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What makes a Customer Liaison Officer indispensable during incident management? Join us as we tap into the expertise of Kat Gaines, who shares her invaluable experience and detailed examples to illuminate the crucial responsibilities of this role. Discover how effectively bridging the communication gap between incident response teams and customer-facing staff can transform your incident response strategy. Kat delves into the art of aggregating customer-reported issues and managing internal expectations, revealing why sticking to standard processes just won't cut it during high-stress incidents.

Beyond the basics, we explore the nuanced tasks of real-time decision documentation and post-incident action auditing, essential for thorough reviews and continuous improvement. Kat also brings to light the often-overlooked mental health challenges in customer support roles, the pitfalls of heroism culture, and the necessity of setting clear boundaries to prevent burnout. Tune in for leadership strategies that foster a supportive and effective environment, catering to diverse work styles and ensuring your team remains resilient in the face of stress. Whether you're a seasoned professional or new to incident management, this episode promises to enhance your understanding and capability in handling high-pressure situations.

I'd love your thoughts on this episode! Comment below, and like/love/share/support if you found this inspiring, thought-provoking, or useful!

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Mastering Leadership Communication in Startup Support; with Andrew Rios

How do you transform data into compelling business narratives? Join us in Episode 270 of the Customer Support Leaders Podcast, where Andrew Rios returns to share his invaluable insights on building a robust communications plan for new roles. Andrew explains the power of a "support report" and how starting with basic data points can evolve into a comprehensive tool that enhances decision-making and staffing forecasts. Discover why placeholders and "coming soon" metrics can be your best allies in gradually painting a complete picture for your organization.

Ensuring that your reports are not just created but also read and understood is a different challenge altogether. Listen as we discuss strategies to make these reports engaging and accessible. From brief summaries to personalized content, we delve into techniques to capture your audience's attention and build a culture where these reports are anticipated and valued. Andrew shares how finding allies and leveraging social proof can significantly boost the engagement and impact of your communications.

Wrapping up, we explore the art of effective leadership communication, especially in the fast-paced world of startups. Transparency, tactful feedback, and regular reporting are just some of the strategies we discuss for building trust within your team. Andrew and I also touch on the importance of quickly understanding historical decisions and spotting potential frictions between teams early on. This episode is packed with practical advice and actionable insights for support leaders looking to make a real impact in their new roles. Join us for a conversation that promises to leave you inspired and equipped to handle your next big step.

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Empathy isn't just a buzzword—it's the cornerstone of exceptional customer support. Discover the transformative power of understanding and walking a mile in your customer's shoes with Matt Dale, a consummate expert in the field. We peel back the layers of customer interactions and examine how empathy can be more than a trait; it's a skill that, with the right training and mindset, can be honed to perfection. Whether you're born with a natural inclination to empathize or find it more challenging, this episode promises actionable insights to elevate your support game to new empathetic heights.

Matt not only sheds light on the parallels between physical and emotional skills, but also provides a practical framework for integrating empathy into your team's DNA from day one. Drawing from his rich experience with educators, he illustrates how context and understanding are instrumental in transforming potentially frustrating support scenarios into opportunities for connection and resolution. As you tune in, prepare to be armed with the strategies that can turn any support team into an empathetic powerhouse, making every customer interaction not just a transaction but a genuine human connection.

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Week 79 Topic: Building a Team from Scratch

Hilary Dudek and I haven’t talked in soooo long! She “recently” started a new role at Sana Benefits and joins me to talk about what she did first, and what she wishes she had invested in earlier.

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Week 79 Topic: Building a Team from Scratch

Ashley returns to tell us how she prioritised early definition of ‘Operating Principles’ for her nascent team, and how they’re essentially still holding strong 4 years on.

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Week 78 Topic: Knowledge Management

Craig Stoss and I muse about the validity of some of the metrics often applied to Knowledge Centred Support, and talk about the types of knowledge that apply in different situations. He resurfaces one of my favourite analogies for the difference between a KB and docs, too.

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Week 78 Topic: Knowledge Management

Tadas Labudis is the CEO and Founder of Prodsight. Today he returns to tell me about Prodsight’s own knowledge journey: from not believing he needed to document a product to embedding documentation in the product! 

Check out Tadas' previous fireside, where he talks about tagging taxonomies for Support! 

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Week 78 Topic: Knowledge Management

Simone Secci rebuilt a knowledge base from scratch, banking on being able to show its value much further down the road. It worked! From zero to knowledge hero, Simone talks about his journey.

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Week 78 Topic: Knowledge Management

Cynthia Ng describes how GitLab approach all their knowledge with a ‘Handbook First’ ethos, and how their value of Transparency informs everything they do. 

