About 8 months ago, i realized the importance of having a support system; the hard way. I launched a site or two and although they were not immensely popular, I received my fair share of traffic. People seemed to enjoy the product and it converted well. The problem was, I had no support system set up and the only way people could contact me was though email. The day after the launch, I checked my email and saw that I had 422 new emails. Ouch. I began trying to answer all of them but by the time I read one, I had received 5 others. It was impossible and after a few hours, I posted a message on the site and decided to abandon the email account. There was no hope. Yesterday I logged into the account for the first time in 6 months and you can imagine my surprise when I saw my email account overflowing with more than 20,000 emails!

Despite having posted/emailed everyone saying I was no longer checking this email account, people were still emailing me. So, to maintain my reputation and to keep a good relationship with my clients, i was forced to answer each email no matter how old it was. It took me about 9 hours on a Sunday and it was the biggest waste of time. Ever.

Well, i’ve learnt from my mistake and in this post, I am going to be discussing the importance of having a good support suite to manage your customers and make it easy for them to contact you. One of the best investments i made was to buy the Kayako SupportSuite. It is by far the most well-rounded support suite out there and does exactly what I need it to. Now, I’m not saying you should buy this one (as it is quite pricey) but I definitely recommend buying a support system of some sort and buying a domain for this purpose only.

1. People need support. Every time you release a product, there are going to be people who need help, and you need to be there to offer it. If someone buys your product you need to manage the support emails as best as you can and try and reduce them. This is done though the use of a support suite which offers automated help to your clients, filters out spam and sorts your emails based on priority. The use of a support system has also reduced my refund rates by 80% as I build a good relationship with my client.
2. If you advertise an affiliate product, I know it sounds silly, but offer support for the product you’re promoting. More often than not, other people’s support services are crap. They won’t answer their emails or have any online help and that’s where you come in to shine. Give people an easy way of contacting you and answer questions about anything, even if it’s not about your product. This builds an amazing relationship with your list and they are more likely to take your recommendations for the future into account.
3. Buy a domain to make it easier for you and the customer. Instead of having to upload/install a support system for every site you make, simply buy a domain and link to that. It will be easier for you to manage AND your clients will find it easier to contact you. Better for everyone!
4. Addition of knowledgebase and trouble-shooters severely reduces amount of emails sent. If you answer all the questions you can possibly think of about your products/site on your support site, people won’t need to contact you. Reduces your work load!
5. Never miss out on an opportunity. I was looking back though my email (picture above) and to my surprise I saw around 20 JV propositions. This would have helped me a lot at the time and I was extremely angry I didn’t see these before. Since they were surrounded by spam etc. I was unable to notice them. With my new support suite, I never miss an opportunity!

There are plenty other reasons too but those are just some of the most important. So, to summarize, having a good support system with your own domain allows you to build a solid relationship with your customers, reduces refund rates, makes it easier for you to manage and makes sure you won’t miss out on any important opportunities.

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