Post-sale Support

How much is TOO MUCH?

[pdivi]

My site sells products that often require some assembly and/or installation. Though we don't explicitly promise it on the site, if a customer calls in post-sale with an assembly or installation problem, we do what we can to help out. Usually this means calling the manufacturer and relaying information back to the customer, etc.

Our willingness to provide post-sale support has really started to backfire. If the customer isn't getting the help they need from the manufacturer, we are seen as part of the problem.

Just looking at the numbers, it seems as though we'd be better off staying out of the post-sale support business -- if a customer calls us for support, we should just politely refer them to the manufacturer and run away. Even if every single one of these customers put the product back in the box and sent it to us for a refund, we'd still be better off.

Do any of you face a similar situation?

[Longhaired Genius]

Have you tried making a FAQ. It might deflect at least some of your support requests.

[pdivi]

Mr. Genuis,

We have an FAQ, but it's mostly geared towards pre-sales questions. I suppose we really should have some post-sale support info. there -- at the very least, contact info. for manufacturer support. Thanks for the idea!

[wackal]

just a question, but how are you in a good position if all these customers are returning items for refunds? sounds like you would be losing money. also, providing good customer service is always good for business, so it seems like you will only be hurting yourself if you don't offer some assistance to these customers. they may not turn into repeat customers if they don't feel the service they get is good.

Have you ever bought something at CompUSA or a similiar store and then when you had something go wrong, you brought it back and they told you that you had to contact the manufacturer? I know when that happens to me, it doesn't make me want to shop at that store again.

[hfwd]

A post-sale forum or message board may be a good idea for you.

[grandpa]

You could provide the post-sales service for a fee. Your time is money. It seems a given that without some support you could at least lose repeat business. A FAQ is also an excellent idea.

[pdivi]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I agree that SOME degree of product support is good. We've gained loyalty from quite a few customers by following through with the sale to make sure our customers end up happy with their purchases. But I think we've started going beyond a reasonable point, and we end up getting ourselves into bad situations and wasting time.

I think the CompUSA example is a good one. If you bought a piece of software and needed some info installing it, I'm sure CompUSA would lend a hand in giving you instructions. But what if the software were conflicting with a DLL file from another piece of software on your computer? Would you expect CompUSA to troubleshoot with you? Would you expect them to have the expertise on that particular piece of software (and all of its DLL files) to be effective in helping you? Would you think in unreasonable of them to refer you to the manufacturer? Probably not.

I need to draw a line in terms of how much support we will provide -- the line will be right at the threshold where helpfulness becomes dangerous and unprofitable. I think setting the expectation in writing through some sort of FAQ doc. is a great idea. Any additional ideas are appreciated!