Indian programmers, cookies from England and the Caucasus: the history of technical support department
When you have more than 4.5 million users, tech support should work like a clock. Today we will share stories from our experience: how to cope with difficult situations, how to respond to the mat and how to send branded circles to the most loyal users in London.
Most often, of course, there are questions about the site and requests to solve the problem.
There are several categories of such requests:
')
The specific moment of our site - we teach English. And we receive messages about a technical problem in English. Some users believe that this will be correct and logical. However, after reading the text (often the translation of Google is determined by the first two words), we answer in Russian so that it does not have to be translated later.
Delights, mate and thanks - all this gets support service in full. Sometimes they come by themselves, and sometimes they precede the message about the problem. Perhaps some users are guided by the thought: “what if a call for help seasoned with a selective mat or a declaration of love for a resource will be considered earlier or more carefully”. The truth is that we consider absolutely all appeals on an equal footing. Although getting a declaration of love for the site, of course, more pleasant.
Proposals for cooperation, advertising, the question "What is the name of the guy from the video on YouTube", serious research site and multi-page suggestions to improve its work. The latter, by the way, is often helpful.
Sometimes we get all of the above in one letter, but without the correct return address in the form. The letter is returned or not sent at all. And the user repeats his question again and again, and the degree of his dissatisfaction gradually increases. They also write from the addresses vk.com, fb.com - you have to search for a user on these social networks and contact him there (answers do not reach these addresses). Usually, after this, people prefer to continue social networking and even congratulate them on holidays.
One user, for example, suggested that we “write out programmers from India” so that they would fix the bugs in our application. Another asked to give him one course for free to “test” to determine if our service is suitable for him.
Another time, a girl wrote to us who could not complete the payment. For a long time we could not understand what the problem was, and only after some time she admitted that she had a special extension for the visually impaired. It turned out that she did most of the workouts with the help of a screen reader - and quite successfully, but with payment it did not work. Understood, helped, the girl even offered her help as a tester so that we could tailor the site for the visually impaired.
Our main audience is people of 20-45 years old, but we are often written by elderly users of 70-80 years old. It always delights and pleases that at its age, people continue to gravitate towards knowledge. Once, a woman who had moved to the Caucasus in the village turned in support. So she wrote: for 30 km around one mountain, to get to civilization on the crossbar. From the letters it was clear that the main problem is that she is not very well versed in her computer. He came to the rescue, no joke, a passing tourist: she showed him our instructions, and he helped her to understand how to work with the browser in general and with our site in particular.
A 75-year-old man from Belarus did not know how to pay with a card, but he really wanted to buy a subscription. After all attempts to explain the mechanics of payment, they understood that the only possible option is a simple cash transfer through a bank. Accepted, credited by hand, still receive warm congratulations on holidays from him in Skype.
There was still a very nice incident, which we will definitely remember for a very long time. One woman from London wrote to us in support that she gave herself a one-year subscription for her 70th anniversary, and for complete happiness she “lacks only the circles with the logo of her favorite site”. Of course, we were moved and could not pass by this request. We now have circles only for internal use and sometimes for competitions in social networks, but we could easily allocate one for a gift. We sent it by regular mail, after 2 weeks our subscriber already had a mug, which, as a thank you, sent us a box of cookies. To say that it was nice to say nothing.
But not everything is so rosy, of course. Some people write angry letters with selective mats, often giving rise to such writing problems can be solved quickly and without blood.
For example, once a week a user writes us who asks to remove our advertising from Twitch. Every time he writes obscene words to the return address, of course, we cannot even figure out what kind of advertising he sees, and generally contact him in any way.
It is difficult to respond calmly to the mat, so for such cases we have a pattern:
“We sincerely believe that mutual respect is an important component of users' communication with specialists of support, solving problems and resolving controversial issues that you may encounter when using the application. We want to help you in this situation and ask you to refrain from using profanity in correspondence.
If you have questions about our site or application, write to me. ”
Support should be multifaceted, customer-oriented, mostly we try to keep a distance of formal and polite communication, but in response to kindness, we answer the same (congratulations on holidays, we wish success in learning the language). We are guided by a licensing agreement in disputable situations, often go to meet customers - this increases loyalty and leaves a pleasant impression of the service, and ultimately it is one of the main goals of the support staff.
