Customer Support Leaders: Recent Episodes
Charlotte Ward
Customer Support Leaders have been there, on the front line with customers. They understand how things work, and the value of support. They understand the needs and foibles of their customer base. Unlike most other disciplines, there’s no training for this role. No two CS Leadership roles are alike. No two CS Leaders are alike. So this is our opportunity to hear from those leaders and learn from them. Whether you’re a CS leader now, or you aspire to be, this is the podcast for you! Hear different leaders discuss a topic with me, Charlotte Ward.
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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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Ever wondered what it takes to build a high-performing contact center from scratch? Join us as we uncover the secrets with Joe DiNatale. Joe is a contact center executive with extensive experience across operations, strategy, customer experience, and vendor management. Over his career he has held most leadership positions within the contact center space including building call centers from the ground floor. Spending the past 10 years working in the telecommunications industry for some of the largest cable operators where Joe has led transformational change in the contact center.
In this episode, learn the significance of location, university access, and mass transit for efficient hiring, as well as the benefits of leveraging local economic environments and tax incentives. Joe shares his firsthand experiences, challenges, and the immense satisfaction of creating sustainable contact centers that continue to thrive years later.
But the journey doesn’t stop at mere infrastructure. Discover the essential strategies for building a strong team culture and managing call center growth. We delve into the qualities that make up a stellar team, such as coachability and strong work ethic, and the importance of a phased approach to onboarding and training. Joe highlights the value of a comprehensive resource repository and recognition initiatives like "employee spotlight" to foster engagement and motivation. Tune in for practical insights that will guide you in setting up and nurturing a successful contact center.
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Nurturing Empathy in Customer Support with Natalie Ruhl
How can you genuinely connect with your customers and create a more harmonious workplace? Join me in this enlightening episode from the archives of the Customer Support Leaders podcast, first broadcast in January 2020, where I sit down with Natalie Ruhl, Director of Community Operations at SoundCloud. Natalie delves into the core of empathy, revealing how it serves as a fundamental pillar not just in customer interactions but also in effective teamwork. Whether you believe empathy can only be inherent or think it can be coached, this conversation will challenge and expand your understanding. Natalie shares the innovative methods her team employs, from role-playing scenarios to reading emails aloud, to nurture and enhance empathetic skills.
Discover the delicate balance between empathizing with customers and maintaining objective judgment, a skill crucial in avoiding potential pitfalls. Natalie emphasizes the importance of empathy in career progression within customer support and beyond, offering practical tips to integrate empathy into daily practices. This episode is a goldmine for anyone eager to refine their empathetic approach and improve their professional relationships. Don’t miss out on these transformative insights that promise to elevate both your personal and professional growth.
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Mastering Incident Management - Part 2 of 6; with Kat Gaines
Embark on an insightful expedition into the nerve center of incident management with Kat Gaines and myself, as we unravel the essentials of tailoring an effective process for your organization. We're not just bystanders in the realm of crisis resolution; we're the architects designing the blueprint. This episode promises to hand you the reins of your own incident management strategy, urging you to define incidents and their severities in a way that resonates with your business's unique pulse. As Kat shares her wisdom on building from the ground up, I draw from both our experiences and the well-oiled machine that is PagerDuty, ensuring you leave with a toolkit brimming with proactive solutions.
Commanding the spotlight, the role of the Incident Commander is dissected to reveal the mastery behind maintaining clarity amidst chaos. Supported by an ensemble cast of deputies, scribes, and liaisons, we discuss the art of orchestrating an efficient resolution process. Discover how integrating tools like Slack's canvas feature can transform your documentation and communication strategies, enabling your team to make swift decisions and remain in control. It's about more than just the technicalities—it's about empowering your support leaders to assert their expertise without the looming shadow of repercussions.
Finally, we emphasize the symphony of soft skills that harmonize with technical know-how to form the crescendo of incident resolution. Personal anecdotes underscore the delicate dance between listening and projecting confidence, especially when the stakes are high. We challenge the preconceived notions about non-technical roles, advocating for their technical savvy and pivotal role in customer communications. Tune in for a paradigm shift that will equip you to conduct a well-orchestrated incident process where clear roles and effective communication are the keystones to success.
