Put the knife down and take a green herb, dude. (c) Ruffin Bailey 2001-2021

Our favorite _DavidSmith has declared app support bankruptcy. With the success of WidgetSmith, I get it. He's got MUCH bigger fish to fry.

But I emailed a decently written bug request on September 24th, well before WidgetSmith blew up, and I just received this reply (to be clear, it's the first reply. Not even an autoresponse before, afaict), a short month and a half later.

No offense, and I think he'd admit it: That's email support bankruptcy.

Why good indie apps often have incredible support... initially

Again, as a developer with a small app store side business, I get it. It's tough to find the time to reply to every request, and the time it takes to reply is never a good trade off on its face. If I answer an email carefully once with a $15 app, I've probably lost money, and if I get into an email chain, it's, on some level, a time and resource sink I'll never climb out of.

But note: It makes sense to go overboard on support when you start, as you're looking for word of mouth at that point. If you can get your first 500 customers, then maybe you have a snowball big enough to lead to a sustainable business. And so lots of indie devs give amazing support (I'm looking at you, Daniel Jalkut) in ways that are simply unsustainable at scale.

The danger of success

I'm not sure when David made it to "sustainable snowball" stage, but I'm confident he's well past it and into avalanche stage with WidgetSmith now.

And I think this is a weakness of indie development. As much as David wasn't "in it to hit big", he's not against it. He's been writing apps for a decade (plus?) and taking a shotgun approach with good individual success. Now he's extremely successful*. What happened to that awesome support? (Disclaimer: I've never gotten awesome support from his apps, but at least with the hired help, I've gotten a reply or two.)

As a sort of app experience comp, I'll also admit Marco's complete lack of support for Overcast, the podcast player, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Always has. I've emailed and posted a few bugs to Twitter, and nothing. Not even a "like".

That's fine, and it's not a dumb decision (see above on time), but it's not a decision I really appreciate as a customer.

Hire a contractor to go through and reply, "That's interesting. Does anyone else have the same issue?" to every Twitter post. If the contractor finds enough of the same thing, have them tell Marco and get an update from him to post on the issue. What does that cost? $50 once every week or two? Overcast gets 150+ new subscribers a week on a bad week. That's $1000 a week new income. With 50% churn each year, that's still... carry the one... enough to hire someone.

And that's really the issue. Marco already had a single app whose business was bigger than the snowball but smaller than the avalanche on some level. He hasn't had to keep pushing out apps to find success. He's easily making $200k a year on Overcast, which I'd call success. He doesn't have to find another app (though, given his history, I'm sort of surprised he hasn't).

This is the danger for users of indie apps: Indie apps with enough success find that word of mouth for good support is no longer particularly important.

Leaving the toy store

I'm reminded of this post from Brent Simmons:

People in the village love toys, but they also like to get to know the village toy-maker.

Brent was talking about having a blog, but I'd extend that to all communication from the dev to the user. When the toymaker discovers their Rubik Cube and goes to the big city, you don't get to really know the village toymaker any more. What's more, you'll find they've stopped making your favorite toys.

So though it makes sense in David's case to declare support bankruptcy and to put his limited resources on the cash cow, it's an off-putting move. I don't want to check out "his apps here". Which of those are being supported now? Why not just point me to WidgetSmith? Isn't that effectively the message behind the message? "For at least the near-term, until the fire burns itself out, we're a WidgetSmith-only shop." Nothing inherently wrong with that. At least it's honest.

Here's the important point for David: Realize, at least for the time being, that you're no longer the village toymaker.

Suggestions

Here are some more suggestions to improve the email. As someone whose even taught business writing a few times, I don't feel it's out of turn to offer them.

It's been over a month at this point. Again, on some level, why engage at all? You've already sent the "I don't quite have time" message loud and clear.
But if you do communicate --

Is there a FAQ of common errors/issues? Can you identify if my issue is on that?
Is there a forum where the community might help? (Could you [hire someone to] stand one up?)
Maybe try this: Ask me if I've found a solution in the last 45 days.

(Spoiler: I have.)

Give users a realistic timeframe before they can expect "real" help.

In any event, you probably shouldn't send out a, "I'm orphaning all of my children, you know, for now, at least," email if you're still adopting them.

That is, he's still selling the app. If you don't have time to support it, drop it. Or make it free. Or use your newfound resources to support these other apps with non-technical staff (other news flash: my issue's solution was not app specific). Or hire a developer for these orphaned apps. Or...