Often you have to stand in the place of the user to understand what is happening. Patience, a few steps ahead: if you are asked to delete a profile, then we check that the subscription is not active, otherwise the money will be lost; if we change mail, we immediately change the password so that there are no problems with entering the profile, and so on. The fewer letters from the user - the better: he should not have any questions.
We have a specific assistance algorithm, in which we can ask to follow standard tips (cleaning history, updating the browser, reinstalling the application, etc.), as they help in 80% of cases. Someone is offended by receiving a patterned answer, but we must be sure that the problem is stable and requires intervention from specialists.
The “Write to us” button should not loom before your eyes, but at the same time there should be a clear place that the user will find and be able to accurately report the problem quickly and without hindrance. The contact form is also as simple as possible - a text box and the ability to attach a screen or other file. No other information at this stage should be requested, otherwise it may discourage the desire to report something.
Another moment - the “Contact us” button goes through the FAQ, it’s like a filter, on which 30-40% of users settle, if not 50%, where they find the answers to their questions. It is very nice to see that users write from the FAQ pages, which means they honestly searched and did not find it. There are about 10 people with the same type of questions - there is a reason to start a new article.
The work of technical support is difficult: you need to respond quickly, just as quickly understand the problem and remain calm, which can be difficult when communicating with emotional users. But in the end, the main thing is that the problems are solved, and the user is satisfied.
Write stories from your experience in the comments!
Readers of the blog give a coupon for 500 rubles for the purchase of a subscription, which includes 8 types of training and weekly mailings about English grammar and vocabulary - "Vitaminki" and "Buns".
And for unlimited and perpetual access to all features of the site there is an “All Inclusive” tariff (the discount does not apply).
What kind of treatment we get
Technical
Most often, of course, there are questions about the site and requests to solve the problem.
There are several categories of such requests:
')
- ask a normal question, get a normal answer;
- they ask a question, but they don’t know how to use a computer or a gadget so much that they have to start by deciphering the word “browser” or writing “a circle on your screen labeled Chrome”;
- we are sure that they are very advanced users, and we receive a message like “Paws, tell developers that the right layout is in the footer and I don’t need to tell me to reload the gadget, I know better than you”. We will still start with the restart board ... and it will work 80% of the time.
The specific moment of our site - we teach English. And we receive messages about a technical problem in English. Some users believe that this will be correct and logical. However, after reading the text (often the translation of Google is determined by the first two words), we answer in Russian so that it does not have to be translated later.
Emotional
Delights, mate and thanks - all this gets support service in full. Sometimes they come by themselves, and sometimes they precede the message about the problem. Perhaps some users are guided by the thought: “what if a call for help seasoned with a selective mat or a declaration of love for a resource will be considered earlier or more carefully”. The truth is that we consider absolutely all appeals on an equal footing. Although getting a declaration of love for the site, of course, more pleasant.
Constructive
Proposals for cooperation, advertising, the question "What is the name of the guy from the video on YouTube", serious research site and multi-page suggestions to improve its work. The latter, by the way, is often helpful.
Sometimes we get all of the above in one letter, but without the correct return address in the form. The letter is returned or not sent at all. And the user repeats his question again and again, and the degree of his dissatisfaction gradually increases. They also write from the addresses vk.com, fb.com - you have to search for a user on these social networks and contact him there (answers do not reach these addresses). Usually, after this, people prefer to continue social networking and even congratulate them on holidays.
What do users write
One user, for example, suggested that we “write out programmers from India” so that they would fix the bugs in our application. Another asked to give him one course for free to “test” to determine if our service is suitable for him.
Another time, a girl wrote to us who could not complete the payment. For a long time we could not understand what the problem was, and only after some time she admitted that she had a special extension for the visually impaired. It turned out that she did most of the workouts with the help of a screen reader - and quite successfully, but with payment it did not work. Understood, helped, the girl even offered her help as a tester so that we could tailor the site for the visually impaired.
