Scott breaks down his 4 main contact methods for his lead management app. Here's the breakdown for HelpSpot customer support. This was ridiculously easy to pull together using HelpSpots reports.
Email: 68%
Web form: 29%
Phone: 2%
Other: 1%
Other is things like a forum post that was promoted to a full request, etc.
Part of the new website design will be a HelpSpot blog where I'll run the beta from, offer sneak peaks, tips, etc. However, I thought it would be fun to show off a version 2 feature which has always been one of our most requested.
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A few months backed I posted on the initial sketches of the next version of the UserScape.com website. I'm happy to say that the process is now complete and we're moving forward with HTMLizing the design and should be implementing it in the next few weeks. I'm really happy with the job MIke did as always. I think this is his best work yet. The design is modern and I really like the use of black which plays nicely with the colors. The final designs are below (note that not all text is accurate). Also the top and bottom black bars extend the full width of the screen which is not really shown in these graphics.
The big differences between this and the current site are much clearer calls to action (especially the home page which is right in the banner), a more designed interface with rounded edges, a clearer navigation scheme with primary top navigation and secondary side navigation, and the large homepage screenshot which should help leverage HelpSpots nicer appearance compared to the competition.
Homepage
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Inner Pages
If you're looking for free bingo cards you should check out the nice app created by Patrick called Bingo Card Creator.
Patrick is trying to build up a little Google juice for some of his main keywords so I thought I'd help him out. If you have a blog you should too, Patrick is a great guy.
Please excuse the title, this is a note to myself as much as a post. Every time I try and go cheap on something it comes back to bite me. Even if I'm not actually trying to go cheap, but if I just don't buy the best then I end up being sorry. My current frustration is with the dhtml menu system I use on the HelpSpot request page. I'm redoing it for version 2 and this will now be the 3rd menu system I've used there.
The first was my own creation, what a mistake that was. A dhtml menu requires a full time programmer just to track down every oddball bug in even just the limited browsers HelpSpot formally supports (IE/FF/Safari). At some point I switched over to the Dynarch menu. Not a bad menu for a few hundred dollars, but some serious problems in Safari which some customers run into. Especially with forcing tabs to be called to the front when using multiple tabs (you know who you are out there ;-)). I've also been concerned that there doesn't appear to be much development on the menu.
So for version 2 I've bit the bullet and spent the $1,200 for the Milonic dhtml menu. Wow, what a difference. I've used Milonic before, a long time ago though not such an intensive usage as this. So far this sucker is rock solid. Even better is that there's really active support and some nifty extension libraries for editing menus on the fly which I really need to do (they're a bit hidden, which is a shame. You can find it here). It loads instantly and without any browser issues. Building a menu dynamically is also very easily done, which has made integrating it into HelpSpot a snap.
Yet again I've had to learn that being cheap is only a path to heartache and support requests.
My regular fantasy baseball league may be breaking up. If anyone out there is part of a good league and in need of another player let me know. I'd prefer it to be a money league (keeps the excitement up), but I'd also be interested in a glory league.
When I started UserScape I had no idea how to handle transactions in a B2B software company. For all that's written about starting a software company and how to run a software company, there's very little on what types of transactions you'll need to support and how you should go about doing them. If you think you're just going to put up a PayPal button and call it a day you are very very wrong!
Your customers have a variety of methods they like to pay with and so you'll need to support those methods of payment. It's also important to understand billing options and how they relate to payment options.
We currently have 3 billing options for HelpSpot. Credit Card (instant billing essentially), Purchase Orders with invoicing, and Invoices. Acceptable payment for these billing options are credit card (with some exceptions we'll see below), check, bank transfer and sometimes PayPal.
The most common form of billing and payment is of course to use a credit card. Obviously you need to accept credit cards and you likely already knew that, but here's something to keep in mind. There's no reason you have to allow all purchases to use a credit card. Specifically, we currently only allow charges up to $2,000. This is high enough to cover the very popular 10 pack license option ($1,699), but low enough to keep our costs down. Credit card transactions can be very expensive at these higher price points. For example, most charges cost 3-4% of the transaction if you're directly using a gateway like Authorize.net. Of course if you're going through a third party processor like esellerate and the ilk, then it can be 10-15%. Even at 3-4% though this really ads up. A $2,000 charge costs me $80 or so. Compare that to the cost of processing a check which is $0 or doing a bank transfer which is generally $15. That's a significant savings and can really add up.