The take home is that the #1 rule of business writing is to offer a win-win. You can give bad news if you can legitimately offer value to your users as you do it. If not, you're making the wrong decisions.

There is value in honesty. Perhaps just as important to keep in mind: There is value in being honest with yourself.

* He's really successful in the sense that WidgetSmith is/was really popular. But I am genuinely worried about his inability to pursue profit effectively -- he's only selling subscriptions to add weather and tides?

There is nothing wrong with selling an exclusive color or layout in the app or to make stuff like that part of a subscription.

There is something very wrong with not coming up with more reasons to get a subscription at this point. Active support is a good bonus. Access to new widgets as they're developed, even just early access by a month or two, is a no-brainer.

If I had millions of users, you'd better believe I'd be selling more than just tides and forecasts, even if it's just a tip jar like on Pedometer++. People love the app. Give them reasons and ways to support your writing it.

Labels: business, communication, indie, ios, support

I've noticed recently that Feedly isn't doing a great job keeping what's read up to date across all of my devices, and there are a few. I read largely via browser when I take a break from work, on my iPad mini at home using the first-party Feedly app, and via Phonly on my Windows Phone, which I've been using to test apps and to bridge the time between when I sold my iPhone 5S and when I buy an iPhone 7*.

So lately I've seen things marked read reappearing on different devices. That's a pain. I wanted to tell Feedly, or at least see if that's more common recently on the forums.

Well, forget it. There's nothing. The "support" link gives you this...

... and that's completely fair. If you can't give $5.41 for support, what's the point? And for less than a fancy burger, I'm getting email and chat support for a month. That's crazy, you know?

Recently, I complained that I had too many podcast release announcements show up in my RSS feeds, and Jason Snell of Six Colors not only responded, but did something about it, dang it! An hour later, all the while telling me how useful the posts were, and how I was the only one complaining, he'd made me a custom RSS feed!

I wasn't planning on becoming a "patron", but when he requested it, it was difficult to say no. He'd wasted a cool hundred bucks, just to guess, of time on me. Couldn't I afford to give him half that back? Really tough to say no, even though the only thing I supported previously was Trace Ramsey, a great writer from NC.

(Now that said, I paid for Overcast back before it was patronware, tipped David Smith for Pedometer++, and purchased all sorts of podcast sponsor jive -- Fracture, Hover... something I forget... and eventually Linode, if I ever get off the tookus.)

The bottom line, though, is that Feedly is doing it right. I'm probably going to release the Markdown editor I'm writing as "serious" paidware ($5+) at first, even though -- no, precisely because -- it'll greatly reduce the number of users. I'd rather support 10 serious folks' feature requests than address 100 folks' pet peeves.

How invested are your customers, and which ones do you really need to help? If they aren't paying you peanuts, you'll lose more time === money replying to them in an email than you'll ever make back, more than likely. Build your core audience, and start by putting up a very conventional barrier to entry -- cash. It's sort of like the old, "Who is more committed to breakfast? The chicken or the pig?" bit. I want to listen to the pigs, to mix metaphors painfully.

Of course I still haven't paid Feedly so I can ask what's up. Or Phonly to get rid of the two banner ads it keeps running (its Twitter feed hasn't updated since 2014, fwiw). And that's the kind of user you don't want to waste your time placating#. ;^)

*I've got to say, going six and a half months without an iPhone has been more annoying than I'd thought. I mean, Windows Phone 8.1 is pretty good, much better than I'd expect. And now that it's got Crossy Road, I can't even complain much about games. But if I was a betting man (I'm not), I'd put some cash on me going for the iPhone 5se when it's released in a month. I'd like to think it's because I like the smaller phone (I think I do, especially with the mini to play GIANT phone when I'm at home), but it's probably, admittedly, partially due to impatience and partially to save a few hundred bucks. Still, I'd kinda hope I wait it out and get the "full" iPhone 7 experience.

Decisions, decisions, first-world decisions.

#Maybe. I mean, you never know how many of those folks will shell out after you help them, a la me and Snell. I used to email one developer about their app when I couldn't tell which to buy, and if they replied quickly, I'd buy theirs. Active support of any kind is worth something.