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Week 78 Topic: Knowledge Management

Aprill Allen, a Knowledge Management Consultant & KCS Specialist at Knowledge Bird, helps support teams stop being so overloaded with solving the same problems over and over, and start using their knowledge as the lever it really is. How do we even get started on our Knowledge Management journey in Support?

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Specials: Fireside 26

According to “Zee” (if I could only say it), we’re doing CX wrong! Nicholas Zeisler joins again to tell us why we’re doing it wrong, and how to get it right. A man after my own heart, he says it hinges on the process! But how do you leverage process, prove ROI for your Customer Office, and truly develop a customer-centric culture? 

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Specials: Fireside 25

What a conversation! Ash comes on the podcast to talk about job hunting in Customer Support Leadership, but we only get there via comparing consulting notes and his insulting the average British meat pie. Honestly.

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Specials: Fireside 24

Doug and I talked quite some time ago about “All-Hands Support”, which becomes a mini fireside episode today. We talk about the type of industries where this is an appropriate paradigm, and when and how it might be useful.

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Enhancing Everyone's Experience with Exceptional Supportability; with Alexis Grant

Unlock the secrets to crafting a B2B SaaS experience that customers love and support teams can rally behind. That's what we're bringing to the table with Alexis Grant. 

Alexis is a seasoned expert in B2B SaaS support, primarily as a support engineer for developer tools and tech products such as New Relic, HashiCorp, and Zapier, and is currently at Semgrep. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her cat and claims to only truly love two pieces of software: cURL and jq.

Together, we go diving headfirst into the concept of “supportability”. We chart the course for designing products that are not just powerful but also a breeze to support. Alexis imparts wisdom on how meticulously engineered reliability, predictability, scalability, and usability form the bedrock of products that practically support themselves. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone keen on elevating their SaaS customer experience to new heights.
 
 Steering the conversation towards the empowerment of support teams, we dissect how vital knowledge sharing and the right tech stack can be in bolstering a team's capabilities. The introduction of a supportability checklist and the role of a 'support champion' come to light, detailing how they prepare new releases to face the frontline, fully equipped. We also stress the magic that happens when teams across the board—from support to product development—align their efforts. By embedding supportability into the DNA of every product cycle, we share how organizations can ensure operational success and deliver an unmatched customer experience. Tune in and transform your tech support experience!

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Specials: Fireside 23

Josh brings a really interesting topic to the fireside today: specialisms in Customer Support and Service. We talk about everything from expertise to trusted advice.

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Specials: Fireside 22

Jim Israel talks about the dangers of developing a culture of heroism in our teams, despite being the type of folks who always want to help.

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Specials: Fireside 21

Vlad Shlosberg is building a business that enables organisations to better connect with their customers. As a creator of a support/success tool like Foqal.io, how does he connect with his own customers?

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Specials: Fireside 20

Lauren Fearn comes to chat about creating growth opportunities and pathways in Support, so that you can continue to challenge, develop, and ultimately retain your staff.

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Specials: Fireside 19

Hannah Steiman, from Peak Support, joins me today, to talk about how we even begin to consider finding the right outsourcing partner in support, and how we overcome the fear of what might be a strange new world for many fast-growing teams out there.

Hannah Steiman is Chief Operating Officer of Peak Support, which provides exceptional customer service outsourcing to high-growth companies. Hannah oversees sales, marketing, HR, and administration for the company. Peak Support specialises in building and managing dedicated teams of customer service agents. Its clients operate in a wide variety of industries, including SaaS, eCommerce, social media, transportation, financial services, business services, and more.

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Specials: Fireside 18

Sharad Khandelwal, co-founder and CEO of Sentisum, joins the podcast today, to talk about accessing valuable insights in all those communications support teams have with their customers. Can AI ultimately solve this by doing the heavy lifting?

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Specials: Fireside 17

Ethan explains how we can apply a scientific approach - semiotic theory - when trying to understand our customers context, and therefore meet them where they are.

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Week 67 Topic: Managing Change

Lauren joins me for two milestones: the 200th episode of the podcast, and my birthday! It’s always an interesting chat with Lauren, and her academic background in human genetics and social behaviours.  Here, she brings her expertise to bear in helping us manage change. Always hard, Lauren brings advice on making it easier.

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Week 67 Topic: Managing Change

Josh talks about thee easy bits and the challenges in dealing with any change, and how sometimes, the key is in a team that trusts and supports each other.

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Week 67 Topic: Managing Change

Adela Bodor joins me for the first time, and from a space I’ve never ventured into beyond the building site: cement! Her organisation has undergone significant transformation over the last few years, and here she talks to me about the changing shape of support and different demands placed on her team. 

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Building a Truly Customer Centric Culture; with Michael Hinshaw 

Embark on a transformative journey with Michael Hinshaw of McorpCX, a beacon in customer and employee experience, as we unlock the secrets to fostering a customer-centric culture in support scenarios. Michael bestows his expertise on the intricacies of nurturing an environment where support staff thrives and customer interactions flourish. We dissect the sobering reality of how internal practices can inadvertently lead to employee burnout and compromised service, emphasizing the necessity for a supportive ecosystem that empowers workers to embody their company's values and ethos with every customer exchange.
 
