Running Support for A Premium WordPress Plugin

Rob La Gatta / Modern Triberob@tri.be

@roblagatta

I'm Rob. I run Quality* for Modern Tribe.(No, I'm not one of these guys).

* Quality = QA + support!

An events framework to help you kick ass

Good support…

• Makes existing customers happy & prospective customers excited

• Fights the rigid bureaucratic machine• Engages the community, instead of

just preaching to it• Provides value that can be easily

measured internally & externally• Is offensive, not defensive

Building your team

• Are they happy, helpful, curious & accountable?

• Where are they located? Does it even matter for the job they’re doing?

• Do they understand a lifestyle company, & the work/life balance?

• How do they handle the interview & test project?

• Is this someone I’d want to spend time with at our next team-wide retreat?

“Stacking the bench”

Positives (+)• Patience• Strong verbal & written

communication skills• A sense of humor,

regardless of how dark• Thick skin & no

semblance of defensiveness

• Openness to wearing many hats

Negatives (-)• Obvious bullshitting• Poor verbal communication

or a less-than-100% command of English

• No other source of income• Lack of experience working

remotely• Overly granular (or,

“paying too much attention to the wrong details”)

Think like a food truck

Being a buddy

• Remember the “Golden Rule”• Embrace the conflicts that being voice

of the customer causes with your dev team

• You can be a professional without being cold & impersonal (use smiley faces, exclamation points)

• Treat users like a friend…someday, they might be one

Remember…

It’s not a matter of whether or not you can solve their specific problem…it’s

about whether or not they have a good experience throughout the

exchange.

So you’ve pissed someone off

• Be diplomatic• Swallow your pride & be liberal with apologies• Never let your emotions take control• Take 20 minutes to write a thoughtful, detailed

reply that calmly addresses all their points• Strategically escalate to defuse a volatile

situation, if needed• Keep the user on your radar & check in as

needed until you know they’re happy (or at least calm)

Providing support: free vs PRO

The Events Calendar (free)

• All posts gets a reply within 7-10 days (usually sooner)

• Help with bugs; don’t help feature requests, customizations & most theme/plugin integrations

Events Calendar PRO (paid)

• All posts get a reply within 24 hours

• Help with bugs, customizations & theme/template integrations as much as is practical

EVERYBODY is a customer. Some have paid for more features & support than others, but

you owe it to everyone to respond professionally, with enthusiasm & in a

reasonable timeframe

Curiosities about free vs PRO

• The value provided should be proportionate to the amount the plugin costs

• Strategically include links to PRO/premium support threads when practical

• Setting expectations of limited support on dot-org & sticking to those can actually increase buyers of your premium product

• Reply to the written reviews, even (especially) the nasty ones

The right philosophy?

"I don't care if you pay us $39 or $390,000. Treat our support team poorly and you may be asked to take your money and leave.”

- @byronrode

Act nice, get help

“The more respectful and thankful that you are, the more inclined they will be to help you out for little or no charge. Remember you pay NOTHING to use the plugin, so the least you can pay the developer is some respect.”

- Wpbeginner.com

If you can’t help them…

• Direct them to a competitor who you know will treat them right

• Be wary about letting your team provide “additional support” at a cost they determine

• Keep a customization referral list that is well-stocked with available freelancers/shops

How do you QA?

• Do devs QA their own work, or each other?

• Do you have an independent QA team whose job is exclusively to test products before release?

• Do you bypass QA altogether, release & make fixes based on user reports?

…don’t trip, but you’re doing it wrong.

Good support teams do QA

• It avoids creating silos• Creates a more cohesive, less fragmented

experience for the end user• Expectations on the scope/timeline of a

feature or bug fix can be set more accurately

• Who knows what the community wants & whether your changes get them there, better than the person engaging with them on a daily basis?

An ideal quality process

• Team members each “own” a unique plugin & are responsible for testing before release /support after

• Multiple (2+) testers before a major release

• Implementation of a strict monthly maintenance release cycle

The monthly release cycle

• Week 1: Post-mortem the last release, refine specs for the next

• Weeks 2-3: Heavy focus on necessary development work

• Week 4: Complete QA, test all the issues specific to the release, & do a “full pass”

Release updates on the first Monday of themonth, every month, then start the process

over.

Why are monthly releases good for support?

• They make people happy• Gives users a reasonable timeframe

for expecting bug fixes• Makes better use of support

resources• Proves that we’re committed to the

product & that the issues they report on the forums aren’t being ignored

Good outcomes of a monthly release cycle

• For ourselves, they excite the team by get everyone from design to QA into a monthly route with a shared, attainable end goal

• For the competition, it shows we aren’t going away anytime soon

Other time-saving support hacks

• Provide “how-to’s” for everything: not just related to your plugin, but on using the website/forum too

• “Bad documentation is a bug”• If your forums are on BBPress, install

Pippin Williamson’s Private Replies plugin

• Strategically hide the contact form to everyone but a small subset of users

That’s it.

Thanks for watching.