FP - Offer Support for your Product! Boost Sales

[Luka]

Online support via Skype/MSN etc surely makes the buyer or "soon-buyer" feel safer, I've been providing a service for a long time now, and I Always give them my Skype id/msn (or whatever chat system they have), even before they buy my service.

Why? I don't promote the service now days, and I keep getting clients, because I offered support before the buyer buys my service, and they simply liked it, and they recommend it to many people, and if you have skype or w/e, your buyers can just tell their friends your skype id (happens a lot! Believe me!).

This goes for WSO, answering questions via Skype helps too! And helping them out after they buy your ebook is great, because these buyers, if they love your product, and you offering support via Skype/MSN is a great thing, they'll go for your next product, but I'm not saying that if you don't offer support they won't buy your next product, but more people will buy it.


Has anyone done something similar like this before? If so, I'm sure you can tell us your experience.



Just my 1 cent for more income.

[Bryan]

I'd rather shoot myself and die a quickly and relatively painlessly than suffer by having hundreds of people skyping/MSNing/emailing me every day. To be honest, I would probably die of starvation as I wouldn't have any time to actually get some work done and make money to buy food.

Sure - offering a top notch customer service is a must. But giving away your skype details is not customer support but rather 1-on-1 consultation, for which I charge about twice the amount (per *hour*) of what our products cost.

Nowadays, I give out my skype ID only to business partners and close friends - and still I'm 'invisible' most of the time to avoid unnecessary (and unproductive) distractions.

[Thomas]

...to avoid unnecessary (and unproductive) distractions.

Such as having to talk to me

I'm with Bryan on this one, it would be an absolute nightmare and also reduces the exclusivity of your time (thus decreasing perceived value).

[Luka]

Well I didn't mean to spend hours with 1 guy, maybe 5-10 minutes per person, not everyone contacts.

[Bryan]

500 clients x 5 minutes = 2,500 minutes = 41 hours = a full workweek :

[Luka]

My partner had about 10% contacting him, so 50 x 5 = 250 minutes = 4 hours 10 minutes :P But I mean some will just ask a question or two....

Well if you aren't going to go super wild, then email is the best option, but if you're going to do a smaller WSO/launch, then live support is good.

[flipcrowd]

If you have the scale to justify it, have a Virtual Assistant thats well versed in the subject matter and pay them to handle the support for you (ideally via email).
That allows you to focus on productivity rather than handling support/questions etc etc

[springer98]

I do 100% support via email and still have people who want to carry on conversations. I usually just "miss" their emails for a few days... gives them a chance to lose their train of thought.

[Thomas]

I do 100% support via email and still have people who want to carry on conversations. I usually just "miss" their emails for a few days... gives them a chance to lose their train of thought.

Don't forget the out of "office" responses

[junowah]

Thanks for this advice, I should start to look into implementing this into my work, and wait for results.