Customer Service can and should be your best Marketing tool
Why do some companies make it so hard to contact them?
Lately, we noticed that some users had troubles uploading their files to SoundCloud. It is only after a while that we discovered that the new version of antivirus software AVG and in some cases Kaspersky were causing these issues.
Today, I tried to contact AVG to have them whitelist SoundCloud to help us provide the best user experience when uploading tracks to SoundCloud - note that a lot of users are paying for our service and deserve the best service imaginable. Currently, users using AVG need to disable their antivirus software entirely to be able to upload.
Contacting AVG is practically impossible. Their Contacts page takes you to the Customer Service page that takes you to the Support Center where you’re forced to enter a Sales ID to move forward. This is a fucking joke. There is no way to reach them via a general contact form or email address for general enquiries. Kaspersky was a little better but not easy at all (I had to write as a “fake” business customer).
We try to answer every email and support request within a day. For a web startup with 10 people this is a big deal. We value every user and every paying customer and consider each and every free user as a potential future paying customer. This is our best Marketing. We regularly see users tweeting something along the lines of:
“Wow, SoundCloud customer service is awesome. Got an answer within 10 minutes”
We work very hard for this and we don’t plan on changing that.
Let a customer wait with an answer to a complaint and you’ve probably lost her for good.
So why do companies still suck major balls when trying to contact them is beyond me.
Done the right way, (human) customer service can make the difference. Every startup - and every company for that matter - should make this a key tool. If Amazon (and us) can do it, AVG certainly can.
Do you have other examples of good (or exceptionally bad) practices? Post them to the comments and discuss.