At first I was concerned that the limit would be a negative. In fact the limit was actually impossed upon me by my merchant account bank. As a new company they capped any single transaction to $2,000. I tried to fight this because I was worried that customers wouldn't buy if they needed to charge more, but they wouldn't budge since I had no history. In practice it turns out that this is really a non-issue. Most companies spending more than $2,000 will want to use your invoicing options or at least have no problem using invoicing since it's common practice. In fact I've never even bothered going back to my merchant bank to get the limit upped. In the one and a half years of selling HelpSpot only once has a customers wanted to pay by credit card for an amount over $2,000 and I went ahead and processed it as two transactions manually.
Now our other two billing options are somewhat intermingled. Purchase orders and invoices. Boy I wish I knew more about purchase orders before I started UserScape. Here's the skinny on them. A purchase order is basically a contract, once you accept a purchase order from an organization there's a contract formed that basically says they agree to pay you X and you agree to deliver Y immediately pursuant to the payment terms outlined in the purchase order. So when you receive a purchase order you're are obligated to immediately ship the product (generally speaking) or in this case ship the license file. You then invoice the company for payment. The terms we use are Net 30 which means they must pay the full amount within 30 days. It's common in many industries to actual provide discounts for early payments, but I haven't had any collection issues so there's been no need for this incentive.
Since there's almost nothing out there on this, here's the exact details of how the process usually works.
For payment types, we've already covered credit cards so let's jump into checks. I love checks! When I started UserScape I never thought I'd say that, I despised the idea of dealing with checks. I wanted to be completely virtual. Checks though have a unique quality that no other payment type has. They generally cost nothing to process. No middle men, nobody taking a cut, pure profit. When you're looking at transaction fees potentially in the hundreds of dollars a trip to the bank now and then doesn't seem so bad.
Another thing I knew nothing about when I started was bank transfers. Accepting bank transfers is really critical, especially if you're selling to international customers and of course if you're selling online you will be. Most international customers (outside the US) don't like to pay with checks, it's problematic. So they prefer to pay via bank transfers. In fact every international sale of HelpSpot, currently 25-30% of our business, has been paid by either credit card or bank transfer.
To do bank transfers you'll need to have an account at a bank (duh). But make sure it's an actual bank and not a credit union. The main UserScape account is at a credit union where I've done business for years. Unfortunately, my credit union (and I think most credit unions) didn't have a SWIFT code. This code is often required for international transfers so if your bank doesn't have one then a transfer can't be done. To get around this I ended up setting up an account just for transfers at HSBC and that's worked out very well. To do a transfer all you'll need to send your customers is this basic information:
Bank: HSBC
Bank Address: 1 LaGrange Avenue Poughkeepsie, NY 12603 United States of America
SWIFT: MRMDUS33 Routing: XXXXXXXX Account: XXXXXXXX Account Name: UserScape
That's it and in a few days bingo bango money is in your account. The fee is usually $15 which isn't too bad and will generally be less expensive than credit card fees.
The final way we accept payment is via PayPal. This actually isn't a published option, but there have been 2 customers who have wanted to pay via PayPal so we have the account. Again I believe both were international and it was just easier to do it via PayPal for them.
This setup has worked out really well for the past year and a half. Customers have the flexibility to send payments in the way that works best for them and providing all the options doesn't really add much to the work load for us. In fact the cost savings and increased sales more than makes up for the extra work.
Hopefully this post has cleared up a few things for aspiring ISV's out there looking to enter the B2B space. I unfortunately had to figure out most of this through trial and error, so maybe it can save some of you a bit of time and money. If you're an established ISV and have other tips and tricks please post them in the comments, there's always more to learn.
The nice folks over at BitRock put together a really well done testimonial/case study page on HelpSpot and the installer they developed for me. If you're wondering how BitRock might work for your application take a look at the page and check out the video they have on the HelpSpot installer, it's very nicely done.
Well, I was going to write up a piece on Ryan Carson of DropSend and his poor example of customer service and great example of what not to do, but Patrick already beat me to it. So just go read his post to see what I would have done.
http://microisvjournal.wordpress.com/2007/02/16/how-to-deal-with-abusive-customers/
Not to be too egotistically, but I think Patrick is the new me :-). Since I haven't had as much time to write lately I'm really glad he's picking up my slack!
