Today I had a bad experience with new software. I’ve been using an incumbent software for the last few years. It’s good, but it doesn’t do everything I want, so I found a replacement. After spending time researching the functions of the new platform, I still had questions. I called the customer service team to ask for help. I ended up talking to five people in the span of an hour and no one knew how to use the features I was inquiring about.

I ended the call frustrated. How can a software company not have anyone who can explain its product to its customers? My excitement about switching to this software has been dampened.

Companies should make it easy for customers to get value from their product. For simple products, minimal onboarding steps will do. For more complex ones, customers should have ready access to people focused on making sure they succeed at using the product.