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Re:Pregnant Rock Stars - My Approach to Customer Service by espinchi on Tuesday May 29, 2012 @12:48PM (#4038376)
I'm glad this works for this product.

However, I'd argue it is generally not applicable. Say you launch a free application (perhaps monetized by a supporting PRO version, in-app purchases, or ads) that gets a few thousand downloads per day. As a CEO, you can't spend your precious time replying to those (99% trivial) questions.

You may do it for a few months, or a percentage of the user questions, to gain insight into your customers. But, as a rule, I'd rather outsource it.

Re:Pregnant Rock Stars - My Approach to Customer Service by sivers on Tuesday May 29, 2012 @01:11PM (#4038504)
At some point, you will need to hand over the customer service job to someone else, but when you do, it should be someone amazing. In her case, probably a very caring mother. Someone who can fully relate to her customers, because they would be (or are) a BabyList customer themselves.

When I stopped doing all my own customer service at CD Baby, I found someone even more patient, playful, and charming than me. It sets a high bar, so that if you grow to needing an entire team of customer service people - (I had 28 full-time customer service people in the end) - then you and your first one or two really set the expectations for how caring, helpful, and charming they should be.

Definitely don't just outsource to a cheap provider or cheap person. Whoever is actively communicating with your customers should be the best of the best.

Re:Pregnant Rock Stars - My Approach to Customer Service by dlokshin on Tuesday May 29, 2012 @01:40PM (#4038698)
Yes, the CEO will not be able to handle the bandwidth. But Zappos, the company, has made a billion dollar business out of it.
Re:Pregnant Rock Stars - My Approach to Customer Service by sjain on Tuesday May 29, 2012 @02:02PM (#4038812)
The last thing I would really want to do is outsource customer service, esp. in the early years of business.

I wrote a small piece on What Your Startup can Gain by Delivering Great Customer Service: http://www.happyfox.com/blog/what-your-startup-can-gain-by-d...

As a passionate founder, you would have the right tools and people that will keep you customer service going.

+1 for founders to be part of customer service irrespective of the size of business.