As part of this episode, Kat shares some awesome PagerDuty resources showing the structure of an Major Incident Response Team and the roles we discuss over this and the coming episodes:
Different Roles - PagerDuty Incident Response Documentation andComplex Incidents - PagerDuty Incident Response Documentation
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Finding the Balance Between Product and Functional Expertise; with Colin Flannigan
Unlock the secrets of superior product support with Charlotte Ward and special guest Colin Flannigan, Director of Customer Experience at Sage, in a conversation that promises to elevate your understanding of customer experience leadership. If you've ever pondered the perfect balance of product and role knowledge for leaders, our discussion serves as a treasure map to the middle ground where understanding meets practical leadership. We confront the challenges head-on as we scale the heights of team expansion, navigate the technical complexities, and traverse the industry specificities. With sage insights, Colin and I dissect the evolution of responsibilities and the bedrock of product know-how that supports teams from scrappy startups to towering corporate entities.
Embark on a journey through the crucial first 90 days of a customer's path, where the art of crafting and refining journey maps becomes a compass for navigating potential pitfalls and streamlining experiences. Learn from our strategies how to weave the frontline team's invaluable narratives into these maps, crafting a tapestry that captures the true spirit of customer interactions. As we wade through the shared waters of employee and customer experiences, we reveal how an in-depth understanding can act as a catalyst for organizational growth. By uniting customer-centric insights with a broad business perspective, leaders can cast ripples across diverse business segments, charting a course for professional development and operational excellence. Join us for this enlightening exploration and discover how to steer your team toward uncharted waters of success.
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Prepare to be enlightened as we sit down with the incomparable Nick Zeisler, or Zee as we fondly call him, for a riveting discussion on the essential role of Voice of the Customer (VOC) programs. This episode promises to transform your approach to customer feedback, from mere data points to actionable insights that can prevent your company from breaking its brand promise. Zee passionately dissects the futility of feedback collection without intent, emphasizing the profound power of VOC when it's used to cultivate genuine customer relationships and improve response rates to surveys.
Together, we unravel the intricacies of leveraging customer insights to elevate your offerings, steering clear of the notorious 'faster horse' pitfalls. We'll reflect on how visionaries like Steve Jobs and Henry Ford navigated customer needs, exploring the delicate art of crafting survey questions that resonate with your brand's core values. The conversation doesn't stop there—we also examine cultural nuances in satisfaction scoring and the strategic use of targeted questions. Join me, Charlotte Ward, and Zee for an episode that will not only challenge your perceptions but equip you with the expertise to refine your brand through the eyes of those who matter most—your customers.
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Nurturing Your Professional Network: Authentic Strategies for Support Folk; with Jason Yun
Have you ever felt like a solitary island in the vast ocean of your professional life? This sensation is all too familiar for support professionals, like me, Charlotte Ward, and my esteemed guest Jason Yun.
Jason has been in the support leadership space for a decade+. Focusing on hypergrowth early stage startups such as Lyft and Instacart, he has been figuring out how to build consumer trust in a diverse array of industries - on-demand services, self-driving cars, telemedicine, and more. He's currently a CX consultant for healthtech companies looking to bridge the gap in healthcare.
Together, Jason and I tackle the imperative yet often overlooked art of networking within our niche. It's not merely a tool for job seekers or the entrepreneurial spirited; it's the lifeblood of personal and community advancement. Throughout our conversation, we debunk the notion that networking is equivalent to self-promotion, and instead, we celebrate it as a celebration of camaraderie and mutual support.
This episode unfolds the subtleties of fostering long-lasting professional connections, and I share an intimate narrative that sheds light on the far-reaching impact of maintaining your network through warm introductions. We offer insights on how to keep your contacts apprised of your evolving career journey, ensuring they remain relevant and beneficial. The dialogue further delves into the strategies for broadening your professional circle, starting with those you trust on platforms like LinkedIn. By the end of our chat, you'll be equipped with the inspiration and tactics to not just grow your network, but to nourish it with authenticity, reciprocity, and a forward-thinking mindset.
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 Incident Management - Part 1 of 6; with Kat Gaines
Unlock the secrets to seamless service as we navigate the critical world of incident management with the expertise of Kat Gaines from PagerDuty. Prepare to be armed with a deeper understanding of the complexities that define an incident, and why this knowledge is a game-changer for teams committed to providing uninterrupted excellence. Kat's seasoned perspective will guide you through the layers of incident severity and the essential preparedness for the unexpected. This episode isn't just a conversation; it's a toolkit for anyone in the support and development trenches, laying the foundational strategies for robust incident response.
