开发者谈与用户支持相关的12个误解

原作者：Pascal Debroek 译者：Willow Wu

没有什么比需要寻求帮助更能破坏游戏的沉浸式体验了，而糟糕的用户支持服务还会火上浇油。多年来，有不少游戏工作室越来越重视用户支持服务，将其视为游戏用户体验中非常关键的一环。

然而，在我的整个职业生涯中，关于用户支持的误解我也见过不少。虽然看似都很微不足道，但是它们确实会对整体的用户体验造成长期性的伤害，进而影响留存率和营收效果。当然也会对用户支持的运营效果产生直接影响。

以下是我个人挑选出的会对玩家体验造成持续负面影响的12个误解：

1） 任何人都可以成为用户支持专家/领导

很多公司在招聘这些面向玩家的职位时都没有注意到对方的经验、态度、或者技能是否对口。这通常是因为缺乏准备、预算，外加时间压力，或者只是单纯地对这一职位/技能缺乏了解。经验丰富的用户支持专家/领导其实是非常罕见的，因为他们之中的大多数人会在工作几年后往另一个方向发展。

随着公司逐步增加员工数量、扩大运营规模，甚至更改CRM工具或服务提供商，低估雇用合适人选的重要性最终会给你带来更大的麻烦。这些都是要耗费公司宝贵的时间和资源的，能避免走弯路的话当然应该避免。甚至连非常基本的玩家交流也会受到影响，在关键时刻对玩家体验造成损害。所以为了长期的利益，你得仔细挑选，选出那个最合适的人。

2）用英语服务就够了

你的游戏玩家并不是个个都精通英语的。营收最高的10个手游市场的收益占据了全球总收益的50-80%，理论上来说，总共需要15种语言进行本地化才能实现收益效果最大化。虽然游戏术语通常翻译得很好，但用不熟练的语言解释词语和游戏概念跟实际交流还是有很大区别的。

看到本地化的UA广告，往往会让人们期望游戏公司会提供百分百的本地化游戏体验。对于某些游戏市场来说，这是非常敏感的一个话题，可能会对当地游戏玩家体验、服务满意度和潜在收入产生非常大的影响。另一方面，提供所有种类的语言服务似乎也不是太切实的。选择适合自己的方案，从战略上去思考要支持的语言，否则你会错失很多潜在收益。

3） AI 很快就会取代人类的用户支持工作

有时工作室对聘请用户支持专家会有所犹豫，因为未来……自动化可能会取代很多工作。不仅仅是用户支持这个岗位，任何从事琐碎、可以转为自动化工作的人都有这个风险。许多用户支持团队已经将自动化、机器人、对话式FAQ设为第一道过滤工具。这样做能够节省资源、提高服务效率。但这也是需要用户体验&支持方面的专家来搭建、维护的。

然而，自动化要完全模仿人类互动的技能，我想短时间内还是无法实现的。检测情绪、理解语境和潜台词、知道何时应该偏离政策或准则、表现出关联性或同情心，当下的机器是无法做到的。还记得当年人们推出聊天机器人是为了什么吗？结果又如何呢？别再等了，赶紧为你的工具、专家招募分配预算吧。

Marvel Strike Force（from pocketgamer.biz）

4）满足的玩家=忠诚的玩家

你可以在玩家满意度与忠诚度之间画等号，但人的情感是远比这更复杂的。虽然满意度可能会在短期内帮助玩家克服负面体验，但玩家的忠诚度是由总的体验决定的。满足的玩家会留下是因为他们在其它地方无法获得更好的游戏体验，反过来也是同样的道理——不那么满足的玩家之所以会离开是因为他们在其它地方获得了更好的游戏体验。

5）意见和报告只有在大基数前提下才有效

在什么样的情况下你会去提醒团队注意负面反馈或关于潜在不当行为的报告？26个不满意的用户，只有1个投诉了。其他人就直接退游了。但这些玩家的行为并没有异常之处，所以你得关注一下这个情况。零反馈并不意味着玩家都很满意，冷漠是会扼杀生意的。

