3 Guidelines to Properly Support Your Users
Do not underestimate the value of help and support related features in your application or service. Properly supporting your users can be a key differentiator in today’s market. It can help ease the learning curve users must traverse when adopting your service and facilitate continued product-usage. To not support or clumsily support your users is like dropping someone in the middle of a jungle without a survival kit. If you don’t give your users the tools and education needed to survive: they won’t, plain and simple. Here are three guidelines I’ve followed in products I’ve managed that provide a common sense approach for properly supporting your users:
- Help should be Accessible: Access to a Help/FAQ section should be in the same “physical” spot throughout the application or service experience. Users should always know where to access Help or an FAQ. Don’t confuse them by moving it around or making it accessible in some areas and not others. These sections should be neatly indexed and searchable.
- Avoid Technical or Industry Jargon: Speak your user’s language. Don’t confuse them by using jargon that’s over-technical or industry-speak. Just because you understand it doesn’t mean your users will.
- Provide Multiple Support Methods: Hopefully your support documents are so brilliant that no user needs to contact you. But let’s face it, some do want to contact you, and that’s OK. There is no better way to build relationships and gather invaluable user feedback than providing human support via multiple contact methods. A support email address and online support form are musts. Make them easy to find. Hiding them or making them difficult to access means you don’t want to talk to your users and, for this; your users will repay you by not using your service. Phone and chat support are great ways to engage your users and provide them exceptional customer service – consider these methods as well.
One more thing; your Customer Support Team is critical to developing strong user relationships. Do not underestimate the value they bring to your product.
Following these three common sense guidelines to providing world-class support will ensure your users have the tools they need to succeed when using your application or service. Do not send your users into the jungle without giving them the tools to survive, hoping they’ll find their way through on their own.
Eric Montag, Product Manager, W3i Holdings, LLC
Eric uses his experience in graphic design, mobile, and internet marketing to lead the charge in product research, planning, and execution, from both a consumer and business standpoint.
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