Dealing with customer support while traveling
I've been thinking quite a bit about being a Digital Nomad on a sailboat. I'm an experienced sailor so that bit isn't a challenge. The problem I'm concerned about is being out of communication with customers for days on end. If I'm moving the boat from here to there, I'm out of contact to customers. Any issues will have to wait until I've arrived somewhere, and gotten connected to the Internet. Yes, satellite comms is a possibility but it's not really realistic (expensive bandwidth, and an inability to send long emails or code updates while at sea).
I presume this isn't unique to sailboats. If you're a nomad and you're traveling by air or train or whatever, your customers can't get in touch. How do you handle this? Some sort of online support desk to record the issues? A "sorry, I'm away for three days" message? A non-nomad buddy to handle the support issues?
Having been self-employed at many times over my career, I've discovered that customers only really have earth-shattering support issues when you've gone on holidays to somewhere with poor or limited connectivity, and I'm trying to log into a server over my phone.
Maybe everyone chooses a revenue source which doesn't require customer support, like writing a blog? For me, arriving into a port and finding that my SaaS application has been off-air for three days is enough to give me the shivers.
When your SaaS application had unexpected / bad results, what were they? How did you fix them? I would start there and see what remote solutions could fix your problem or communicate with your clients that a fix is being reviewed. I would also hold out on doing any major updates during your times of mostly-interrupted service. Lastly, and more importantly, if you are away let your most valuable clients know your schedule. It's helped me more times than I can count and allowed me the mental freedom to enjoy the moment. Also, it makes for good stories afterwards :)
I haven't had any unexpected / bad results, because I keep Murphy firmly at bay. :)
In the past, I have had issues with other service businesses while I was out of town. I used to host email and DNS for clients and I once had a log file go awry and fill the disk due to a weird anomaly. I was in Switzerland on a ski slope at the time. Not fun!
Not good, but unfortunately a common issue for log files to get out of control. How long was the process of getting the initial client email to fixing it? What were the technical hurdles connecting & fixing (hardware, software, etc.)? If you had to do it all over again, what would have made life easier on you to fix it & communicate the process of fixing it with the client?
Answering these questions + understanding the logistical issues of your next adventure is the methodology I use before my next nomadic travel. I know it's extra work now, but boy is it better than trying to figure out all this stuff when it happens.
I can so relate to this (not the sailboat part, unfortunately); so far, I've had to compromise on some cool remote destinations for the sake of Internet connectivity. Other than training and outsourcing customer support, I don't see any other way...
Yoooo living on a sailboat sounds badass!
I guess I would consider how many customer messages you're getting now and how urgent they usually are. I'm guilty of not responding to emails a few days at a time and took a whole month off working on thegoodstartup.com blog, but that's because I'm not doing something that constantly requires my attention. If you have those frequent support issue messages, do you have anyone you can outsource the customer service to for a few days at a time? I wish all customer service/support was universal haha