1.
Customer Support
in the WordPress World
By Nile Flores @blondishnet

2.
Objective
❏ Define what customer support in
WordPress entails
❏ Share ways to identifying your
client’s needs better
❏ Share ways customer support
tips that have worked, even with
the toughest customers to deal
with

3.
My Online Customer Support Experience
❏ Worked for Yoast Customer Support, 1st and 2nd line for 2 years
❏ Provided support clients by myself through Blondish.net for 15 years
❏ Work for WP Fix It for at least 2 years

4.
What is Customer Support in the WordPress World?
As a customer support person in the WordPress
World, you have to know how to use WordPress well
enough to troubleshoot and find a solution for the
end user’s issues.
Additionally, you have to know the plugin, theme, or
service you’re providing support for.

5.
Most Common Types of Support
❏ Help desk (using HelpScout, Freshdesk, etc.)
❏ Phone
❏ Email

6.
Why a Company Offers Support
Make money
Fastest way to get feedback from end user is to tie the product in with
paying service, because manning WordPress.org Support forums, for some
theme and plugin developers can become a monster. Not everyone donates
to the developer’s cause.

7.
Not everyone is suited for Customer Support
This is why, as a community around a plugin or theme or service grows, hiring customer
support is necessary.
Not all developers enjoy tackling a mountain of support. Customer Support team allows a
developer to get to the problems, while the support helps make people happy.
It’s kind of magical in some situations (when your plugin or theme update accidentally
downs a couple hundred thousand sites.)

8.
The role of a Customer Support person
❏ First line support - basic inquiries and troubleshooting that don’t require much code, or
answers can include references to documentation or knowledge base
❏ Second line support - Might involve deeper troubleshooting that may require reproducing issue
in another environment, or writing a little code for a solution, while identifying actual bugs that
can be sent to 3rd line or submission to Github
❏ Third line - it’s rare to get to this point unless there is something fundamentally wrong that
needs one of the developers to step in
❏ Answering non-support inquiries or filtering email to the right department
❏ Writing documentation for knowledge base
❏ Sales

9.
Identify your client’s needs
It’s extremely important to correctly identify your
customers’ needs, to ensure customer satisfaction
and loyalty.
Failing to identify their needs, or being indifferent to
their needs, could result in your client taking
business elsewhere.
Solving the issues is just part of the process.

10.
Your Customers have feelings!
Yes, this might be surprising to some, but you have
to build both an appropriate way of empathy and
sympathy for your clients.
You could still have the right answer, and the
client “walks” away unsatisfied.
Context in support is EVERYTHING!

11.
Your Customers Come from All User levels
As much as you sometimes would
like to do, when something seems
dumb, keep it to yourself.
Sometimes your client isn’t really
sure what to ask for.

12.
What I learned from Taco at Yoast
❏ Content
❏ Motivation
❏ Experience
You can identify how to approach your client better when you can identify
your client’s needs
https://bit.ly/2IneBEW

13.
Examples of Content, Motivation, and Experience
Experience: “This plugin is extremely important because
my whole business is about selling products. Your plugin
update messed up my site and I’m losing money!!!”
Content: “My premium ecommerce plugin extension update failed.”
Motivation: “You promised yesterday to fix the bug that caused
the plugin update to fail. I’ve not received an update for the plugin
yet.”

14.
Customer Support Tips

15.
Know the product or service you’re doing support for
And if you do know it, but run into times that you
don’t know it all, don’t give up.
Find a solution by Googling or consult your team.

16.
Never leave a customer hanging
Communication is everything. Make
sure to let them know if you need
time to gather the right information
with them.
People love being updated. No
information makes for confusion.

17.
Stop using smileys, emoticon, emoji!
You might think adding a smiley face emoji to your support might brighten
the whole context.
In some cases, you end up becoming a know-it-all jerkface, especially when
the issue wasn’t really resolved.
Just stop doing it, no matter the temptation.

18.
Be prepared to correct the issue if you’re wrong
The customer always being right can be a debatable topic. Rather than
approach customer support from this angle, approach it with an open mind.
Always be prepared to correct the issue.
Sorry is not the solution. In fact, “sorry” is said too much, so avoid saying it
by finding the solution.

19.
And then the oddball - Always Negative Nancy
Some people have a bad day, all day, every day. Sometimes people look to
make your day bad.
Your best bet is to approach them without getting emotional. Never meet
their emotion with yours because that’s a trainwreck that will happen.
Sometimes you might have to fire a customer (and in some cases, even
refund them.) There’s just nothing more you can do, or they’ve crossed the
line. Just fire them with class, and don’t allow them to troll you.

20.
Cross your t’s and dot your i’s
Double check your replies to your customers. You’re
being paid to give support, so slang and major
grammatical issues shouldn’t be in your
conversation.

21.
Watch your jargon
Aside from knowledge, your customers don’t
always speak as geeky as you. Talk at their
level (not down at them), and be patient.

22.
ALWAYS thank your clients
Begin your interactions with a thankful.
Gratitude is important!

23.
Thank You!
Nile Flores - http://blondish.net
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Twitter: @blondishnet
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