Sometimes the best solutions are really the most simple.
A couple weeks ago, there was a great forum discussion on how to assign follow up tasks immediately after logging communications. This wasn’t just a back-and-forth, this was a full fledged discussion with forum users Bradley, Kenny, HansD, and Stewart taking part.
We have always had the ability to log a communication and to create a To-Do that was assigned to a user and linked back to a communication. But the forum users were looking for a way to “remind” the other users on their account to create a To-Do after logging a communication, if one was necessary. Many approaches were discussed, but the following messages made it clear what we needed to do:
From Bradley:
From a business-process stand point, logging a communication and generating the resulting task are a single action. Yes, you could log the communication, then open it, then start a to-do action. However, you’ve now undertaken three actions as opposed to one, any one of which a staff person could forget or be interrupted before completing.
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Tags: communications management, Customer Service, forums, halloween, microformats, User Experience
As User Experience Designer here at BatchBlue, one of my (favorite) roles is moderating the BatchBlue Forums.
For a little bit of background, my job before this one was with an R&D company that worked on a lot of Department of Defense contracts. There was some cool technology being developed, but one thing I craved was interaction with end users. At that stage of the game there just wasn’t enough (if any). One of the main things that attracted me to BatchBlue was the opportunity to work closely with users of BatchBook.
So, imagine the feeling in my little heart when I read this comment on the forum the other day:
This support forum is beginning to turn into a little bit of a community, which is always a good thing.
Recently, the forum has taken on a life of its own. Not only do we get the usual feature requests and bug reports, but forumgoers have taken to posting detailed examples of their workflow, trying to give us an idea of EXACTLY how they are using BatchBook. We’re not taking this for granted. These folks have been a huge help for us—and me in particular.
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Tags: Customer Service, forums, User Experience
We love Twitter. And we love user feedback. So we figured, why not marry the two? So, starting today, we have asked our Twitter networks to take part in our very first usability test via Twitter! The form is below. Even if you didn’t hear about this on Twitter, you can still take part! 
Update: The usability test has ended. Thanks to everyone who helped out!
Thanks! You can now get back to your tweeting workday!
Tags: twitter, usability, User Experience
Last week, we got a great tip from one of our users, Chris Brogan. Chris thinks the Lists feature is cool, but he usually wants to create a list directly from the Tags & SuperTags page. He said that instead of hopping over the the Lists & Reports tab, he should be able to click a button on the Tag Manager to automatically build a list.
Great idea!
So, here it is:
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Tags: Customer Service, User Experience
It’s our phone number. Amazing what a powerful statement it can be. As a small online business a published phone number seems to say, “yes there are real people working here and we’d love to talk to you.” Yet it is a scary thing for some companies to say. Phone calls are less efficient, less manageable and ultimately less scalable than e-mail systems. But they are worth it.
Sunir Shah at Freshbooks (whose online billing/invoicing software we use and love) wrote last week about answering the phone for customer service. Many great points about the importance of being available to your customer, however it is they are trying to connect with you.
For those resource strapped businesses debating offering phone support, I have a secret to tell you; not that many people call in for product support. The overwhelming majority of phone calls we get on the BatchBlue line are from people considering our product. They need some quick answers on product features and just want the security of knowing there is a support system there if they ever need it.
Customer service has always been the top priority for us here at BatchBlue. While not a standard practice for new, start-up online businesses, we set up our customer service line day one. Actually before day one – we launched it with the beta launch of our product. Our feeling is, if you are serious about customer service, you can not hide from a customer in need. If offering a service to our customers is going to create a burden for our business, then we better figure out how to solve it early on and make sure all of our offerings grow with the business.
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Tags: Customer Service, freshbooks, User Experience
