Re:Why I Left Indie Development
by EvanMiller on Wednesday July 30, 2014 @12:11AM
(#8106320)
It makes me sad whenever I hear about indie developers feeling oppressed by customer support, which ought to be source of ideas for improving the product rather than a drag on development. In my mind that's actually what sets indie products apart from the others in a crowded marketplace -- customers have a direct line to the developer, and get nearly instantaneous fixes to their problems.
My basic strategy for reducing the cost of customer support -- and making it a source of valuable information to my business -- is to 1) choose a price point so that potential customers will actually read the app description before buying 2) LISTEN to paying customers and fix common issues they're complaining about 3) constantly obsess over product quality, sometimes at the expense of new features.
Right now I spend about an hour per day doing support, and instead of feeling oppressed, I rather enjoy the process of building relationships with customers, even if they initially emailed me out of frustration about something.
As for the other issue -- having time to be a husband and father and all that -- I don't think there's an easy answer. I was only able to get my apps off the ground financially because I was in a situation where I had nearly unlimited free time. It's only been recently that I could even consider taking on other major commitments.
My basic strategy for reducing the cost of customer support -- and making it a source of valuable information to my business -- is to 1) choose a price point so that potential customers will actually read the app description before buying 2) LISTEN to paying customers and fix common issues they're complaining about 3) constantly obsess over product quality, sometimes at the expense of new features.
Right now I spend about an hour per day doing support, and instead of feeling oppressed, I rather enjoy the process of building relationships with customers, even if they initially emailed me out of frustration about something.
As for the other issue -- having time to be a husband and father and all that -- I don't think there's an easy answer. I was only able to get my apps off the ground financially because I was in a situation where I had nearly unlimited free time. It's only been recently that I could even consider taking on other major commitments.