A key factor in the success of HelpSpot has been the ability to turn customer requests into sales. As a small software company there's simply no budget for a sales force, nor am I that interested in having one. I'd much rather work in a consultative manner with my customers and through that process drive sales. Here are a few items which have worked for me in turning my customer service requests into sales.
1. Respond Fast
There's no better way in my opinion to convert customer service requests into sales than responding fast. A fast response to a customers inquiry isn't just a nicety, it directly leads to sales. In fact, I'd say it's probably responsible for more HelpSpot sales than anything on this list or any advertising I've done.
Fast responses show you're serious about customer support. It's also very likely that a fast response will help set you apart from the crowd with potential customers since your competition is most likely not responding as fast as you. Finally, a fast response will simply leave a good impression in the customers mind.
2. Cross sell products
Whenever you are responding to a customer service request you should always be looking to cross sell. Nothing heavy handed, but if you have a product or service that it sounds like the customer could use be sure to mention it in your response to their request.
3. Cross sell cool features
Yes, you must cross sell features. This is critical. Every product has a few key features which are unique. In HelpSpot's case one I like to cross sell is Live Lookup. It's an API that allows customers to do real time data retrieval from CRM systems into HelpSpot so staff can access customer data from within HelpSpot.
It's a great feature, but since no other help desk software has it (that I know of) customers are not looking for it. I'll often mention it to potential and existing customers during the back and forth of a customer service request. More often than not they were not aware of the feature and find it to be very powerful once they try it out. Live Lookup has made more than a few sales for me, sales which may not have been made if I hadn't mentioned it.
It's hard when you have a stack of requests waiting for responses to take the extra time to write a few cross sell sentences, but it's time well spent.
4. Always be the last response
Never let the customer be the last response on an email correspondence. I know this sounds silly, but if they write a final email saying "Hey, thanks for the help". Write back and say no problem, anytime, let me know if you need anything else. Yes, we're trying to go over the top here. Again, we want to leave a lasting impression. Optimizing the humanity out of your support email process is not the way to go. It only takes a few seconds to respond back.
5. Avoid overly prepared responses
I know I'm treading on delicate ground here since I make a product that makes it very easy to have loads of prepared response! Never the less try and avoid fully canned responses except for the most common of questions. It's almost always possible to tell that a response is canned and it can leave a bad taste in the customers mouth. Instead, I use lots of partial responses. So I'll have a paragraph of this and a paragraph of that. This way I can write the intro and end, but insert the body from a prepared response.
6. Know who you're dealing with and respond accordingly
As much as possible try and know who you're dealing with during a request. Is this the person who downloaded the trial? Is it the president of the company? Is it a blogger? Is it someone you've heard of before? If you can add a personal touch to the email it can be a great way to extend the conversation. It also affects how you may cross sell other products and features.
7. Customer care discounts
Great customer service is knowing when to admit you're wrong. Sometimes you screw up. Sometimes things just go the wrong way or you hit some flat out bad luck. No matter the cause, when this happens you need to make amends to your customer. Giving out a discount or offering something for free can be a great way to do this.
For instance, I've given out 10% off coupons on several occasions where a potential customer had a very hard time with the installation of a trial. In some cases these coupons cost me hundreds of dollars, but it was the right thing to do. In addition, almost every person I've offered that coupon to has ended up purchasing. It's better to have 90% of the revenue than 0.
8. Staff product knowledge and training
For most MicroISV's and small ISV's this isn't an issue, but as the company grows making sure your support staff is well trained in your products is key. Not just in how to fix common problems, but in understanding how they're used day in and day out. There's no chance of them cross selling without having a strong understanding of how the products work.
9. Personalize everything
Stand behind your product. When you send out general notification type emails to your customers and trial users they should come from you. Of course these messages are automated, but they should have your name and contact information included. Making your organization seem more personal and approachable is a huge advantage for your company. It separates your company form the faceless organization of your competitors into one where customers actually know the name and email of the company president and feel much more comfortable approaching you with comments and questions.
10. Data Mining
Your customer request history is a treasure trove of valuable information on how to improve your product to increase sales. Making sure you use a help desk product that can report on this information is critical (product pitch: HelpSpot's reporting tags feature makes this easy). Over the long term eliminating error prone operations, installation issues, and adding key features are important ways to drive sales. The most effective way to find these is to track and data mine your customer request history to identify these issues.
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