Make up what your App lacks with great customer support
We have all been there, you have just launched your first mobile or web app and you have a laundry list of 200 features that need added. You almost feel a little embarrassed with your app because of its lack of features and polish. You think that you will get inundated with emails of people being highly offended that your app has bugs or doesn’t have the feature that they need.
When you are first starting out, this is normal and natural. Even large companies start out with products that have a limited feature set, including Dropbox, the first iPhone, Basecamp, and many others.
TrackMyDrive
My first version of TrackMyDrive had a very limited feature set. In-fact the only thing the smart phone app would do is allow you to start GPS tracking and stop GPS tracking. It didn’t have half of the features that it has now. As you would expect, I would get a lot of customer service emails requesting features, all of which I responded to in a timely and friendly manner.
An aha moment
I was once emailed about a small bug in TrackMyDrive, I responded within minutes, took the time to understand the problem and had it fixed the same day. I interacted with the customer every step of the way, and what was the response? The customer was THRILLED!! Wait, what? Shouldn’t the customer be angry that the bug happened in the first place?
Because I took the time and made the customer feel important, it turned to be a win. In fact, the customer gave me a five star review and she shared the experience of how great the customer service was!
Do what the big guys can’t
In the beginning you are at a disadvantage. You will have less features, users, traction, money, and word of mouth than your competitors. However, you can use these to your advantage. You can turn your disadvantages into your advantages. Here is what you can offer, that they cannot:
1. A personal experience
When you have 100,000 users, it is much more difficult to offer a personalized experience to all of your users. However, when you have 10 users, you can.
2. A feeling that they are part of the team.
Send your early customers lots of emails, and communicate with them often. They can start to feel like they are “part of the team”. Do you have a mockup of a new design? Send it their way. Thinking of implementing different pricing? Ask for their opinion. They will begin to get the feeling of ownership and responsibility and will be much more willing to overlook your faults.
3. Simplicity
Your App not having every feature is an advantage. Users like simple apps that solve simple problems. The world is filled with too many Apps trying to do too much. Your App’s advantage is that the interface is simple and does one thing well.
Conclusion
Don’t be down in the dumps when you are starting out! In all reality your App has a long, long way to go! However, that is okay, you can make up what your App lacks by offering great customer support.
About this Blog
I am passionate about business, entrepreneurship, programming, and learning from the journey of life.
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