Examples of Good vs. Bad Support

As covered in Approach to providing good support and Understanding users: Reading beyond the question and probing, always be patient with the users, understand that this seemingly small problem is probably affecting them in a big way, be as detailed in your responses as possible (don’t overdo it though), and anticipate follow-up questions and concerns whenever possible.

The following are real examples of bad support, modified for anonymity, with examples of how they could have been done differently.

Bad Support

User: Where are all the e-commerce features?

Volunteer: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=WordPress+e-commerce

Good Support

User: Where are all the e-commerce features?

Volunteer: WordPress doesn’t comes with e-commerce built-in, but that functionality can be added by several plugins: https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/e-commerce

I haven’t used any myself, but if you want a starting point, I’ve heard some good things about WooCommerce, WP eCommerce, and eShop. All of the plugins at the link above are free to use, so you can certainly try them all out until you find one that matches exactly what you need.

Bad Support

User: Help! My website has been hacked!

Volunteer: You probably used terrible passwords or left your computer open somewhere. Get a backup from your host or start over, and try harder to protect your work next time.

Good Support

User: Help! My website has been hacked!

Volunteer: Remain calm and carefully follow this guide. When you’re done, you may want to implement some (if not all) of the recommended security measures.

Bad Support

User: WordPress sucks!

Volunteer: LoL, later dude.

Good Support

User: WordPress sucks!

Volunteer: I’m sorry to hear that WordPress has upset you. We might be able to help, would you please let us know exactly what you’re having trouble with?

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