Delivering awesome customer service for a low ARPU product

In the early days, a founder can easily offer great customer service just because they're an expert on the topic and are empowered to solve every problem. Rick doesn't need to worry about this at first.

For a low ARPU (average revenue per user) product, it's best to think of support reps as "coaches" so they can be more proactive and replace other functions such as sales and customer success. It's not viable to have separate teams for each function at a low price point, nor is it desirable.

Rick's first move should be to do all the coaching himself until he has it systematized. Some of it can be automated with things like tutorial videos, but some of it will need to be manual.

Once he knows exactly how to manually provide the best coaching and he has enough customers that he can't handle any more, it will be time to start building a team.

Offering great customer service for a low ARPU product will hurt margins. This might mean that certain investors aren't interested in the business, but it's still possible to be profitable enough to bootstrap.