” issue?

I’d say that, once someone becomes your paying customer, you should have some* way to have them reach you by phone – this also answers the “startup” issue – freebie gets nothing, paying gets a direct line.

As an aside, I had a great experience with Dell CHAT support the other day – normally I have to wait on hold forever to set up RMAs, and convince one or more techs that I know my stuff, and tried all the basic steps. With chat, I get the immediacy of knowing they’re reading my stuff right away, as well as the clarity of type, and the ability to retype/cut and paste “live” into our conversation… The best part? Once they had agreed to a repair, they emailed me a confirmation – complete with a full log of our chat!

It blew me away, and just made me realize how impossible the like would be over the phone, and how even email usually fails to “keep it all together” in a way that I, or any subsequent support person, will be able to easily read.

By: SLA's

SLA's — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:49:17 +0000

Yet again – small time thinking. Try scaling 50,000 customers through one 800 number where the “CEO” (and I use that term losely) answers the phone.

Hope you guys have good cash reserves, because you’re going to be small for a looooooooooong time. This is coming from someone who started a web-based small business in 2003 and now has 80,000 customers and 60 million revenue/year.

By: Diana

Diana — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:32:06 +0000

I’m really torn on the idea of phone support. Personally I prefer email support when I need help and as someone who provides customer support I’m not a big fan of phone support. I think it really depends on your audience though. In my case I often end up spending a good deal of time looking at someone’s code and helping them edit and test, that’s just not possible over the phone. It’s a lot easier for me to get that email and have time to research and help them fix what they need to fix.

By: WebWorkerDaily » Archive Phone or Email Support - Which Do You Prefer? «

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:00:57 +0000

[...] experience justified why they only offer support via email. This prompted responses from both FreshBooks and BatchBlue who both acknowledge that, while email can be more efficient than phone support, [...]

By: BatchBlue: Blog

BatchBlue: Blog — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:32:44 +0000

[...] Shah at Freshbooks (whose online billing/invoicing software we use and love) wrote last week about answering the phone for customer service. Many great points about the importance of being available to your customer, however it is they are [...]

By: Levi Cooperman

Levi Cooperman — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:32:42 +0000

Hi Mort,

Thanks for the comments. To answer your question about how a company just starting out can afford phone support – I think you are right, it does depend on the clientele and the product, but fundamentally a company just starting out really can’t afford NOT to answer the phone. The absolute best thing a new growing business can do is talk to their customers. At FreshBooks, especially in the early days, we all jumped at the opportunity to talk to our customers. We setup a relatively cheap phone system and 1-800 number (it is less than you think) and made it part of our daily workday. I find if you provide a partially free service, relatively speaking, not that many people call, and the ones that do are very respectful of the time they take up. We were able to get a lot done and still answer the phone and respond to support emails.

Chris, thanks for the comments. FYI, FreshBooks now has a toll-free number for the UK and Ireland. It is isn’t up yet on our site, but here are the numbers:

Toll Free – UK: 0-808-101-34-08
Toll Free – Ireland: 1-800-949-046

Please give them a try and let us know if you run into any issues, since it is kind of hard for us to test these from here!

- Levi