2 builders who never spoke to each other

Treat the error screen as marketing copy

Every string a customer meets belongs to the product, down to the terms and the receipt, and the ones that appear when something goes wrong carry the most weight. Write failures as plain sentences naming what broke, why it usually happens, where to read more and how to reach a human, and keep rewriting the confirmation screen until the mail about it stops arriving.

The method

1. 01

   Write error messages to a fixed template: name the actual thing that failed in plain words, state the usual cause, link the relevant help article, and give a one-click route to a human.

2. 02

   Keep rewriting the post-payment thank-you screen until the support mail stops: name the emails that are about to arrive and put your own address there for anyone who gets stuck.

3. 03

   Treat every piece of customer-facing text as part of the product, right down to the terms of service, not just the features.

What it returned

• Contrasted with database-level messages about a record failing to save; the author insists on full sentences and no programming jargon

• Rob Hope has revised the Show Them success message roughly a dozen times and now handles very little support.

Sources

• How to get 1000's of paying customersJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · How to get 1000's of paying customers · undated
• How I custom-built my online course (tech stack, onboarding, costs, screenshots) - Rob HopeRob Hope · robhope.com · User Journey Experience · 2025-05-29
• Micro-SaaS Ebook: Retention & SupportTyler Tringas · tylertringas.com · Tactics: Automate Empathy · 2017-07-31