Embark on a journey through the collaborative core of incident management, where the role of support engineers is reimagined as a pathway to career growth and the position of an incident commander becomes the linchpin of crisis resolution. With a focus on the symbiosis between structured protocols and the agility to adapt, we dissect how cross-functional cooperation and continuous process refinement are the cornerstones of an organization's resilience. From prioritizing responses to managing bugs, this dialogue with Kat is more than just an exploration—it's an invitation to evolve your practices and prioritize your customers in the face of adversity. Join us for an eye-opening series that promises to redefine your approach to incident management and elevate your team's capabilities.
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Connecting Actions to Customer Outcomes; with Sarah Caminiti
Unlock the secrets of truly impactful leadership and customer support with our special guest, Sarah Caminiti, a seasoned expert in the field. Together, we dissect the profound implications of aligning our deeds with our pledges, both in steering teams and nurturing customer relationships. Discover how the subtleties of what isn't done can be as telling as the actions we take, casting long shadows on how customers and colleagues perceive their value within an organization.
Venture into the realm of strategic communication, where Sarah and I examine the delicate art of sharing key information without inundating our teams. Our conversation reveals how a well-honed communication strategy within a company serves as the cornerstone for trust, transparency, and loyalty—qualities that not only elevate employee morale but also resonate deeply with customers, cementing a brand's promise and integrity. Join us for an enlightening journey through the dynamics of words, actions, and the silent echoes that shape the heart of a business.
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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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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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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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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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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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Have you ever wondered what sets exceptional customer support apart? Join me in a thought-provoking conversation with Sarah Caminiti, the Vice President of Customer Success at DNSimple. Together, they dissect the subtle yet pivotal practice of shedding assumptions to enhance customer interactions. Sarah, with her extensive background in support, illuminates the path to nurturing customer relationships with patience and empathy. We venture into the delicate balance of communication, refining the art of crafting email responses that empower rather than overwhelm. This dialogue promises to equip you with the strategies to elevate your customer's confidence and transform them into staunch advocates for your brand.
We also tackle the nuances that can make or break the support experience. Sarah shares cautionary tales and the wisdom gained from years of ensuring technical staff connect with customers on a human level. By rejecting the convenience of assumptions, we uncover the power of personalized service that resonates with the individual needs of each customer. Whether you're on the front lines or orchestrating the strategy behind them, this episode is an enlightening guide to fostering a culture of thoroughness and understanding that will redefine the way you perceive and execute customer success.
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Debunking Benchmarks and the Real Power of Customer Feedback; with Ty Givens
Join me and the insightful Ty Givens from CX Collective as we confront the common myths of benchmarking in customer support. Get ready to discover why pursuing industry standards might not be the golden ticket to enhancing your customer service game. With Ty's extensive experience, we delve into the importance of customizing your customer support to outshine the competition. We dissect examples such as response times and satisfaction scores to show that the benchmarks which work for some companies can be utterly irrelevant for others. By the end of our chat, you'll understand why creating internal goals based on your company's unique data and customer interactions is the key to delivering excellence in service.
As we continue our enlightening conversation, we switch gears to the power of feedback – the kind that numbers alone can't capture. Prepare to see the value in the stories and detailed experiences shared by customers, which often hold more weight than any statistic. We discuss how these narrative reviews can influence everything from recruiting to purchasing decisions, driving home the point that businesses need to listen intently to their audience. We explore how to harness this feedback to refine strategies, adapt to customer expectations, and truly embrace a customer-first approach. By the time you're done listening, you'll be equipped to shift your focus from chasing numbers to building a brand that resonates with people on a personal level.
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The Hidden Advantages of Less Local Remote Teams (or “Get Good at Calendars!”); with Alec Moloney
Unlock the secrets of thriving within a globally distributed team as Alec Moloney and I, Charlotte Ward, reveal the unexpected benefits and strategies for success from our experiences at Snowplow. Imagine the energy and innovation that stems from a melting pot of cultural backgrounds and time zones – that's what you'll discover in our latest podcast. Alec, all the way from Australia, joins me to share the vibrant mix of perspectives that fuel creativity and problem-solving in a remote work setting. We confront the complexities of communication across continents and discuss whether having fewer local teammates could actually be a hidden advantage.