例外的情况是请求协助：例如找回丢失的账户、退款请求或手滑误买了东西，等等。通常更多人会因这类事件而联系开发商，因为对他们来说这就是一种情感和经济上的损失。

然而，在为玩家的反馈四处奔走之前，创建一个衡量标准来分析事件的严重性、影响程度和可能重复出现的概率的是个比较合理的做法。100个玩家报告拼写错误和5个玩家报告无法领取游戏内奖励，前者对游戏体验的影响肯定是比后者小。

6）通过分发免费物品让玩家感到高兴

免费的东西谁都喜欢，但是，当涉及到用户支持时，免费的礼品和游戏货币并不总是总能让玩家满意——尤其是当这种方法无法解决他们所报告的问题时。确保问题已经被彻底解决，而且不会再出现，这样就能够很好地表达“我们有把玩家的反馈记在心里”。

玩家们希望有人倾听、理解他们的苦恼，而不是用一些小礼物把他们打发走。这样做最好的结果就是让玩家“消停一阵子”，但最坏的情况是玩家觉得自己提出的问题就这么被敷衍过去了。

7）通过招聘完善服务

这是可能是最难被纠正的一种误解。招募更多的用户支持人员并不等同于你能提高服务质量。在任何情况下，它都不是培训用户支持人才，或投资于自动化、工具和工作流的替代方案。

虽然雇佣更多的专业人才可能会让一定时间内的信息处理效率有所提升，但面对任务增多时(通常是临时的)，这并不是一个可持续、灵活的解决方案。当然，如果用户支持专家的工作量完全超出了可承受范围，那么增加劳动力确实能让你喘口气，提升服务质量。

8）用户支持靠的是临时响应

当你的用户需要你时，能找得到人是非常关键的。你希望自己能立刻解答他们的问题。然而，如果能够预见到可能出现的玩家体验问题，好处是很多的。积极主动，甚至提前与你的用户交流，可以避免临时咨询增多所带来的压力。这不仅能让你的用户支持专家留心到那些意想不到的问题，也能表现出你们是真的很在意玩家的。

9）用户支持服务质量的关键在于规则与政策

很多游戏工作室都以为制定一套严格的互动规则就能保证高质量的玩家体验。如果你的用户支持团队不需要定期去处理个人情况，那这或许还可行。这种硬性政策很难发挥作用，而且这样的游戏体验对玩家来说应该也是相当吃力的。站在用户支持人才的角度看，他们可能会觉得自己失去了信任，公司不相信他们利用常识或基于情景所做出的判断。

然而，更有效的策略是形成一种能够反映工作室和你所代表的品牌的核心价值的商业理念，进而制定价值理念和原则，在此基础上激发出每个员工的自主权和责任感。你仍需要对他们做出指导，但是你的专家会觉得他们在为玩家提供更高质量的服务，而不是被束手束脚地做事。

10）玩家支持几乎不需要任何技术资源

电子邮件、专家、脚本、政策，虽然在刚迈入21世纪的时候，有这其中的任意一项都可以帮助你回复玩家信息，但这种方式无疑是非常低效、死板的。

·CRM软件：使用客户关系管理（CRM）工具可以接收，整理分类和回复玩家的消息。最近的CRM软件很多还具备了自动化功能、工作流管理、机器学习和分析功能等等。许多产品还提供应用内支持方案（通过SDK整合），非常契合手游工作室的需求，并整合了其它渠道。整合、加入新功能和定期维护都需要专业技术知识。

·管理门户（Administration portal）：允许用户支持专家操作或搜索玩家配置文件数据，以帮助玩家解决问题。其中大多数都是将配置文件数据可视化，再增加一个功能层。用户支持专家可以与标识符连接，调整分数或游戏中的资源，重置玩家的进程等等。新的游戏特色通常就需要新的管理功能，因此技术方面的需求也是一直都存在的。无论是哪种情况，你肯定都不希望任何人需要直接操作原始JSON文件。绝对不行！

