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Comment by semireg | Hacker News Reader

As a solo developer I don’t have much non-obvious stuff to add, but I will say handling 100% email and phone(!) support for my business-focused electron app makes me relentlessly write guides/FAQs and polish UX. I’m guessing I’ve reduced support requests by 90% while growing the business 1000% which leaves me about as busy with support but with much more revenue. My goal is to do keep doing this… for how long, I don’t know. I’m 50% terrified of losing touch with customers and 50% wishing for an amazing support helper to pop out of the woodwork and start answering tickets.

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I'm in a similar boat. But try as I might, I have yet to find a solution for the "I forgot the email address I registered with, and I am too nervous/confused/unimaginative to try my other email addresses, nor will I click the 'Trouble logging in link?' to help myself, so I'll send you an email from an address you have no record of (using my maiden name), while providing no further information to help identify myself, demanding that you tell me my credentials" people.

I get just the right amount of these emails so it's not worth hiring someone for, while still enough to drive me nuts.

I wish there was a support-as-a-service company that had non-outsourced employees (not contractors) and charged per-minute (or 6 minutes) for support, with some fixed cost for training them how to use your app, and handle basic support questions.

You could consider getting rid of such customers in some systematic way. Not everyone is worth it; curated customer base can save a lot of headache.

And pretty cool startup idea on the small-scale Support aaS thing.

I kiiiinda agree with sibling comment about getting rid of such customers, although obviously doing it in a way that doesn't piss people off :) First, though, you need a way to distinguish toxic users from others. This is useful because it reduces the decision-making cognitive burden to nearly zero. You can also explain it to colleagues if/when you have them.

Suggestion: Keep a tally or produce an estimate of what it "costs" you to service the customers who piss you off. Compare it with time lost, work you could have been doing, impact on your mood, etc. There's no simple formula but you could get a basic metric with some imaginative plugging of guesstimates into a spreadsheet.

I wonder if there's a way for you to foster users supporting users? A community forum perhaps? Obviously these can become toxic too, with entitled users spreading rancour. Strong moderation might work, by you and users you elevate to admin status. Sure, forum moderation may take up your time, but it might be simpler than per-user emails (or whatever). Community fora aren't magic bullets, but good examples exist. Just a thought! :)

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