Nothing gets in the way of an addictive gameplay like having to get help. Over the years, support has become an increasingly important element of interaction with players for many game studios.
Throughout my career, I have encountered many misconceptions about her. They seem insignificant, although they have a long-term effect on the player's overall experience, which directly affects retention and revenue. But they also affect the effectiveness of your support.
12 persistent and harmful misconceptions about support that can hurt your gaming experience Translation of material from Gamasutra.
1)
Many companies are hiring people for player-oriented positions without the right experience or skills. This is often due to lack of preparation, budget and time constraints, or simply due to lack of awareness of the role or required skills. Also, experienced support professionals are rare, as most of them completely change careers after just a few years.
Underestimating the importance of hiring the right people can ultimately lead to bigger problems when a company tries to scale operations or even change CRM tools or service providers. It costs time and resources to save. But this can manifest itself even in very simple communication with the player. Hire smartly, the best and for the long term.
2) Support in English is enough
Not everyone who plays games speaks English. The 10 most lucrative mobile gaming markets generate 50-80% of the total market revenue and require localization in 15 languages for maximum impact. Game terminology usually translates well, interpretation of words and game concepts in non-professional language is still very different from real communication.
Localizing UA assets often requires a completely local experience. For some markets, this is a very sensitive topic that seriously affects the quality of service to players, satisfaction with the services and potential income. On the other hand, it is not possible to provide services in all possible languages. Choose languages wisely.
3) AI will (soon) replace humans
Sometimes studios have doubts about hiring support specialists, because "the future ...". Automation is likely to cut many jobs. But it's not just a matter of working as a support - other specialties are also at risk. Many are already using automation, bots, and FAQs as first wave filters . This is a very efficient way to save resources while improving service efficiency. However, creating and maintaining them requires specialists who are well versed in workflows.
In the near future, automation will not be able to mimic human interaction skills. Identifying emotions, understanding context and subtext, knowing when to deviate from policies and principles, showing empathy or compassion are all beyond the reach of bots.
4) Satisfied players = Loyal players
Player satisfaction can be equated with loyalty, but human relationships are more complex than that. Satisfaction can help overcome negative experiences in the short term, but player loyalty is the sum of all experiences. Satisfied players will only stay if they don't get a better experience elsewhere.
5) Opinions and reports are only important in big numbers
At what point do you alert the team about negative reviews or reports of possible erroneous behavior? Only 1 out of 26 dissatisfied customers complains. The rest leave. Lack of feedback is not a sign of player satisfaction. Indifference is killing business.
Exceptions to the rule are requests for help: for example, recovering a lost account, requests for refunds or lost purchased items, and others. The frequency of contact with such messages is usually much higher due to the perceived emotional and financial losses.
Before raising the alarm on each feedback, it is always helpful to outline guidelines for measuring the severity, impact, and repeatability of each message. 100 players reporting a spelling error are less serious and influential than 5 players who cannot claim in-game rewards.
6) Delight players with gifts
Everyone loves getting free nishtyaks. But when it comes to support messages, gifts and free in-game currency are not always the right answer. Especially if it doesn't solve the original problem. Ensuring that the root of the problem is fixed and that the problem does not reappear is essential.
Players want to be heard and understood, do not buy them off with gifts. At best, it will give a breather, at worst, it makes the players even more nervous.
7) Improving service through hiring
Hiring additional support specialists will not improve the quality of the service. Under no circumstances is this a substitute for learning or investing in automation, tools and workflows.
While hiring more specialists can affect the number of messages that can be processed, this is not a stable and scalable solution. Of course, if each specialist's workload is beyond their capacity, more staff can help improve service.
8) Player support should be as fast as possible
It is very important to be there when your players need you. You want to answer questions and problems as they arise. But there is an advantage: if you anticipate the problems that may arise in advance. Taking the initiative, informing your audience about problems in advance, and so on will help to avoid unnecessary calls to support. This will also show that you care about the players.
9) The quality of the support depends on the rules and policies of the company
Some people think that having a strict set of rules for interacting with players is enough to ensure a positive experience. And it makes sense if your support does not need to regularly deal with individual cases where the general rules are unlikely to work. Support Professionals may feel they lose their credibility if they go beyond the rules in the context of a player's request.
What's more helpful is building and following a business philosophy that reflects the core values of the studio and brand. It is best to create a framework of principles and values in which you encourage the autonomy and responsibility of each employee. The leadership is still needed, but instead of controlling the support, the support itself will control the provision of assistance to the players.
10) Support practically does not require technical resources
Email, specialists, scripts and rules. While each of these ingredients would have helped you respond to player messages in the early 2000s, it is by no means an effective, efficient, or even scalable support solution.
- CRM software. Allows you to receive, classify and respond to player messages. Modern CRM often includes automated features, workflow management, machine learning, and analytics features (and that's not all). Many of them offer in-app support solutions (integration via SDK) that are best suited for mobile game studios and integrate with various channels. Integration, new features and regular maintenance require technical expertise.
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Depending on your needs (and studio size / resources) there are many additional “tools” you can use to improve your support. If you have in-game chat, make sure you have a moderation program installed. Project or job management software is often required to keep track of tasks and issues. And if you want to prove your support team's return on investment (ROI), then get the resources to integrate your data with Business Intelligence data.
11) Player reviews are negative and complaints
Players have expectations and opinions, but they often need help. Player messages come in many forms. However, most of them can be divided into the following categories:
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Never avoid player feedback, praise and criticism. Accept that everyone has an opinion. When you are open to dialogue, you can and should use criticism as a tool to enhance your gaming experience. Many studios these days actively encourage players to leave feedback and use both praise and criticism to their advantage.
Player Complaints are reports of faults that directly impair the player's experience and confidence. Failure to resolve them will lead to frustration, and repeated failure to solve them will lead to increased churn. On the other hand, fixing problems leads to the restoration of trust. The faster complaints are dealt with, the more players feel appreciated.
Under normal circumstances, you will find that support requests account for the bulk of the volume. Of all the messages from players, they should be the easiest to process if you have the right toolbox. Many of them can be done smoothly and automated where possible.
12) Only the support is responsible for the satisfaction of the players
Let's face it - software often comes with unwanted features and doesn't always work as expected. No matter how cool your support is, they won't be able to directly affect the quality of your products.
They can only temporarily mitigate the frustration of the player, but eventually the overall satisfaction of the users will drop. Use player feedback loops to plan needed game improvements and work with your audience.