This is Signal vs. Noise, a weblog by 37signals about design, business, experience, simplicity, the web, culture, and more. Established 1999 in Chicago. Visit the Product Blog for more information on our products.

Looks like they used Snagit! Snagit is a great product.

I think the exact author and subject of the email are largely irrelevant, dudez.

The point is: Check out the level of detail and effort this person put into their support email.

I’m impressed. Shows how determined the person is to have the problem fixed, but in a helpful, non-aggressive, non-shouty way.

I believe the small screenshot was intentional. The details of the email are not as important as the overall presentation that the 37 Signals customer composed.

Tip of the keyboard to that customer, good products creates good customers.

I think the confusion is that the title of the blog reads “And the winner for best support email ever is… 37signals Oct 25.” I think what they are saying is that the customer was very helpful in including the screenshot but the headline is implying that 37s was helpful to the customer because the customer included screenshots.

I email 37s support with screenshots once. I wish I could say I felt it made a difference. I still don’t think the problem was ever communicated. Maybe my fault, maybe not. But I felt like I was getting a stock answer to a question I wasn’t asking.

The other night I went though the McDonald’s drive through and ask if the McRib was back yet (like I had seen on a marquee at a different restaurant), only to be told- after repeating “McRib” three times -that it was a “Breakfast Item”, so I’d have to come back in the morning.

Argh.

If it helps with the confusion. The light purple “37signals” is the author of the post. I think some folk think 37s is trying to praise themselves. I don’t think that was the intention.

Funny you mention the McRib. I went to a drive-thru yesterday where the McRib was displayed. When I ordered it, the girl said they didn’t have it. I asked why it was on the board. She put me on hold, then sheepishly came back and said she had been off work for a couple days.

Then she asked me to hold again while she looked for the right button to charge me. After a while she came back with my price. I looked at the screen and it listed a cheeseburger with a line beneath it saying “Subst”.

When I asked her about that, she said there was no button for the McRib and that they would have it in the bag.

You can guess the rest. I got a cheeseburger in the bag.

Argh indeed!

And for their efforts they got something like this…

Dear Customer, Thanks for your feeback, we’ll note your request. Whilst we can’t guarantee it’ll make it into a future version of Basecamp, we can promise you that we’ll review it and keep it on file. Thanks again, 37 Signals.

(joke)

Can I have your customer’s job? If (s)he has time to craft beautiful emails like that …. :)

On the other hand, maybe (s)he’s just very, very efficient. In which case, can I employ him/her?

To 37S, do you guys use GMail as your ‘everyday work’ email client? I’m considering it and I was curious as to your experience with it.

Well thats what you get for buying “food” from McDonalds…

Wow, you should PAY them for emails like that!

I used to work at a place where we supported a 3rd party app and every time we raised and issue we would do a screen shot movie with highliights and a dumbies guide to how to create it. Now everytime I report a bug to someone I still do it. you’d be amased at how many people actually write back with a detailed thanks vs just dropping a note. I think of it as a karma system. If I do it then someone might do it back to me (but I never release anything with bugs :p).

sniff it’s so beautiful

SnagIt freaking rocks!

I wrote the support email above (our graphic designer called to let me know it was posted here…as it looks like all my emails). I’m a small business owner whose business does software efficiency training and documentation, but I think everyone who has to explain things to people with software ought to have SnagIt running all the time—and the latest version rocks. I also just despise going back and forth with people because of potential miscommunication that could be avoided by no more than 1 or 2 minutes up front.

FYI , 37s did fix the bug I pointed out within 24 hours.

Oh, how McDonalds teases us with the McRib. To their credit, it’s brilliant marketing… “The McRib is BACK !” almost always gets a “ZOMG! Turn the car around NOW !” out of me.

We actually just launched a beta of an app that makes doing this sort of thing much easier. You can use it with SnagIt or any other screencapture utility (Mac or PC) and it automatically assembles the screenshots into a document in the order you take them. Add some text and then export to pdf or html. If you want to check it out you can download the free beta at www.screensteps.com.