Drawing on the profound insights of Brené Brown, our episode delves into the pivotal role of empathy and empowerment in customer support. Discover how cognitive empathy becomes a lifeline for maintaining sincere connections amidst a myriad of communication styles, and how the dexterity of support teams in adapting their approach can lead to resolutions that resonate with customers. We also unravel the delicate balance between autonomy and accountability, illustrating how giving support teams the latitude to creatively solve problems within a guiding framework can translate into extraordinary customer experiences and, in turn, bolster business success. Join us for this enlightening episode as we explore these critical dimensions of customer support with Michael Hinshaw, and learn how to elevate service to an art form.

Michael has recently written a book on his “Experience Operating System”. Check it out!

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Week 67 Topic: Managing Change

Natalie and I are both of the similar mindset that sometimes you just have to ‘do’ the change, rather than get caught up in it too much, and thereby risk being stuck.

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Week 67 Topic: Managing Change

Lauren, a previous panelist, returns to the podcast for our first one-to-one chat, where we pick up our conversation on managing change. Lauren believes that providing training on this difficult aspect of leadership shouldn’t be a single course or workshop. 

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Week 66 Topic: The Perfect Support Email

Leslie O’Flahavan is a get-to-the point writer and an experienced, versatile writing instructor. E-WRITE owner since 1996, Leslie has been writing content and teaching customised writing courses for Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and non-profit organisations. Leslie helps the most stubborn, inexperienced, or word-phobic employees at your organisation improve their writing skills, so they can do their jobs better. As a result of her work, Leslie’s clients improve their customer satisfaction ratings, reduce training cycles, improve productivity, and limit legal risk.

Leslie is a LinkedIn Learning author of six writing courses on topics including writing for social media; live chat and text; plain language; and technical writing.

We cover everything from hiring for good written communication skills, to coaching for them in our team. 

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Week 66 Topic: The Perfect Support Email

Craig and I wonder whether the perfect email exists, or whether we are just at the whim of the mood of the recipient. How close to ‘perfect’ can we get without knowing the customer context?

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Week 66 Topic: The Perfect Support Email

Nick Zeisler believes we should take on the stress of our customers, in all our communications. Everything is recovery, down to the micro communications that are happening every day in Support.

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Week 66 Topic: The Perfect Support Email

Stacy believes that the key to the Perfect Support Email is the ‘hook’ that engenders the trust of the customer. It’s about understanding the customer and building their belief that you can solve their problem.

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Week 66 Topic: The Perfect Support Email

Ethan Walfish is a former panelist (take a listen to our discussion on Support Leadership 2.0 back in episode 105), and joins me today to discuss that most convenient and most misused communication - email! How do we approach getting this ‘just right’. Ethan believes there are 6 distinct elements to the perfect email, and takes me through them step-by-step.

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Week 65 Topic: Support in the Business

Josh and I settle on the idea that a Support team that generates revenue is effectively another product, and deserves similar investment and approach.

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Week 65 Topic: Support in the Business

Craig returns to reinforce the idea that "Customer Experience is a mindset, not a department".  We talk about how Support relates to all parts of the business with that in mind.

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Week 65 Topic: Support in the Business

Natalie leads a team that has been everywhere in the business! Here, we talk about the relative merits of each placement, but also the advantages and problems inherent in those moves.

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Revolutionizing Customer Support: All-Hands Support Delivery from across the Organisation; with Sarah Caminiti 

Get ready to revolutionize your perspective on customer support as Sarah Caminiti joins me, Charlotte Ward, to unveil the power of all-hands support. Imagine a workplace where the CEO and the newest developer alike roll up their sleeves to tackle daily customer queries. This is the reality at Sarah's company,  DNSimple, where fostering a deep understanding of customer needs across all team levels has led to a transformative support experience. We delve into the nuances of creating a knowledge-rich environment that empowers both customers and engineers, ensuring the latter aren't swamped by trivial issues. Sarah's approach has not only streamlined support but has also cultivated an atmosphere where engineers embrace customer interaction with confidence and stress-free ease.

In our second chapter, the art of managing a remote support team takes center stage. Striking the perfect balance between responsiveness and team cohesion in a virtual environment is no small feat. I open up about the meticulous orchestration behind our 24-hour response policy, highlighting the vital role of documentation and transparent communication in keeping our remote wheels turning smoothly. Through mentorships and performance reviews, I strive to spotlight process optimization over finger-pointing, fostering a culture where feedback leads to growth. We share our strategies for keeping dialogue channels open, ensuring that our team feels supported in voicing any concerns. Join us for this compelling exploration of cultivating trust and efficiency in the ever-evolving realm of customer support.

