Welcome to another installment of From Our Desk to Yours. Applian Technologies has always been a customer-oriented software company. With a number of products that help people record video and audio off the Internet, we’ve learned a thing or two about customer service over the years so we thought we’d share how we roll. We care so much about it; this one is a double volume post. You can read Part 1 here .

What We’ve Learned

• Use tools, fools. Take advantage of the best services offered. We love Zendesk for managing every single ticket submitted by our customers. And Basecamp is great for tracking and reporting bugs to our developers. We’re always on the lookout for new services that make our service better. Got any others we should know about?
• Sometimes people would rather fix it themselves. We offer lots of self-help options, like user guides, FAQ’s and an online troubleshooter. An online tool to find a lost activation code is really appreciated by our customers and cuts down the time our team has to spend searching for it. We appreciate those customers who (like us) love to troubleshoot and solve problems – even though we’re always here for that extra support.
• Keep updates and upgrades simple. We try to avoid over-complicated language and processes so that you know exactly what you’re getting when our genius engineers come up with new releases or improvements. Here’s our upgrade and update policy.
• A happy staff is a loyal hard-working staff. We allow them to work from home and provide them with the tools and equipment that they need to do their work efficiently. They are true team players and recognized as experts and professionals. Just like our customers, we would not exist without a stellar support staff.
• Keep Developers out of Customer Service. Let’s face it: software developers are a breed all their own. Ours are diligent and brilliant coders that survive on caffeine and chocolate. And like most proud parents, they’re super-connected to the products they create. They can take criticism personally and get grumpy if not treated with the utmost care. So, we let our strategists and Level 2 support communicate any shortcomings and feature requests directly to them. We speak nerd so you don’t have to.
• Make it easy to get in touch. Our customers really like the convenience of the self-help tools that we provide. And we’ve heard great things about our ticket-based help desk, which you can read for yourself here. We’re often asked why we don’t offer customer support by telephone. It’s a fair question and one we don’t mind explaining; telephone support is expensive. So much so that we’d need to charge for it, or increase our software prices. Neither option has ever seemed very appealing to our customers. So we stick to what works.

As a customer, what are some of the ways that a company can show you that they value your business? We hope we’re on your list of favorite companies. If not, let us know how we can do better.