Here to help
New additions, integrations, features — these are often the things talked about when it comes to software.
But customer support? Almost never in the conversation.
Our approach to customer support was more or less an accident of sorts. Gimkit launched almost three years ago. And when I launched it, I was incredibly curious to hear what people thought.
So, I made my email really easy to find. Sure enough, people started emailing me. Some shared their thoughts, other had questions. And thus, my customer support journey began.
A few months after the launch of Gimkit, things started to get busy. For the first time, more than 30 people were using it. The support load got much larger.
I live on the west coast — I would wake up and find a bunch of emails in the queue from folks in earlier time zones. I'd answer those, get ready for school, and try to answer the mid-day ones at or after school.
When things got even busier, I contemplated making it harder to contact me. That would allow me to sleep in a bit more, and focus on the product.
It was tempting, but just didn't sit right with me. If someone is having a hard time with Gimkit and needs some help, one sure way to make their experience worse is to make it hard to get help.
When Jeff came onboard, he started handling most customer support. That remains to this day. Jeff has been the one providing amazing support — he's a legend.
Even as things have gotten busier and busier, we've continued to try our best to provide incredible support. If you've ever reached out to us before, you've probably seen it firsthand.
With our commitment to support, there's a statement I'm proud of:
We've responded to every single person that's ever reached out to us since Gimkit launched.
I'm sure we've unintentionally missed a few things over the years, but all in all, we've helped and responded to every person that comes our way.
We've never left someone hanging. We never ignored a tough question. We got back with great support every single time.
The ability to provide fantastic support in a timely manner has never been more difficult than now.
In short, we're swamped. We're a team of three, and the load is too much.
Next week, we'll be expanding our team from three to four people. We're bringing on a full-time customer support representative.
I can't explain how excited I am to have someone whose entire job is to help you out. To be there if you run into any issues, or have any questions.
And while we continue to work on new and exciting things, we'll do our best to ensure something is always the same: we're here if you need us.