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As a solo developer, I decided to offer phone support

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Re: As a solo developer, I decided to offer phone support

#11

Post by cyberferret »

I did it for 10 years, but more recently have moved away from phone support as much as possible (or delegated to others to do).

The main reason - I am a solo developer. And the brain mode for 'developer' is VERY different from the brain mode for 'support agent'.

It was basically impossible for me to get into 'flow' state during a normal working day. Even one phone call during the day took me away from my creative, programming mindset and into an empathetic, listening mindset. And the transition between the two were very different. It's like asking a racing driver to knit a scarf each time he came into the pits, before he could go out on the track to drive at high speed again.

It also made it hard to plan blocks of work. Most times it was OK, but there were days where I would plan to do about 5 or 6 bug fixes, but I would get a slew of phone calls that meant I got 0 programming done that day, and would have to move other plans.

I actually enjoyed support, but in the end I had to decide which of the two parts of the job was moving the business ahead more than the other, and pure development work won out.

Re: As a solo developer, I decided to offer phone support

#13

Post by whalesalad »

Working at the Apple Store as a sales person has helped me IMMENSELY in my career, not only in terms of understanding how human beings approach technology but from a sales standpoint as well. In the first startup I was a part of, every single member of the 3 person team did email support for our school teacher userbase. Do it. Everyone needs to do it. Doing this kind of work is very grounding and humbling.

When you box yourself into the "But, I'm an engineer" corner and decide it's beneath you to talk to customers, you limit yourself. Don't do that. Become a more well-rounded person. Talk to your users. Understand them. Empathize with them. It will make you a better engineer. And if you're a solo founder or part of a small team, it's even more critical that you do this.

Re: As a solo developer, I decided to offer phone support

#14

Post by Terr_ »

doomlaser wrote: post #5

I created a shareware Tetris clone for OS X in the mid 2000s and provided my cell number in the readme. I'd get a trickle of calls from all over the world at all times of day. That's where I learned never to have a serial number generator that included the number 0 since it looks so close to the letter 0. It was weird to be out and about and suddenly get a tech support call, but people were usually really nice.

> the number 0 since it looks so close to the letter 0.

Just throwing this out there in case the problem comes up again: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base58

Re: As a solo developer, I decided to offer phone support

#15

Post by brudgers »

This reminds me of Word Perfect's unlimited free phone support years ago. Though the call to Orem, UT during business hours was neither free nor inexpensive, the service was excellent and part of the reason Word Perfect was so beloved...reveal codes being another reason.

Re: As a solo developer, I decided to offer phone support

#17

Post by danschumann »

I'm launching an app soon, and was planning on making customer service an available and plentiful commodity, not hiring any employees yet, so therefore I'll be the de facto phone support guy. I hadn't considered the emotional benefit of both urgency from the negative, and encouragement from the positive, I was mostly thinking about hearing first-hand the bugs, use cases, user experiences, etc, and being able to put out any fires asap. Thanks!

Re: As a solo developer, I decided to offer phone support

#18

Post by SyneRyder »

whalesalad wrote: post #13

Working at the Apple Store as a sales person has helped me IMMENSELY in my career, not only in terms of understanding how human beings approach technology but from a sales standpoint as well. In the first startup I was a part of, every single member of the 3 person team did email support for our school teacher userbase. Do it. Everyone needs to do it. Doing this kind of work is very grounding and humbling. When you b…

To emphasize "don't think it's beneath you to talk to customers", there's the story of when William from Microsoft took a phone support call:

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20091123-00/?p=...

Re: As a solo developer, I decided to offer phone support

#19

Post by IncRnd »

doomlaser wrote: post #5

I created a shareware Tetris clone for OS X in the mid 2000s and provided my cell number in the readme. I'd get a trickle of calls from all over the world at all times of day. That's where I learned never to have a serial number generator that included the number 0 since it looks so close to the letter 0. It was weird to be out and about and suddenly get a tech support call, but people were usually really nice.

The letters I, O and Q are not allowed in automobile VIN codes for the same reason.

Re: As a solo developer, I decided to offer phone support

#20

Post by SyneRyder »

Terr_ wrote: post #14
doomlaser wrote: post #5

I created a shareware Tetris clone for OS X in the mid 2000s and provided my cell number in the readme. I'd get a trickle of calls from all over the world at all times of day. That's where I learned never to have a serial number generator that included the number 0 since it looks so close to the letter 0. It was weird to be out and about and suddenly get a tech support call, but people were usually really nice.

> the number 0 since it looks so close to the letter 0. Just throwing this out there in case the problem comes up again: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base58

It's also worth skipping out the letters S and number 5, the letter G and number 6, and the letter B and number 8. I also omit vowels to avoid accidentally creating words in serial codes.
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