Building relationships with customers through support didn't turn out as hoped

Re:Building relationships with customers through support did... by dabluck on Monday July 06, 2026 @05:32AM (#48802485)

Thanks. I'm not really understanding the likes comment. What are likes in this context? I was very explicit in the post I thought providing better support would build customer relationships and improve retention, and I learned that really isn't true. Also I wrote this a couple days ago so the blog would have content and only submitted on a whim, had I known I'd get 10K views and 100 comments I would've written it more carefully

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Building relationships with customers through support did... by ChrisMarshallNY on Monday July 06, 2026 @06:25AM (#48802793)

Thanks for posting this. I have experienced similar. I have found that nasty bug reports are most effective. Good data, and the people are too cheesed off/embarrassed, to follow up, after you address it. Occasionally, it can actually be turned around, and they can become evangelists.

I have integrated a simple feedback form into the app, with the option to send anonymously. That seems to help.

> had I known I'd get 10K views and 100 comments

Is that still the case, after being frontpaged on HN (but most comments are probably here)?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Building relationships with customers through support did... by dabluck on Monday July 06, 2026 @06:33AM (#48802856)

All comments here yeah. Almost to 11K views and there were less than 50 before I posted, with a dozen new subscribers to the blog.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Building relationships with customers through support did... by ChrisMarshallNY on Monday July 06, 2026 @06:43AM (#48802922)

I mention the value of negative feedback, here (in my own blog): https://littlegreenviper.com/the-road-most-traveled-by/#feed...

I don’t really care whether or not I get many views (spoiler: I don’t -too many words). I write for myself.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Building relationships with customers through support did... by OPBoot on Monday July 06, 2026 @07:18AM (#48803171)

I think

> I thought ... people would appreciate this,

gets translated into "I'm only doing this so that people will star/upvote/'like and subscribe' "

"likes" -> the universal currency of internet fame

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Building relationships with customers through support did... by unsungNovelty on Monday July 06, 2026 @11:26AM (#48806012)

For what it's worth, I see a lot of parallels to this and IT support. I found it genuine. Cheers.

[ Parent | on HN ]