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Week 65 Topic: Support in the Business

Doug Akers joins me for the first time today, to talk about Support in the Business. Doug is a strategic technology leader who firmly believes in the mantra of customer, company, team, self. He believes that only when this order is respected can you unlock the true potential of each situation and individual. Over his career Doug has lead technology support, success, product, engineering and sales teams to both personal and professional success within the health, education, ecommerce, and manufacturing industries. His strong focus on the customer allows him to break through the noise and focus himself and his teams on what matters - solving customer’s problems and providing them with opportunity for movement and growth.

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Week 65 Topic: Support in the Business

Greg joins me to talk about the role of Support in the business, and reminds me that a user guide is another form of support! 

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Week 64 Topic: Startup Support

Diane Garcia debuts on the podcast to talk about the freedoms that come with working in a startup, and nice it would be to have a bottomless budget. 

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Week 64 Topic: Startup Support

Nicole Jackson found that many startup founders cared a lot about their customers, and hit a lot of the same problems when it came to scaling. What experiences did they all have in common?

Once you’ve listened to this episode, head over to her new podcast – Support Night School, and read up on her consultancy practice at Solid Support Strategy.

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Week 64 Topic: Startup Support

Aurore Lanchart comes back after a long break, to talk about the importance of establishing tone in a startup.

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Craig believes one of the challenges with support in a startup environment is that it often begins with people who have never done support before. Here we discuss stepping into that environment as the first support leader.

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Week 64 Topic: Startup Support

Zeni Bandy returns to the podcast this week, to talk about tackling support in a startup environment. Her biggest piece of advice: “Get help!”

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Specials: Fireside 16

Valentina Thoerner is a Empress in the support world, and, having moved from a support lead role at Automattic, now heads up Product at Klaus. Her official title is "Empress of Product", hence the tiara (though she assures me the truth is the other way round). 

She describes herself thus: “At Klaus, I am the Empress of Product, moonlighting as Guardian of Remote. I am fascinated by the intersection between Product Strategy and Customer Conversation and how a close connection between Product, CX and the customers themselves can level up the entire culture of how these teams work together.”

Here, she and I spend some time chatting about the differences between Support and Product, and how we might bridge the gap.

Valentina joins me also in a love of remote work, so much that she even wrote a book!

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Specials: Fireside 15

Eric Kades joins me to talk about saving our team’s time, and saving our customers’ time.

Eric is the Founder of TextChat, a highly personalized live chat tool that brings the timelessness touch of human connection to the sophistication of AI technology. TextChat makes website live chat as sociable and easy as texting with a friend, so you can stop missing messages and start closing sales. To date Eric, and his team of 75, have raised 1.6M and have accrued over 100 customers. TextChat launched on Shopify and the App Store in November 2020.

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Specials: You’re the Host! #4

Craig questions me on collaboration with other teams! We cover everything from Product to BPO, and everything in between. I also tell an overly long story from overly long ago.

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Steer your team through the rollercoaster of change with wisdom from Neal Travis, Support & Admissions Manager at the Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR) and host of the Growth Support podcast. Neal is a seasoned leader in customer support, who joins me, Charlotte Ward, in unpacking the secrets of adaptive leadership. Discover how to not only navigate but also communicate the often turbulent waters of change, ensuring your team remains unified and forward-moving. Neal's expertise shines as we explore the different needs of team members and the importance of learning from each twist and turn. Uncover the delicate art of timing in information sharing and how transparency can transform uncertainty into a powerful team-building tool.

As we dissect the journey towards embracing paradigms like Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS), we shed light on the essential role of evolving together. This conversation is a trove of insights for any leader aiming to guide their team to new heights of achievement amidst the ever-changing landscape of team management. Tune in for a thought-provoking dialogue that promises not only to enlighten but also to prepare you for future goal-setting and the consequences of standing still. Join Neal and I as we lay down the roadmap for leading with clarity and adaptability in an era where change is the only constant.

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Specials: Fireside 14

Chris Taylor returns today, having recently taken on a new business function - Customer Success - and then we fangirl/fanboy on Jira a little!

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Specials: You’re the Host! #3

Matt takes the mic from me today, and interviews me about starting in a new role.

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Specials: Fireside 13

Tadas Labudis is the CEO and Founder of Prodsight - a customer feedback intelligence platform. Tadas founded Prodsight in 2018 to help companies understand their customers and developed an AI-enabled platform that automatically tags support tickets, reviews, and other feedback. Along this journey, Tadas has helped hundreds of companies get insights from their support tickets, tagged thousands of tickets himself, and built systems to automate this laborious process.

Tadas comes on the show to talk about ticket tagging taxonomies and tactics! Then we wrap up the show but the conversation continued - so I’ve included the bonus tip, too!

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