CHAPTER 11 Supporting Your Product
customer. This is especially true if you have the requester of that feature is
very vocal. We’ve experienced that scenario once or twice, and the custom-
er has then accused us of not listening to our customers. I find that really
hard to deal with because we spend all day listening to our customers and
trying to make the best product for them.
What I have to remember in such cases is that we don’t add a feature
because we do listen to and understand our customers; including that fea-
ture would not benefit the majority, or may even be detrimental to many
people’s use of the product.
I see this as the main downside of having the developers of a product
also supporting it. As the founder of a company and developer of a product
you can’t help but feel emotionally attached to it. When customers accuse
you of not helping them, or tell you your product is terrible because it doesn’t
do a certain thing, it can be hard to deal with. That is the time to walk away,
take a deep breath and look at your list of lovely things that people say!
When adding features based on customer requests, you have to ensure
that you always remember your base of happy customers. The people who
like your product and use it without issue never show up in support. Keep
them in mind when planning additions and don’t let the views of a noisy
minority draw you away from a product that a silent majority are paying
for and using quite happily.Managing Difficult Customers
The customer is frequently “wrong”. They are also a human being, so they
deserve empathy, respect and the best possible advice we can give, even if
that means pointing them to a competitor who would fit their needs better.
It can be really easy to get caught up in the words that someone is using,
rather than the intent — they reached out because they need some help.— Jim Mackenzie, 37signals