Navigating the remote work landscape requires more than just good WiFi – it demands smart, adaptive strategies to keep everyone connected and informed. Tune in as Alec and I tackle the art of flexible scheduling, rotating meeting times for fairness, and the crucial task of intellectual capital management, ensuring that no valuable insight or experience gets lost in the digital ether. Learn about the importance of establishing knowledge-sharing systems from the start, as we reflect on how to better navigate the shifting sands of roles and responsibilities. Join us for a discussion that's as diverse and dynamic as the distributed teams we're a part of.
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Mastering Outage Management; with Lauren Rose Eimers
Imagine being at the helm of customer support when technology fails us—navigating the stormy seas of software outages is no small feat. That's why this episode has us sitting down with Lauren Rose Eimers, a sage in the art of crisis management, to share the secrets and strategies for thriving amidst system instabilities. We'll guide you through the nuances of pinpointing and recreating issues, equipping our development comrades with the essential intel to combat bugs and breakdowns. But it's not all tech talk; we also address the human element, acknowledging the strain on customer emotions and how to manage expectations when the digital world falters.
As the dust settles on a system outage, the true work begins. Lauren and I traverse the less-charted territories of post-crisis communication—revealing how to nurture customer relationships and express gratitude to those unsung heroes in the frontline trenches. Discover the 'growth edges' that each challenge offers, enabling us to bolster our processes, procedures, and training. We moreover delve into the critical adjustments that fortify our defenses against future failures, touching upon the importance of code reviews and quality checks. And let's not forget the heart of our operations—the support team. Learn why their well-being post-crisis is paramount and how acknowledging their dedication can reinvigorate the entire crew. Join us for a candid conversation that's essential for every customer support leader.
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Hilary Dudek: Finding Your Footing: Navigating the Emotional Journey of Career Transition
Both Hilary and I have been laid off multiple times. Here, we compare notes on how to handle those first few hours and days, before you even begin looking for your next role.
When the rug is pulled out from under you, where do you land? In this episode, Hilary unravels the emotional tapestry of unemployment, weaving through her personal narrative with honesty and vulnerability. This episode isn't just about the nuts and bolts of job hunting; it's a deep dive into the heart and soul of career transitions. Hilary opens up about the labyrinth of feelings that surface when you're laid off—the unexpected relief, the creeping panic, and the eventual steadying breath as you take stock of your resources. She underscores the importance of maintaining a perspective that is rooted in gratitude and self-assessment, rather than falling prey to the scarcity mindset that can so easily ensnare us during times of change.
As we turn the page, I reflect on the transformative power of such career-defining moments, sharing my own journey of self-discovery and realignment. This part of our conversation is an invitation to listeners to pause and ponder their career aspirations, to write them down, and to resist the knee-jerk reaction to scramble for the next opportunity. Instead, we explore how aligning with our true self can illuminate the path forward. Even after you land a job, the journey isn't over. We talk about the importance of ongoing self-evaluation to ensure that personal and professional growth continue to go hand in hand. If you're looking for a companion through your own career upheaval, let this episode be your guide to finding your footing with grace and intention.
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Ryan Klausner: The Difference Between What Customers Say And What Customers Do
Ryan returns to talk about understanding customer feedback in the context of (and often the contrast to!) how customers actually behave!
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Andrew Rios: The Support Report
Andrew Rios is a Global Customer Support Leader. He combines an energetic leadership style with a strong technical foundation and a deep understanding of Customer Experience/ Support and Engineering Operations.
Andrew believes every Support leaders should develop their own “Support Report”. Have a listen to understand what this is, and how to get started. It all begins with an email!
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Matt Dale: Support Data
Matt Dale joins me today to talk about Support Data: when to get started (clue: now!), and how to make it understandable - and therefore useful - for the rest of the business.
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Panel: Welcome back for 2024!
Welcome back to the podcast! After a full year off, we're all raring to kick off 2024 with a bunch of ideas and reflections.
Here, we get a bit meta at the start of the year. This panel brings back four of my favourite guests to talk about the podcast itself. What did they love about the first 249 shows? What would they like to see this year? How can we make this even more helpful for all the support folks listening - you!
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Specials: Fireside 49
Mike Redbord tells me how to show the actual value to the business in providing support to those users of your product or service who are on free or unpaid plans.
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Specials: Fireside 48
Jason Yun, co-founder of Relay, returns to talk about the support that Support folk might need in the light of the recent spate of layoffs, at the worst time of year to be suddenly back on the job market.
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From The Archives: Week 7 Topic: Managing Performance Issues
Hilary Dudek tells me how she likes to coach for positive behaviours, rather than rely on metrics to measure performance.
