Previously: How to Handle Feature Requests - Tips and Scripts from 5 Top SaaS Vendors
Today on the blog we're continuing with our three part customer support series, where we surveyed different SaaS companies for their takes on how to handle sticky support situations. Today's situation involves a user confused on the abilities of your service, always a tricky scenario. More specifically, A user is very upset because your service doesn't do what they need, and what they thought it could and should do.
Mary and Ashley of Agilezen:
Our Approach: AgileZen is a flexible and efficient tool for project management, but we know it can't solve all of the world's project management problems. We've found that some users are looking for features that we don't, and may never, offer-- and that's okay. Sometimes, regardless of how flexible our product can be, our solution is not the best fit for a given team. We address this problem in two ways: offering free accounts and offering additional product options.
How we do it: We offer prospective users free accounts so they can try before they buy, and hopefully avoid any disappointment regarding missing functionality. When a user opens a free account, they receive nearly all of the functionality that a paid account offers. First time users can get a feel for whether or not the product will work for them. Users participating in free accounts are offered the same prompt support turnaround that we offer our paying users. We take extra care to answer any questions or concerns regarding product functionality when a new or prospective user contacts us. AgileZen is often flexible enough to meet a variety of team needs, but sometimes teams require extended functionality. We are lucky that our company, Rally Software, offers a variety of Agile Lifecycle Management solutions. In some cases, we refer users to another product within the Rally Software family that can meet their needs.
The Agilezen team minimizes confusion by offering free access to most features, and then can use other products from their family of services to help fit a user's needs if Agilezen doesn't fit the bill.
Gustav Jonsson of Podio:
"Hey Name, I see your point about "Podio not doing this" but I really feel that you could look at it in a different way. I know that these responses aren't the favorite ones to get from support but I think there's a workaround.
So you can build a new app in Podio that you can structure from your own needs, see this video.
Then I would tailor that ilke this and like that so that it might suit your needs like the missing feature you were describing.
Does that work around suggestion help you at all?
Let me know."
The Podio team relies on the flexibility and power of their Podio Apps to deliver most users what they're looking for in edge cases. If it can't be done there, the Podio team can't help them, so they get them right to that feature and prepare them by pointing out that this is the potential workaround for their needs.
Chase Clemons of 37 signals and Support Ops:
For me, I always talk about finding the best fit for a customer. Find out what problem they're trying to solve. From there, you'll know if your app will work for them. If it doesn't, it's okay to suggest a competitor. I'd keep a list of features that a competitor has but you don't. That way you can always find the best fit for the customer, even if you aren't the best fitting one.
The customer-first focus here is so key. Giving the customer the best information, even if it's not advantageous for you, promotes a trust that will reap benefits down the line. That user might not be your target customer, but someone in their network might, and your honesty can make all the difference in getting a recommendation.
Gregory Ciotti of Helpscout:
In order to better connect with a customer here, you should mention that you understand their stance and appreciate their thoughts on the matter.
If their issue is that your service doesn't have a feature they want, you need to first explain _why your product operates the way it does. Here's a candid example -- many people ask us about social media integration and things of that nature, but our product is built around providing the best way to do email support, and when you add features that aren't in line with your core mission, you start building a product without focus. I've always had positive responses from people when they understand my point of view, so I always start with this._
If they are upset because they feel a feature should be there but isn't ("not as advertised"), it's best not to antagonize (aka, "How could you have missed that?") and instead apologize for the confusion and ask what aspect of the site/copy made them believe that X feature was present when it actually isn't.
Staying true to your focus as a service is so important, and Greg hits the nail on the head here. What might seem like a natural feature to one user might stretch your team in a direction that's counter to your team's purpose.
At Zapier, with the wide variety of services we offer, we run into this particular case with some regularity. In this case the most important thing we do is try to understand what the user is trying to accomplish. Many times we can help with at least part of their process, and if not we can explain where exactly we can't help, and if that's something we might be able to fix in the future. For this case, we may not be able to help this user, but they may leave us with a better taste in their mouth knowing they've helped shape what features we develop.
