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.

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.

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

Customers do want a choice, and a quick response to an e-mail is impressive in an age when mass-automation dominates online. But with amazon you are buying a book, a product that is what it is. Almost a commodity product. With 37 signals and Freshbooks each is a service to individuals who in turn have individual issues and questions.

Only this week I e-mailed FB ( due to time difference here in the UK) and expected the usual protracted exchanges. I was v impressed I got the answer and solution within hours. Fantastic service!

Would I rather phone? Every time. Why? Because I can interact with another person rather than type in silence. Resolve things more quickly. Possibly learn something I didn’t know.

And let’s not forget, employees are a huge part of the brand experience for customers. The smiling barrista who chatted with you as you picked up your coffee this morning at Starbucks has a greater influence over your perception of Starbucks than the logo over the door, the seating, the price…or an e-mail from their customer service team,

Keep the phone lines open FB, you’re doing a great job.

The Freshbooks clientele are probably on average a lot more tech savvy compared to the clientele of, say, an internet provider. Making the Internet provider clientele more costly to serve.

Any ideas from the folks at FreshBooks on how a company just starting out can manage the costs associated with providing toll free phone support?