Fixing the client?

SenseiSteve

SenseiSteve

HD Moderator
Staff member
When you resolve your clients email, connection, server, billing, website or whatever other issue, how important is it to ultimately fix the client? In other words, what value did your client perceive? Fixing the issue but not the client may result in customer churn.

Your thoughts ...
 
Haha, I read the title and thought about FTP clients or mail clients, rather than client clients.

In most cases I don't think it's a case of fixing the client, but of letting them know that you understand the issue that they have had and what you have done to resolve it.

In some cases its also important to let them know what the cause of the issue was and if it was something that was poorly documented then update knowledgebase or documentation so that people don't have the same issue going forwards.
 
I don't know if you can fix a client, but you can educate either in what the problem was, how to prevent the problem, or how you need future information/tickets delivered so you can resolve issues.

The worst response I can ever receive from a support person is "fixed", or "try now".

Information on what caused the problem and how it was fixed shows that an investigation actually took place.

The second part of this is the "try now" or "see if that works" response. Those are unhelpful and often are a stall tactic. I despise places that attempt a fix or software upgrade but then never actually test on their end to make sure it's working.

It's worse than asking a client for their password and I get "here, try this one" - NO!
You try it and tell me "this is the password"
 
Its very hard to fix for most clients. They come from the perspective that something is wrong on your end, they are paying you and you need to resolve it.

What we do is talk about what happened which 90% of the time will fall on deaf ears we will also send documentation if we have on that issue. We will create documentation if it's a reoccurring problem, this never gets read. :P.

What we do is we have a set amount of monthly time for support not relating to issues on our end. When this time is used up we will quote to repair the issue.

Most people are fine with this, to be honest, those that aren't realize that now there's money at stake they will give that documentation a shot. If they get back to us saying they've tried the docs and still didn't succeed we will remote control with them and walk through step by step since they are now more willing to listen. Yes it costs us a bit of time now, but in the future, it saves us a ton more time. While also empowering a client solidifying our relationship.
 
I would say 70% of the support requests i got were issues caused by end-user and not server issues. I ended up directing users to our extensive KB and if they still needed help we will help them, if the issue was found to be server-related then we will fix FOC, but if found to be user-caused then we would apply a £50 charge to their account. it was amazing how many issues were fixed without clients contacting me.
I did have 1 client who was happy to pay me as they were not tech savvy, so i agreed with them a monthly charge to look after their account
 
If work is underway on your server, then I usually make compensation for clients in the form of additional discounts
 
This may be due to the nature of my business since I do not sell web hosting services, but I have not had any issues with clients requesting discounts or additional incentives to continue business with me. Most of the support issues that come my way are end-user-related, but I receive legitimate bug reports, which I am always grateful for.

I tell my clients that the bugs they report are helpful and essential to me. I love that some of my clients feel they contribute to the growth of the products I've created. I've only had one experience with a customer that was too difficult to please, but otherwise, my experiences have been positive.
 
Whenever I can, I try to educate the customer - be it via Live chat or the Ticket system. I let them know what I am doing on their service and why I am doing it. In some cases, it has helped with reducing the client's number of support requests. But, most of the times, they just open a ticket because they know we'll get it done and it saves them time. Some customers are interested in learning, some customers don't care about the tech part -they just want it solved. We're here to help both sides :)
 
Back in the day, IBM created a job title called Customer Engineer versus Technical Representative. Why? Because they realized fixing a client's technical issue didn't always sit well if that client was left unimpressed or slighted. Fixing the client entails ensuring that not only was the technical issue resolved, but that the client was impressed by their encounter with the support team. This goes directly to the degree of customer churn a vendor experiences.
 
I usually use day extension etc. according to the product he uses. I offer offers, users love the free day.
 
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