根据你的需求，以及工作室的规模、资源条件，市面上还有很多其他工具可以帮你优化用户支持服务。如果你的游戏有内置聊天功能，那么审核软件是必不可少的。项目或工作管理软件通常用于任务和问题跟踪。如果你想计算用户支持部门的投资回报率(ROI)，那就获取资源来整合你的用户支持数据和商业智能数据。投资正确的工具会对用户体验产生积极的影响。

11）玩家反馈与批评、抱怨是一样的

玩家对游戏是有自己的期待和看法的，通常也需要帮助。玩家的消息会以多种形式呈现。大致可以归为以下几类：

·反馈：玩家对于你的公司、游戏或者特定的特色产生一些看法。可能是积极的评价，也有可能是批评。

·抱怨：他们在与你的工作室、游戏或特定功能的互动过程中出现了功能方面的障碍。这其中涉及到的可以是任何事——公司的立场、有毒行为或者bug报告。

·支持请求：来自于玩家的请求帮助报告——他们在工作室/游戏/特色相关的事情上遇到了困难，需要你的帮助。这时你就会遇到GDPR相关的问题、账号恢复、如何XXX等等。

玩家的反馈，无论是赞扬还是批评都不应该回避。玩家有时会有不同的观点，这你得接受。当你抱着开放的心态去接受对话，而不是一直抵触，你就可以（也应该）把这些批评好好利用起来，进而改善玩家体验。如今，许多工作室都在积极鼓励玩家提供反馈，并将表扬和批评结合到自己的优势中。

玩家投诉是告知你那些直接会损害玩家体验和玩家信任的功能障碍。如果你无法解决这些问题，玩家就会感到失望，反复如此就会导致退游的玩家越来越多。但从另一方面来说，消除功能障碍能够修复信任关系。投诉解决得越快，玩家就越能感受到游戏背后的工作室或团队是非常重视他们的。

在一般情况下，你会发现玩家消息中支持请求是占大多数的。它们应该是最容易处理的——前提是你有合适的工具集。如果有条件的话，其中许多可以——而且应该实现无摩擦和自动化。

12）玩家满意度取决于用户支持的服务质量

让我们面对现实吧——软件往往都会有那么几个不受欢迎的功能，特色的实际效果不一定总是跟预期一样。无论你的用户支持专员在交流中表现出多少善意，这都不能对游戏的质量和性能产生什么直接影响。

虽然表现善意或感激可能会暂时缓解玩家的情绪，但最终玩家的整体满意度是取决于体验过程中的摩擦总量。利用玩家反馈循环来计划必要的优化工作。与你的用户一起合作来提高玩家的满意度。

以上就是会影响玩家体验的12个关于用户支持的误解。如果你喜欢这篇文章，可以前往PX Hub阅读更多关于玩家体验的内容，或订阅网站的newsletter 。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Nothing breaks an immersive game experience like needing to reach out for help. A poor Player Support experience will make it worse. Over the years Player Support (PS) has become an increasingly important aspect of the Player Experience for many game studios.

Throughout my career, I have however come across many misconceptions on PS. While seemingly minor, they can have a long-term impact on the total Player Experience, which affects retention and revenue. But they also have a direct impact on the efficiency of your Player Support operations.

Here is my pick of 12 persistent and harmful Player Support misconceptions that will hurt the Player Experience.

1) Anyone can be a Player Support specialist/lead

Many companies hire people to player-facing positions without the right experience, attitude or skills. This often stems from lack of preparation, budget & time-pressure or simply even lack of awareness on the role or the specialist skills required to interact with players. Experienced PS specialists and leads are also very rare as the majority of them eagerly switch career path completely after only a few years on the job.

Underestimating the importance of hiring the right people can eventually lead to bigger challenges as a company tries to expand, scale operations, or even change CRM tools or service providers. These are exercises that cost a company precious time and resources, which are of course rather avoided. But it can even surface in very basic player-facing communication, which will impair the Player Experience when it is most needed. Hire smart, hire the best fit, hire for long term benefit.

