Email support is managed by Help Scout, a customer messaging platform that supports multiple channels. Support requests are sent via our contact forms, directly to support email address, in-app webhooks, and through Help Scout Beacons (live chat).
Read everything we have on our project websites (don’t forget the footer links), project's support folder, project's blog, and help center – multiple times. Most questions visitors and users ask are answered on these pages.
-
Do not reply to tickets which are assigned to other agents, unless they are away and won't be back within 24 hours.
-
Do not leave the customer without a reply for more than one work day. If nothing else, let them know we're looking into the issue. Nothing is worse than being ignored by support when you have issues.
-
Try to close tickets with just a single email instead of bouncing multiple emails with the user. That means be concise and resourceful.
-
Offer recommendations when in context. For example: a plugin is blocked by the system. We don't just tell the user that the plugin is blocked for a reason but we offer recommendations as a solution.
-
Make sure you read the ticket history with that person before replying. It might have information that’s relevant to the new ticket.
-
Be nice to all who send an email even if they are not. Keep calm, reply with facts and thank them for any feedback. If they’re worried about their refund, cancellation or anything else, let them know we’ll do our best to fix things in their interest.
-
The conversation can be informal and smilies are allowed when in context.
-
Listen to what the customer is saying. Even if the customer is in the wrong, acknowledge what they are saying and then use that as a teachable moment. Having them learn how to resolve issues on their own is still the best customer experience.
-
Avoid saying YOU when replying to support tickets where the user messed something up.
Here's an example.
It looks like you didn't properly unzip the file. Here's your fix.
Instead say
It looks like the zip file didn't get properly extracted. Here's the fix.
People hate being made to feel stupid. If you remove the person from the response as if someone or something else messed up, they will remain much happier.
If something isn't clear, ask Dejan or Marbe.
Support related issues and topics are discussed on the product's support channel, if there is one. This way everyone knows what's going on and can contribute to the topic. Avoid pinging coworkers in private since then others won't know what's going on.
Help Scout Beacons are added on our sales pages and in-app. This makes it easier for customers to contact us for issues, requests or sales questions. Since we're supporting multiple projects, make sure to toggle your custom availability by mailbox on first login in the top right menu.
There's a special tab that shows all incoming live chat requests. Until someone replies to a live chat, it will remain unassigned. When the user ends the conversation, the chat is automatically moved to the Closed folder. Missed live chat requests are converted to another support email request.
We have enabled help articles to be read, searched, and rated in Beacon so users can do a self-help first.
Important: Always have your head with you when doing live chat support. It's a great venue to steal information or to exploit someone's account. Read this article. Again and again.
Instead of doing things for users, ask users to do it themselves - just guide them how.
Sample scenario: the user wants you to change their login email.
- Incorrect: Asking for the user's new login email and setting it yourself.
- Correct: Ask the user to log into their account, go to Settings tab, and then update the information themselves.
There are other scenarios but the general idea is that don't give anything to a user unless properly verified. One verification process is asking them to log in to their account then checking the logs for the login event.
Pre-prepared replies to most common questions are available on the Help Scout user interface. You can use them and quickly add a new one by clicking on the text icon inside the reply box.
Managing existing saved replies and creating new ones can be done by clicking on the gear icon found on the Mailbox sidebar, go to Saved Replies and then select New Saved Replies.
Regular replies are always ‘Send Reply’. This will automatically close the ticket and shows the next active. If there is still something you need to do (like reporting a bug and getting back to the user with a solution), the dropdown menu gives you more options like staying on the same page or going back to the root mailbox folder.
Help Scout has all the necessary tools to manage inbox folders like merging tickets, deleting duplicates, easy email forwarding, and unfollowing threads. All these are hidden under the menu button inside the message box.
At the end of each email (where relevant) add the canned reply “Let me know if you have any other questions”, “Let me know if I can be of any help” or the canned reply that directs them to the Help Center.
If a question is too difficult to answer, re-assign it to someone qualified to take over the issue. Try to add a note to summarize the issue or your own take to it.
Help Centers are where the instructions and common questions by customers are answered. Every product has its own Help Center which should be updated regularly - add new information and remove outdated ones if any.
You can search and insert relevant help articles without leaving the Help Scout dashboard. On the reply box, type a related keyword on the Docs search bar and it will return all relevant articles. You have the option to view the doc, insert it as link to your reply or edit the article.