# Customer support that doesn't eat the week > SaaS customer support for a small team: answers written once and used many times, questions that disappear when the product changes, and the moment support becomes someone's job. - Course: [From Idea to Profitable Product: Building Without Investors](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product.md) - Module: Growth without an ad budget - Lesson 25/30, ~26 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/support-that-does-not-eat-the-week ## Fifteen hours a week on customer support **Alex Tutor:** GarageDesk keeps growing, and so does Oscar's inbox. He's come to you and me for advice. **Oscar:** 120 shops, and I spend about 15 hours a week answering them. Calls, Viber, sometimes at 10 at night. Sales is what suffers. **Alex Tutor:** Before changing anything, sort one week of questions. Write each one down in a line and mark whether you've heard it before. **Oscar:** Done. About 60% are repeats: how to enter mileage, how to change a reminder's text, where to find the invoice, a forgotten password. **Alex Tutor:** And note when they arrive. Most come between eight and ten in the morning, when cars are handed in and administrators are busiest. **Sofia:** So most of those hours go to questions he's already answered. > **Exercise:** Oscar spends 15 hours a week on support, and about 60% of the questions are repeats. Assuming time is spread evenly, how many hours a week go to repeated questions? ## Repeat questions: product fix, knowledge base or canned response **Alex Tutor:** Every repeated question has three possible answers, from best to worst. Change the product so nobody needs to ask. Write an article once and send the link. Or keep typing it by hand. ![At a pothole on a path, one worker fills it in, a second sets up a pictogram sign and a third leads walkers around it by the hand.](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/inline/support-that-does-not-eat-the-week-illustration-2.webp) *Best: nobody needs to ask. Next: an article. Last: a personal reply.* **Nina:** The reminder text one is on me. The setting is hidden three screens deep. I'll put an “Edit text” button right on the reminder. **Alex Tutor:** And for what the product can't fix, build a **help center**, a small knowledge base: short articles with screenshots. Write one the second time a question comes in, while the answer is fresh. **Oscar:** And saved replies, canned responses, in Viber: two lines and a link, instead of a five-minute voice message. > **Exercise:** Match each repeated question with the best response. **Alex Tutor:** Here's a choice Oscar faces several times a day. What should he do? > **Exercise:** A second administrator this week asks how to enter mileage when a car is handed over. Which reply is better? ## Response times: answer where customers are **Sofia:** Won't shops be annoyed getting a link instead of Oscar? **Alex Tutor:** Most people want the problem solved, not a conversation. An administrator at reception with a car waiting prefers two screenshots to a callback in an hour. **Alex Tutor:** But match the urgency. Routine questions: an article or saved reply, answered within the working day. Anything that stops reminders: a call, now. Owners need to know which is which. **Sofia:** And the messages at ten at night? **Alex Tutor:** Unless reminders are broken, they can wait until morning. Say so openly, so owners know what to expect and Oscar can put the phone down. **Nina:** I'll add one line to every article: “Reminders not going out? Call this number.” > **Exercise:** Which of these support requests should a person handle immediately instead of sending an article? **Alex Tutor:** And about those late messages: check this claim. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** a question about an invoice that arrives at 22:00 should be answered at once, otherwise the shop will feel ignored. ## How to scale customer support: when it becomes a job **Oscar:** The articles helped, but we'll have 200 shops by summer. The questions grow with every new shop. **Alex Tutor:** Then look at what those hours buy: does “where's my invoice” need Oscar at all? When support is predictable and takes time from work only you can do, it becomes someone's job. Part time is fine. **Nina:** Martha. Greg's administrator. She's used GarageDesk every day since the first launch and speaks shop language better than we do. **Sofia:** Isn't it awkward to hire a customer's employee? **Oscar:** We asked Greg first. He said she's earned it. From April: 20 hours a week, 16,000 UAH a month. > **Exercise:** Martha, GarageDesk's new part-time support person, costs 16,000 UAH a month. How many new shops at 750 UAH a month does GarageDesk need to cover her pay? Whole shops only. ## Handing support over: rules and a weekly loop **Alex Tutor:** Martha shouldn't start from scratch. Give her the articles, the saved replies and a rule: what she solves alone, what goes to Nina at once, what goes to Oscar. **Nina:** And every Friday she sends me the three most common questions of the week. Those are my product fixes. **Alex Tutor:** That's the loop: support finds the questions, the product removes them, the help center answers the rest. ![A loop of three stations linked by arrows: a support worker catching questions in a net, a developer fixing a machine and a shelf of help booklets.](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/inline/support-that-does-not-eat-the-week-illustration-3.webp) **Oscar:** And my fifteen hours go back to sales. Khmelnytskyi has about 150 shops that fit, and I've barely started there. > **Exercise:** What should Martha get on her first day so support doesn't depend on Oscar? Choose all that apply. **Alex Tutor:** Fast forward a few weeks. Martha's Friday list shows the same question on top again. > **Exercise:** “How do I enter mileage?” tops Martha's Friday list for the third week running, although a help article with screenshots exists. What is the best next step? ## Your turn **Sofia:** Can I write Martha's rule? **Alex Tutor:** Please. Keep it short enough to pin above her screen. **Oscar:** And say how fast each kind of question gets an answer. > **Exercise:** Martha is GarageDesk's new part-time support person. Nina, the co-founder who builds the product, fixes anything that stops reminders; Oscar, the co-founder who runs sales, decides on prices, discounts, refunds and cancellations. Write Martha's support rule in 3–5 sentences: what she handles on her own, what she passes to Nina at once, what she passes to Oscar, and how fast each kind of request is answered. > **Key ideas** > > - Sort a week of questions first: Oscar's 15 hours had about 60% repeats, **9 hours** a week. > - Three answers to a repeated question: change the product, write an article once (**help center**), use a saved reply. > - Match urgency: routine questions within the day, anything that stops the product needs a person now. > - When support is predictable and takes time from work only the founders can do, make it a job, even part time. Martha: 16,000 UAH a month, covered by **22** new shops at 750. > - Hand over answers, access and an escalation rule, and send the most common questions back to the product. **Alex Tutor:** Next time, the module case: shops keep asking why they should pay for GarageDesk when a notebook is free. - Previous lesson: [Referrals and community](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/referrals-and-community.md) - Next lesson: [Why you and not a notebook? A positioning statement](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/why-you-and-not-a-notebook.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.