Labels: business, feedly, indie, support

title: Put the knife down and take a green herb, dude.	descrip: One feller's views on the state of everyday computer science & its application (and now, OTHER STUFF) who isn't rich enough to shell out for www.myfreakinfirst-andlast-name.com Using 89% of the same design the blog had in 2001.
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Saturday, November 07, 2020
Underscore David Smith declares app support bankruptcy Our favorite _DavidSmith has declared app support bankruptcy. With the success of WidgetSmith, I get it. He's got MUCH bigger fish to fry. But I emailed a decently written bug request on September 24th, well before WidgetSmith blew up, and I just received this reply (to be clear, it's the first reply. Not even an autoresponse before, afaict), a short month and a half later. No offense, and I think he'd admit it: That's email support bankruptcy. Why good indie apps often have incredible support... initially Again, as a developer with a small app store side business, I get it. It's tough to find the time to reply to every request, and the time it takes to reply is never a good trade off on its face. If I answer an email carefully once with a $15 app, I've probably lost money, and if I get into an email chain, it's, on some level, a time and resource sink I'll never climb out of. But note: It makes sense to go overboard on support when you start, as you're looking for word of mouth at that point. If you can get your first 500 customers, then maybe you have a snowball big enough to lead to a sustainable business. And so lots of indie devs give amazing support (I'm looking at you, Daniel Jalkut) in ways that are simply unsustainable at scale. The danger of success I'm not sure when David made it to "sustainable snowball" stage, but I'm confident he's well past it and into avalanche stage with WidgetSmith now. And I think this is a weakness of indie development. As much as David wasn't "in it to hit big", he's not against it. He's been writing apps for a decade (plus?) and taking a shotgun approach with good individual success. Now he's extremely successful. What happened to that awesome support? (Disclaimer: I've never gotten awesome support from his apps, but at least with the hired help, I've gotten a reply or two.) As a sort of app experience comp, I'll also admit Marco's complete lack of support for Overcast, the podcast player, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Always has. I've emailed and posted a few bugs to Twitter, and nothing. Not even a "like". That's fine, and it's not a dumb decision (see above on time), but it's not a decision I really appreciate as a customer. Hire a contractor to go through and reply, "That's interesting. Does anyone else have the same issue?" to every Twitter post. If the contractor finds enough of the same thing, have them tell Marco and get an update from him to post on the issue. What does that cost? $50 once every week or two? Overcast gets 150+ new subscribers a week on a bad week. That's $1000 a week new* income. With 50% churn each year, that's still... carry the one... enough to hire someone. And that's really the issue. Marco already had a single app whose business was bigger than the snowball but smaller than the avalanche on some level. He hasn't had to keep pushing out apps to find success. He's easily making $200k a year on Overcast, which I'd call success. He doesn't have to find another app (though, given his history, I'm sort of surprised he hasn't). This is the danger for users of indie apps: Indie apps with enough success find that word of mouth for good support is no longer particularly important. Leaving the toy store I'm reminded of this post from Brent Simmons: People in the village love toys, but they also like to get to know the village toy-maker. Brent was talking about having a blog, but I'd extend that to all communication from the dev to the user. When the toymaker discovers their Rubik Cube and goes to the big city, you don't get to really know the village toymaker any more. What's more, you'll find they've stopped making your favorite toys. So though it makes sense in David's case to declare support bankruptcy and to put his limited resources on the cash cow, it's an off-putting move. I don't want to check out "his apps here". Which of those are being supported now? Why not just point me to WidgetSmith? Isn't that effectively the message behind the message? "For at least the near-term, until the fire burns itself out, we're a WidgetSmith-only shop." Nothing inherently wrong with that. At least it's honest. Here's the important point for David: Realize, at least for the time being, that you're no longer the village toymaker. Suggestions Here are some more suggestions to improve the email. As someone whose even taught business writing a few times, I don't feel it's out of turn to offer them. It's been over a month at this point. Again, on some level, why engage at all? You've already sent the "I don't quite have time" message loud and clear. But if you do communicate -- Is there a FAQ of common errors/issues? Can you identify if my issue is on that? Is there a forum where the community might help? (Could you [hire someone to] stand one up?) Maybe try this: Ask me if I've found a solution in the last 45 days. (Spoiler: I have.) Give users a realistic timeframe before they can expect "real" help. In any event, you probably shouldn't send out a, "I'm orphaning all of my children, you know, for now, at least," email if you're still adopting them. That is, he's still selling the app. If you don't have time to support it, drop it. Or make it free. Or use your newfound resources to support these other apps with non-technical staff (other news flash: my issue's solution was not app specific). Or hire a developer for these orphaned apps. Or... The take home is that the #1 rule of business writing is to offer a win-win. You can give bad news if you can legitimately offer value to your users as you do it. If not, you're making the wrong decisions. There is value in honesty. Perhaps just as important to keep in mind: There is value in being honest with yourself. * He's really successful in the sense that WidgetSmith is/was really popular. But I am genuinely worried about his inability to pursue profit effectively -- he's only selling subscriptions to add weather and tides? There is nothing wrong with selling an exclusive color or layout in the app or to make stuff like that part of a subscription. There is something very wrong with not coming up with more reasons to get a subscription at this point. Active support is a good bonus. Access to new widgets as they're developed, even just early access by a month or two, is a no-brainer. If I had millions of users, you'd better believe I'd be selling more than just tides and forecasts, even if it's just a tip jar like on Pedometer++. People love the app. Give them reasons and ways to support your writing it. Labels: business, communication, indie, ios, support posted by ruffin at 11/07/2020 01:57:00 PM

Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Feedly support runs $5.41, and that's The Right Thing to Do I've noticed recently that Feedly isn't doing a great job keeping what's read up to date across all of my devices, and there are a few. I read largely via browser when I take a break from work, on my iPad mini at home using the first-party Feedly app, and via Phonly on my Windows Phone, which I've been using to test apps and to bridge the time between when I sold my iPhone 5S and when I buy an iPhone 7. So lately I've seen things marked read reappearing on different devices. That's a pain. I wanted to tell Feedly, or at least see if that's more common recently on the forums. Well, forget it. There's nothing. The "support" link gives you this... ... and that's completely* fair. If you can't give $5.41 for support, what's the point? And for less than a fancy burger, I'm getting email and chat support for a month. That's crazy, you know? Recently, I complained that I had too many podcast release announcements show up in my RSS feeds, and Jason Snell of Six Colors not only responded, but did something about it, dang it! An hour later, all the while telling me how useful the posts were, and how I was the only one complaining, he'd made me a custom RSS feed! I wasn't planning on becoming a "patron", but when he requested it, it was difficult to say no. He'd wasted a cool hundred bucks, just to guess, of time on me. Couldn't I afford to give him half that back? Really tough to say no, even though the only thing I supported previously was Trace Ramsey, a great writer from NC. (Now that said, I paid for Overcast back before it was patronware, tipped David Smith for Pedometer++, and purchased all sorts of podcast sponsor jive -- Fracture, Hover... something I forget... and eventually Linode, if I ever get off the tookus.) The bottom line, though, is that Feedly is doing it right. I'm probably going to release the Markdown editor I'm writing as "serious" paidware ($5+) at first, even though -- no, precisely because -- it'll greatly reduce the number of users. I'd rather support 10 serious folks' feature requests than address 100 folks' pet peeves. How invested are your customers, and which ones do you really need to help? If they aren't paying you peanuts, you'll lose more time === money replying to them in an email than you'll ever make back, more than likely. Build your core audience, and start by putting up a very conventional barrier to entry -- cash. It's sort of like the old, "Who is more committed to breakfast? The chicken or the pig?" bit. I want to listen to the pigs, to mix metaphors painfully. Of course I still haven't paid Feedly so I can ask what's up. Or Phonly to get rid of the two banner ads it keeps running (its Twitter feed hasn't updated since 2014, fwiw). And that's the kind of user you don't want to waste your time placating#. ;^) I've got to say, going six and a half months without an iPhone has been more annoying than I'd thought. I mean, Windows Phone 8.1 is pretty good, much better than I'd expect. And now that it's got Crossy Road, I can't even complain much about games. But if I was a betting man (I'm not), I'd put some cash on me going for the iPhone 5se when it's released in a month. I'd like to think it's because I like the smaller phone (I think* I do, especially with the mini to play GIANT phone when I'm at home), but it's probably, admittedly, partially due to impatience and partially to save a few hundred bucks. Still, I'd kinda hope I wait it out and get the "full" iPhone 7 experience. Decisions, decisions, first-world decisions. #Maybe. I mean, you never know how many of those folks will shell out after you help them, a la me and Snell. I used to email one developer about their app when I couldn't tell which to buy, and if they replied quickly, I'd buy theirs. Active support of any kind is worth something. Labels: business, feedly, indie, support posted by ruffin at 2/10/2016 10:09:00 AM

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