2) Service in English is sufficient

Not everyone who plays games is proficient in English. The top 10 most profitable markets for mobile games generate 50–80% of the total market revenue and require localization in a total of 15 languages for maximum effect. While game terminology usually translates well, interpreting words and game concepts in a non-proficient language is still very different from actual communication.

Localizing User Acquisition assets often sets the expectation that companies are committed to delivering a fully local experience. For some markets, this is a very sensitive topic with a severe impact on the local Player Experience, service satisfaction and potential revenue. On the other hand, providing service in every possible language is not feasible. Pick the right battles and chose the languages to support strategically, or end up leaving a lot of potential revenue on the table.

3) AI will (soon) replace humans in Player Support

Sometimes studios have reservations on hiring Player Support specialists, because “the future…”. Automation will probably replace a lot of jobs. It’s not just in the support profession; anyone performing menial and automatable tasks is at risk. Many Player Support teams are already using automation, bots and conversational FAQs as the first point of contact filters. It’s a very effective way to save on resources while increasing service efficiency. It does however require specialists who understand the Player Experience and Player Support workflows to build and maintain.

Automation will however not be able to mimic skills in human interaction anytime soon. Detecting emotions, understanding context and subtext, knowing when to deviate from policies or guidelines, showing relatedness or compassion; those are currently out of reach for machines. Remember how chatbots were going to provide support like humans? Don’t hold your breath, allocate budget for tools and specialists.

4) Satisfied players = Loyal players

Player satisfaction can equate to loyalty, but human relationships are more complicated than that. While satisfaction might help overcome a negative experience in the short term, player loyalty is the sum of all experiences. Satisfied players will only retain if they don’t get a better experience somewhere else. The same applies to less satisfied players.

5) Opinions and reports are only valid in large numbers

At what point do you alert the team of negative feedback or reports of possible erroneous behaviour? Only 1 out of 26 unhappy customers complain. The rest churn. It is plausible to assume that players act as any other consumer, so best pay heed to this. Absence of feedback is not a sign of player satisfaction. Indifference kills business.

The exception to the rule are requests for assistance: f.e. retrieving a lost account, refund requests or misplaced purchased items — to name a few. The Contact Rate of these types of messages is usually much higher due to the perceived emotional and financial loss.

However, before raising the alarm over every single line of player feedback it is always a good idea to create guidelines for measuring severity, impact and recurrence of each report. 100 players reporting a spelling mistake is less severe and less impactful on the Player Experience than 5 players not being able to claim in-game rewards.

6) Make players happy by handing out free stuff

Sure, everyone likes getting things for free. But when it comes to Player Support messages, gifts and free in-game currency aren’t always the answer, however. Especially not when it doesn’t correct the issue reported accordingly. Ensuring the root of the problem has been resolved and the problem won’t occur again goes a long way and shows the feedback was taken to heart.

Players want to be heard and their distress understood; not sent off with a mere token of goodwill. At best it buys a short repose, but in the worst case makes players feel their concerns are brushed aside.

7) Improve the service by hiring

This is most likely one of the toughest misconceptions out there. Hiring more PS representatives will not improve the quality of service. Under no circumstance is it a substitute for training and educating PS specialists, or investing in automation, tools and workflows.

While hiring more specialists might affect the number of messages that can be handled in a given timeframe, it’s not a sustainable and scalable solution when facing (often temporarily) increased volume. Of course, if the workload for each PS specialist is utterly beyond capacity, increasing the workforce could provide enough leeway to start investing in service improvements.

8) Player Support is reactive

Being there when you are needed by your players is critical. You want to respond to questions and problems as they arise. However, there’s a lot to gain from anticipating clear Player Experience problems that may arise. By being proactive and taking the initiative, even communicating to your audience on these ahead of time, temporary volume generators that would normally stress your Player Support resources can be avoided. This not only allows your Player Support specialists to focus on any unexpected challenges, but it is a powerful display towards your audience that you genuinely care.

9) Player Support service quality is all about rules and policies

Many studios believe that having a strict set of policies for player interactions is enough to deliver a positive Player Experience. Which might make sense if your Player Support team would not need to deal with individual cases regularly. Blanket policies hardly work and can be a strenuous experience for the player. From the specialists’ perspective, they may feel deprived of the trust to use common sense or make judgement calls according to the context of the situation.

