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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

#191

Post by JadeNB »

kelnos wrote: post #185
duxup wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish there was a reliable way to ask people. "I need your engagement level to be set to 10 for this communication. It's ok if you can't do that, but then just say you can't do that. I'm already set to 10 and rando guesswork / tidbits are only going to cause problems." Even just "nope can't do it" responses would save me time. I just got off a critical call with folks pulling stuff out of their ... and it was…

I think that's unreasonable to ask for just about anyone. The only time that's going to work is if you're helping them with an issue that's critical to them . Otherwise you are never going to get their full attention, it even close. Much easier and safer is to drill into your own head that your own engagement level may be at 10, but the other person's is probably going to be more like 2. And that's fine.

> I think that's unreasonable to ask for just about anyone.

Notice your parent doesn't say "you must be at 10," but rather "let me know if you can't be at 10." I think that's perfectly reasonable, as long as you're willing to accept almost always getting "no."

> Much easier and safer is to drill into your own head that your own engagement level may be at 10, but the other person's is probably going to be more like 2. And that's fine.

But sometimes that's not fine! For example, if you're giving a list of instructions for some safety-critical procedure, it's not fine to find out later that the nodding "uh-huh, uh-huh" actually meant "I'll do what I remember and what sounds easy," and it's much better to do nothing than to proceed with partial information.

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

#192

Post by cyral »

mandeepj wrote: post #92

OP had to think a bit bigger to get a great ROI. He got himself neck deep into performing tasks or small minuscule work items. I wish he had thought about evolving it into a trading platform or even started with that, something like Robinhood

I'm sure he got some emails like this, "why dont you add trading?" when becoming a brokerage is more like a 100 person project

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

#193

Post by duxup »

kelnos wrote: post #185
duxup wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish there was a reliable way to ask people. "I need your engagement level to be set to 10 for this communication. It's ok if you can't do that, but then just say you can't do that. I'm already set to 10 and rando guesswork / tidbits are only going to cause problems." Even just "nope can't do it" responses would save me time. I just got off a critical call with folks pulling stuff out of their ... and it was…

I think that's unreasonable to ask for just about anyone. The only time that's going to work is if you're helping them with an issue that's critical to them . Otherwise you are never going to get their full attention, it even close. Much easier and safer is to drill into your own head that your own engagement level may be at 10, but the other person's is probably going to be more like 2. And that's fine.

I don't think it is unreasonable, if they can't for whatever reason their answer is "I can't." that's 100% fine.

I'm not asking them to be at 10, I'm asking they not engage unless they are.

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

#194

Post by cyral »

blantonl wrote: post #85

I do all the direct customer support for my 2 businesses (radioreference and broadcastify) which typically equates to 20-30 Zendesk tickets a day addressing login/password issues, payment issues, technical support etc. Boy can I relate to burn out and frustration. It's shocking to me how many times I have to deal with things like customer mental health issues, extremely disrespectful customer behavior, some of the wi…

I'm actually surprised he didn't include any screenshots about "I never authorized this payment" or "You charged me even though I cancelled!!". I see these a lot and it's on the customer 100% of the time. People will be so rude even when they know they are lying, maybe because they think it's the only way they will get a refund, when if they just asked nicely and said they forgot about the subscription, I always refund it. Lot's of people also end up with two accounts somehow and then think we are maliciously double charging them.

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

#195

Post by levocardia »

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…

>For 100$ a month I expect a far more polished product than for 20$

I hate to put you on blast but this is exactly why people charge $100/mo instead of $20/mo. They do not want the customers who feel (sorry for the term) "entitled" to a heroic level of features, support, polish, etc. They want people who have a hair-on-fire emergency that is so awful that they'd gladly pay $1000/mo for it, and are thankful that your software - klunky as it is - is giving them $900/mo of free value.

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

#196

Post by gwbas1c »

A couple of thoughts:

As a customer, if I see firm boundaries set, (IE, read XXX before contacting me,) I usually assume that someone is under stress from nonsense like this. Then I try to be on my extra-best behavior.

I know a lot of people suggested raising your price. Some alternatives are to:

1: Offer two price points: The $20 / month gets no support, the $100 / month is supported.

2: Consider some of the feature requests, but as a consulting. "Yes, I can make that for you. It will cost $30,000 and you will have exclusive access to it." Some bozos may pay it.

And finally, it doesn't hurt to do one-line responses to dumb requests with "Please read the doc at LINK". It also doesn't hurt to openly state, in such a doc, things like "I am not implementing new features. Custom consulting is available."

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

#197

Post by siva7 »

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 worked in quite a few startups, parents observation is absolutely true.

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

#198

Post by switchbak »

kmoser wrote: post #142
SoftTalker wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or simply their priorities are not your priorities. They have encountered a problem, they asked for help, but they have 10 other things going on. By the time you answer, they have forgotten half the context of the issue. They try one thing, it doesn't work, they don't have more time right now so they answer that thing 1 didn't work. Repeat.

I find most people suffer from at least one (and more commonly two) of the following: insufficient attention to detail; poor time management; and bad organization skills.

This is especially true in the trades. If you're able to:

- be on time

- respond to emails/texts, and especially: phone calls

- give quotes

Then if you're even halfway competent, the world is your oyster. Please come do work for me!

If you can manage people and budgets, you can have more work than you'll know what to do with (assuming there's work available).

The inability of many people to focus their attention and prioritize their work is shocking to me. This isn't just for the stereotypical "younger adult" either, this seems to apply across the board (and especially to boomer-aged adults!).

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

#199

Post by trimethylpurine »

Vegenoid wrote: post #126
duxup wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You need to develop a polite but curt tone of voice for customer support. And very focused responses in terms of action items. You might think of 3 things to say, check, but sadly 90% of the people you respond to with a list will behave like they read just one of them. Sadly this also leads to dragging things out for everyone who can handle more than one thing at a time :(

Yep. All the time when I worked in IT: Me: Please try these 3 things and let me know how it goes: (list of 3 things with instructions) Them: I tried (thing #1) and it didn’t work. Me: Thank you, please try these 2 things and let me know how it goes Them: I tried (thing #2) and it didn’t work. Me: Thank you, please try this thing and let me know how it goes Them: (no response) Me: Just checking in to see if this is re…

The user will have found another solution that's more intuitive after trying thing #1 and failing.

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

#200

Post by webnrrd2k »

fragmede wrote: post #184
detourdog wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In old world Egypt they kept the creative class in a seperate village. I believe this was needed to keep group harmony and focus.

was the separate village to keep the creatives in by themselves, or to keep them away from everybody else.

Can't it be both?
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