A story

A while back my Google Apps email broke. I could still send and receive email through the web inter­face but all application-specific pass­words were not func­tion­ing. I spent most of a Monday try­ing var­i­ous steps. Nothing worked.

I remem­bered that Google offers phone sup­port to its Apps for Business users. I only have one user account so this was $5 a month. Five dol­lars for ded­i­cated phone and email sup­port? I will take that deal every time.

I called Google and after a rel­a­tively pain­less phone tree I got a won­der­fully help­ful Googler on the line. He imme­di­ately spent 55 min­utes on the phone with me. It totally blew me away. Phenomenal experience.

A prob­lem

After 55 min­utes, though, the Googler could not fix things. I had the luck of run­ning in to an IMAP authen­ti­ca­tion error that was not sup­posed to hap­pen. No wor­ries, I told the Googler, some things take time and I will be patient. We ended the call and that evening he sent me a follow-up email with some steps to try. I gave them a shot (no luck) and replied the next morn­ing. Then I waited. For 3 days.

I fol­lowed up via email to see what the sta­tus was. Shortly after that mes­sage my email was back up and run­ning. Despite fix­ing my orig­i­nal issue, it left me with a bad expe­ri­ence. This showed me that some­times the pac­ing of sup­port is the most impor­tant aspect.

A les­son

First impres­sions mat­ter. While that is no secret, I think last impres­sions are just as cru­cial. My first inter­ac­tion with Google was bril­liant. Fifty-five min­utes of 1-to-1 help. That is unheard of and I was ecstatic.

Then, I waited. Three days. With no word on what was hap­pen­ing. Did some­one for­get? Did my email get lost? Do I have to con­tact them again? Will I have to start at square one with a new sup­port engi­neer? As a com­pany, those are not ques­tions you want your cus­tomers ask­ing. They cause thoughts of doubt. They make it harder to believe you care. When your cus­tomers won­der where you went it means you have paced your sup­port poorly.

There are ben­e­fits to offer­ing sup­port across mul­ti­ple chan­nels. Phone sup­port and live chat pro­vide imme­di­ate grat­i­fi­ca­tion. Email allows for the delay in trou­bleshoot­ing that can be nec­es­sary for more com­plex issues. The trick is in han­dling peo­ple who start in one medium and end in another. A sup­port team must pre­pare to han­dle the inevitable follow-up emails from phone calls and live chats quickly. It is not because the ques­tions are any more impor­tant. It is because your first con­tact with those users set cer­tain expec­ta­tions. Your job is to see things through.

A phone call sets cer­tain expec­ta­tions for the pac­ing of sup­port. That call was my first expe­ri­ence with Google. It was great. The Googler was respon­sive, car­ing, and quick to help. All of that was lost after we moved to email. I went from feel­ing like I had that Googler’s full atten­tion to feel­ing forgotten.

The medium of sup­port is not impor­tant. Consistency and fol­low through are. The stan­dard you set in phone sup­port should fol­low every user through every inter­ac­tion with your sup­port team. First expe­ri­ences set expec­ta­tions. Proper pac­ing ensures they are met. Allowing for each mode of sup­port to move at its own pace irre­spec­tive of where the user has been before cre­ates a ter­ri­bly dis­jointed and unsat­is­fy­ing expe­ri­ence. Google may have fixed my issue but they left me far from happy.