What is more helpful, however, is forming and following a business philosophy reflecting the core values of the studio and the brand you’re representing. Your best bet is to create a framework of principles and values within which you encourage autonomy and responsibility for each employee. Guidance is still needed, but rather than being controlled, your specialists will feel they’re in control of delivering high-quality service to your players.

guidelines.jpg

10) Player Support requires virtually no (tech) resources

Email, specialists, scripts and policies; while each of these ingredients would have helped you respond to player messages in the early 2000s, it is by no means an efficient nor effective, or even scalable Player Support solution.

CRM software: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools allow you to receive, categorize and respond to player messages. Recent CRM software is often powered with automated features, workflow management, machine learning and analytics features to name a few. Many offer in-app support solutions (integration via SDK), which seems to be best suited for mobile game studios, and integrate with a variety of channels. Integration, new features and regular maintenance require technical expertise.

Administration portal: These allow Player Support specialists to manipulate or search for player profile data to solve a support request. Most of these are a visual representation of the profile data with a layer of functionalities added on top of it. They’ll allow your specialists to link accounts with identifiers, manipulate scores or in-game resources, reset player progress, etc. Technical expertise is continuously required as new game features often require new administrative functions. Under no circumstances do you want anyone needing to directly manipulate a raw JSON file. Ever!

Depending on your needs (and size/resources of the studio) there are a variety of additional “tools” you may want to look at to level up your Player Support. If you have in-game chat, ensure you have moderation software in place. Project or work management software is often desired for task and issue tracking. And if you want to prove the return of investment (ROI) of your Player Support department, get resources to integrate your PS data with Business Intelligence data. Investing in the right tools will positively affect the Player Experience.

11) Player feedback is the same as negativity and complaining

Players have expectations and opinions, but often also require assistance. Player messages come in many forms. Most of them can however be categorized in the following categories:

Player Feedback: the process of obtaining a player’s opinion about your studio, game or a particular feature. This can be either praise or criticism.

Player Complaints: the process of receiving reports from players on a dysfunctionality in their interaction with your studio, game or a particular feature. This can be anything ranging from your company’s stance on sustainability to toxic behaviour or bug reports.

Player Support Requests: the process of receiving reports from players who require assistance on matters related to your studio, game or a feature. Here you’ll find your GDPR requests, account recovery cases, how-to questions and more.

Player Feedback, praise and criticism, should never be avoided. Accept that players will sometimes have a different opinion. When you open up for dialogue instead of resisting, you can and should use criticism as a tool for improving the Player Experience. Many studios these days actively encourage players to provide feedback and use both praise and criticism to their advantage.

Player Complaints are reports of dysfunctions that directly impair the Player Experience and a player’s trust. Failure to resolve these will lead to player frustration; repeated failure to resolve them will lead to an increase in player churn. On the other side of the coin, removing dysfunctions leads to restoration of trust. The faster complaints are resolved, the more players feel the studio or team behind the game values its players.

Under normal circumstances, you’ll find Support Requests to make up the majority of the volume. Out of all messages from players, they should be the most straightforward to handle, provided you have the right toolset in place. Many of these can and should be made frictionless and automated where possible.

12) Only Player Support is responsible for Player Satisfaction

Let’s face it — software comes often with unwanted behaviour, features are not always working according to expectations. No matter the amount of goodwill your Player Support specialists may show in their messages, they will not be able to directly affect the quality and performance of a game.

And while gestures of goodwill or tokens of appreciation may temporarily alleviate player frustration, ultimately overall Player Satisfaction is dictated by the amount of friction during the whole Player Experience. Use Player Feedback loops to plan necessary Quality of Life improvements; work together with your audience to improve Player Satisfaction.

There you have it, 12 misconceptions on Player Support that will affect the Player Experience. If you enjoyed reading this article, make sure to head over to The PX Hub to read more of my thoughts on Player Experience, or subscribe to the newsletter.

(source: gamasutra.com )