Our main audience is people of 20-45 years old, but we are often written by elderly users of 70-80 years old. It always delights and pleases that at its age, people continue to gravitate towards knowledge. Once, a woman who had moved to the Caucasus in the village turned in support. So she wrote: for 30 km around one mountain, to get to civilization on the crossbar. From the letters it was clear that the main problem is that she is not very well versed in her computer. He came to the rescue, no joke, a passing tourist: she showed him our instructions, and he helped her to understand how to work with the browser in general and with our site in particular.
A 75-year-old man from Belarus did not know how to pay with a card, but he really wanted to buy a subscription. After all attempts to explain the mechanics of payment, they understood that the only possible option is a simple cash transfer through a bank. Accepted, credited by hand, still receive warm congratulations on holidays from him in Skype.
There was still a very nice incident, which we will definitely remember for a very long time. One woman from London wrote to us in support that she gave herself a one-year subscription for her 70th anniversary, and for complete happiness she “lacks only the circles with the logo of her favorite site”. Of course, we were moved and could not pass by this request. We now have circles only for internal use and sometimes for competitions in social networks, but we could easily allocate one for a gift. We sent it by regular mail, after 2 weeks our subscriber already had a mug, which, as a thank you, sent us a box of cookies. To say that it was nice to say nothing.
But not everything is so rosy, of course. Some people write angry letters with selective mats, often giving rise to such writing problems can be solved quickly and without blood.
For example, once a week a user writes us who asks to remove our advertising from Twitch. Every time he writes obscene words to the return address, of course, we cannot even figure out what kind of advertising he sees, and generally contact him in any way.
It is difficult to respond calmly to the mat, so for such cases we have a pattern:
“We sincerely believe that mutual respect is an important component of users' communication with specialists of support, solving problems and resolving controversial issues that you may encounter when using the application. We want to help you in this situation and ask you to refrain from using profanity in correspondence.
If you have questions about our site or application, write to me. ”
General principles
Support should be multifaceted, customer-oriented, mostly we try to keep a distance of formal and polite communication, but in response to kindness, we answer the same (congratulations on holidays, we wish success in learning the language). We are guided by a licensing agreement in disputable situations, often go to meet customers - this increases loyalty and leaves a pleasant impression of the service, and ultimately it is one of the main goals of the support staff.
Often you have to stand in the place of the user to understand what is happening. Patience, a few steps ahead: if you are asked to delete a profile, then we check that the subscription is not active, otherwise the money will be lost; if we change mail, we immediately change the password so that there are no problems with entering the profile, and so on. The fewer letters from the user - the better: he should not have any questions.
We have a specific assistance algorithm, in which we can ask to follow standard tips (cleaning history, updating the browser, reinstalling the application, etc.), as they help in 80% of cases. Someone is offended by receiving a patterned answer, but we must be sure that the problem is stable and requires intervention from specialists.
Where should the support link button be
The “Write to us” button should not loom before your eyes, but at the same time there should be a clear place that the user will find and be able to accurately report the problem quickly and without hindrance. The contact form is also as simple as possible - a text box and the ability to attach a screen or other file. No other information at this stage should be requested, otherwise it may discourage the desire to report something.
Another moment - the “Contact us” button goes through the FAQ, it’s like a filter, on which 30-40% of users settle, if not 50%, where they find the answers to their questions. It is very nice to see that users write from the FAQ pages, which means they honestly searched and did not find it. There are about 10 people with the same type of questions - there is a reason to start a new article.
Conclusion
The work of technical support is difficult: you need to respond quickly, just as quickly understand the problem and remain calm, which can be difficult when communicating with emotional users. But in the end, the main thing is that the problems are solved, and the user is satisfied.
Write stories from your experience in the comments!
For those who want to pump English
Readers of the blog give a coupon for 500 rubles for the purchase of a subscription, which includes 8 types of training and weekly mailings about English grammar and vocabulary - "Vitaminki" and "Buns".
And for unlimited and perpetual access to all features of the site there is an “All Inclusive” tariff (the discount does not apply).
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/348100/
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