Ask HN:(Review my startup) MacSupport.com is there for you. I'm there for you.
People call me all the time. I haven't worked as a consultant in years, yet I still hear from old clients regularly. I started my business by going to people's homes and businesses. I would introduce myself, learn about them, and learn about their problem. Then I'd fix it. I'd show them exactly how I solved their problem so they could, if inclined, fix it themselves if it ever came up in the future. At the very least, they'd have the knowledge to explain it to another tech. I was there for them, so they always called me back when they needed more help.

Building my network of clients took effort. I had to get work by pitching. Telling stories. I'd tell stories about other clients, I'd tell stories about myself. I'd tell stories about the future, about how technology I was excited about could be useful to them, and where they could be with help. Any help, not just me. I may have named my business "Wizard," but I don't know any magic. I'm just good at what I do, and so they called me.

I got involved with a startup, MacSupport.com. MacSupport is there for you in ways I could never be as a consultant. We have techs waiting for you to call. We answer when you email us and we're there for you on the phone. While we can't travel and come to your house, we're instantly beside you, in your computer, showing you how we're doing what we do.

Our techs are smart and friendly and our customers love us. I'd like to consider that a success. Our problem is, I don't know how to pitch on the internet. I don't know how to find enough customers. And since we're not meeting out clients I don't know how to go the extra mile that gets them referring us to their friends. A handshake and a smile made a lot of a difference.

I'm trying a few ideas:

1) We haven't been talking to our current customers enough. We sent them one email on purchase and one in the beginning. When we have them on the phone we play our part well, keep them clam, and teach them enough so they're not more worried about their situation than we are. They almost always hang up happy. We're supposed to follow-up in the end, but we haven't been (miscommunication with the techs). I would like to be better at that.

2) We're too expensive for the small quick questions. I want to have a free email support option. One or two questions a month free, you can subscribe to a package for more, or you can refer friends for more. (think dropbox)

3) Improve the site's UX. I can talk about this one more later, we should have screenshots in the next few days.

4) Better email capabilities. I want to be able to say "Just email us at support@macsupport.com" and have our backend system work the way it should, creating account, adding messages to tickets, etc. (Just call, or IM us should work the same way too.)

5) Marketing. We need to figure out how to get more referrers and conversions. We've tried traditional press releases, and we constantly tweak our Google adwords. We got nowhere with the press, and the business we do have is from months of continually refining our adwords campaign. I feel like we're missing something, but I don't know what.

This is a "review my startup". I think these are our core problems, but our solutions fall short. I'd like to know what you think.

Thank you for your time.

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Francis Gulotta
Director of Technology
MacSupport.com