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I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

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Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#151

Post by BobaFloutist »

ipsento606 wrote: post #137
shash7 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both xyproto and Gustomaximus have solid examples. Here's more: - Be direct, Hi, the xyz feature is available on the PRO plan. You can upgrade to the PRO plan at app.saas.com/billing - Be brutal, Hi xyz, your card couldn't be charged for your Saas subscription, and hence your subscription has been deactivated. To reactivate, enter your card details app app.saas.com/billing - Be honest, Hello xyz, thanks for the featu…

> Make your support timelines clear somewhere in your product, eg: Our support will respond within max 48 hours, but most responses take 2-3 hours. This is the biggest thing I struggle with. I have a couple of semi-successful side projects. They bring in some money, but not enough to hire someone to help with support. I have never been at a place in my life where something like "I will response to all support request…

Sometimes it's valuable to receive a (clearly non-automated) support response indicating that the message was received and a proper response is in the works, just to confirm that the support channel is actually still functional.

Even just confirmation that the website form isn't a black hole and that support tickets aren't now exclusively accepted through Twitter, Instagram, or a secret discord server can be very reassuring.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#152

Post by jimbokun »

This reminds me of the book 4 Hour Workweek.

That book is really about Tim Ferriss figuring out how to automate and delegate everything in his business, until he only has to put in 4 hours a week to keep it going.

Until you reach a similar point, as this article shows, you don't really have any "passive" income. You just have another job.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#153

Post by Aachen »

xyproto wrote: post #65
thehappyfellow wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have an example of “polite but curt” tone? I’m struggling to see what you mean.

Thanks for reaching out. The issue you’ve described seems to be on your end. Please check your settings or consult our docs for further guidance. If the problem persists, feel free to get in touch.

I'd 100% expect that to be a template from someone who either has no clue and can't investigate, or has 200 other tickets to get to and couldn't be bothered to look into a case that isn't in the FAQ. It also does not say what makes you have this assumption and so it works only as a brick wall to alienate any customer goodwill you may have built up. Please never write this unless it's self evident why it's on the customer's side and you have good reason to think they're just trying to annoy you by reaching out despite that

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#154

Post by Waterluvian »

Eisenstein wrote: post #122
datavirtue wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The paycheck mentality. It depresses economic output and productivity across the board by keeping people unengaged and dependent.

I don't think that 'everyone an entrepreneur' would increase economic output and productivity, and the fact is that some people just want a paycheck because they don't really care about making more money than the paycheck gives them, and the work is fine.

Indeed. I love that my career is a minor sideshow of my life. I love the stability of working about 40 hours a week and then doing what I really want to be doing with life.

It’s a bonus that those 40 hours don’t feel like work.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#155

Post by beefnugs »

rodrigodlu wrote: post #129
wruza wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m observing this for many years and it feels like there are two types of people. Those who perceive lists as a whole and those who list.shuffle().pop(). Try asking your colleagues/etc three semi-related questions in one message and you’ll get only a partial answer in a significant number of cases. When confronted (constructively, much later) they usually get evasive and can’t explain. I could theorize it’s a learne…

I'm pretty sure it's because they're not paying full attention, even worse, sometimes already building an intense narrative with only few items internalized inside their brains. I also feel that this is happening more and more, since there's more rewards for giving very small pieces of attention and energy to a bigger pool of people, instead giving extra energy or attention to a smaller pool of people seeking for one…

That actually sounds like a good idea for a technical support app:

The only interaction possible is they can tell you the problem, then you can give them a list of things to try, and they can do nothing but give feedback on each step, in order, and you arent bothered until they at least respond something for each step

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#156

Post by conductr »

Eisenstein wrote: post #124
1024core wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's this old story about an old farmer and his horse. You see, this old farmer had a horse that he loved dearly; took great care of it and pampered it. But he was getting old, and wanted to retire to the City, where he could not keep a horse. So what do I do with this horse, he wondered? He asked a wise friend, who told him: sell the horse for the highest amount of money that you can. What?!? replied the farmer;…

Or, give it to someone who can't afford a horse but really needs one, because it will be worth more to them than to someone who can afford to overpay for it.

Would they be able to afford to care for the horse? Do they need it because they need a workhorse? It’s more of a gamble and if you’re trying to get best odds for the horse you’d probably skew towards someone that’s paying a large sum and not based on their human necessity

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#157

Post by dghlsakjg »

7bit wrote: post #150
siliconc0w wrote: post #140

One suggestion is simply increase the price. Price is strongly correlated with quality of customer. Price also acts as signaling that this is a tool for professionals who make actual money and so shouldn't be bothered coughing up something trivial like $100 for a subscription. You end up making more with far less customer support.

I find it hard to believe that this is true. For 100$ a month I expect a far more polished product than for 20$, where I can look over a lot of missing features. If features don't work as advertised, I will absolutely make no distinction between a 500$ or 1$ product, and will demand a fix. But I will more likely have more patient if the service is cheap, before migrating away. And then, if your customers are business…

Having run my own tourism business (so dealing with consumers directly, rather than b2b), and having spoken to many other business owners, this is counterintuitively true.

My worst customers were the ones that ask for discounts, or are otherwise looking for a deal. My theory is that people that happily fork out for an expensive product have already seen the value.

There are exceptions, but a lot of business owners see the same pattern.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#159

Post by Aachen »

QuantumGood wrote: post #71
parpfish wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i've gone back and forth on this over the last few months. I started out thinking that we've all been conditioned by bad customer support chatbots whose only purpose is to look up facts from the FAQ and then tell you to call the real customer support line to actually handle your problem. the problem was that the chatbots weren't granted hee ability and authority to actually do things . wouldn't it be great if you cou…

Customer support isn't paid well, so they often aren't motivated to become very skilled beyond the level of a chatbot before they move on to other things. So the interface to bad docs doesn't matter much. And good docs are very hard to produce. AI magnifies problems when good docs are lacking.

> aren't motivated to become very skilled beyond the level of a chatbot

Everyone has some amount of common sense. The current state of the art does not, so it cannot make decisions. This is why these things can't currently replace real support beyond being a search function exceedingly capable of interpreting natural language queries and, optionally, rephrasing what the found document says to fit onto the query better

You can't even have these systems as first line support, verifiying whether the person has searched the docs because you can't trust it with a decision about whether the docs' solutions are exhausted and human escalation is needed. There currently simply needs to be a way to reach a human. I'm as happy as the next person to find that a no-queue computer system could solve my problem so I use it when my inquiry is a question and not a request, but a search function is all they are

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#160

Post by fsndz »

I understand the struggle. Finding and keeping customers can be a challenge, especially in B2C. But $15K is good, so I would continue fighting for it. To reduce the stress, you should automate everything as much as possible. I’m also currently learning Pine Script, so thanks for giving me a side business idea.
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