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From The Archives: Week 6 Topic: Metrics
Craig Stoss talks about stories, and the Source of All Truth.
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From The Archives: Week 5 Topic: Moving from Doing to Leading the Work
Matt Dale returns to talk about why you can’t expect to successfully do two jobs at once.
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From The Archives: Week 4 Topic: Personal Stories of Transitioning to Leadership
Natalie Ruhl had a dream….
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From The Archives: Week 3 Topic: Awkward Conversations
Hilary Dudek needs to practice her poker face. (Also, although the title is “Awkward Conversations with Hilary Dudek”, this most definitely was not one.)
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Specials: Fireside 47
Austin Emser, CEO of Stylo, joins me for the first time to discuss the art of prioritising those tickets! We compare whether FIFO is enough, or whether you need to bring other factors and practices in to what tickets get worked on first, and how fast.
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From The Archives: Week 1 Topic: Empathy in Support
We round out this week’s topic with Ash Rhodes. How much weight should we place on empathy when we’re hiring for support? And Ash pulls some very funny faces (entirely for my benefit).
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From The Archives: Week 79 Topic: Building a Team from Scratch
When is a full-time job not a full-time job? When it’s a two-person job! It’s been a while since Matt Dale built a team from scratch, but nonetheless, he returns to round out this week with his own wisdom and perspectives from further on in the journey.
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From The Archives: 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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From The Archives: 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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Specials: Fireside 46
Ethan and I discuss the relative merits of our favourite approaches to tagging support conversations. Neither of us is a fan of fluidity when it comes to this opportunity to carry Voice of Customer through into our organisations. Structure all the way!
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From The Archives: 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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From The Archives: 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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From The Archives: 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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From The Archives: 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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From The Archives: 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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From The Archives: 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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From The Archives: 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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From The Archives: 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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Specials: Fireside 45
Val discusses using a personality type such as Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies to help you pull a team together, and work with each other. Also, here’s 101 things you didn’t know about Val!
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From The Archives: 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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From The Archives: 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 44
Matt and I have no complaints. Plenty of other people do, though: customers! How do we deal with those complaining customers, whether we agree with them or not?
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From The Archives: 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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From The Archives: Specials: Fireside 13
Tadas Labudis 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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Specials: Fireside 43
Vaishali Dialani is Head of Customer Experience at NOW Money, a fintech company with a unique customer base and on a mission to ensure everyone has instant access to financial services they can, and want, to use - no matter who they are, where they are from, or how much they earn.
Vaishali and I talk about the specific challenges in supporting these customers, and the most important commodity: trust.
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Two guests for the price of one today as Whitney Brittingham and Aakrit Prasad join me to discuss the relationship between Product Led Growth and Support Driven Growth.
Whitney has been in Support for over 8 years, and is currently the Director of Customer Success and Support at AptEdge, an enterprise software company backed by top VCs on a mission to transform customer support into a revenue driver for companies
Aakrit is the Co-Founder & CEO of AptEdge. Prior to that Aakrit was a product executive who previously led products & teams at early stage, growth stage, and public technology companies.
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Specials: Fireside 41
Andrew Ou is a UX Strategist/Designer and joins me to discuss the role UX plays in CX, and specifically in Customer Support. He also has a free guide for listeners, giving you 5 ways UX can help SaaS companies can increase revenue and profitability, which is something we all want to know!
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Specials: Fireside 40
Reagan Helms and I discuss what when you have experienced folks who do not want to step into leadership. How do you develop them in other ways once they bump up against the proverbial glass ceiling?
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From The Archives: Specials: Fireside 11
Sandra Thompson comes to share her significant expertise on Emotional Intelligence and its importance in our ability to serve customers.
We break EI away from Empathy, and talk about some of the elements of EI. After we finished recording, Sandra also mentioned a workshop she runs using Riders and Elephants, a brilliant resource to help businesses build emotional intelligence. Sandra also mentioned Dr. Daniel Goleman and his insights on the topic of EI, which I highly recommend you check out.
In passing, I also talked briefly about a notion of walking alongside our emotions that I'd heard in a TEDTalk, but couldn't recall this one. I found it. It is Susan David talking about Emotional Courage.
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Specials: Fireside 39
Craig and I share similarly long tenures in Support - and may even have encountered each other in the wild at one point in the early 2000s! Today, we talk about the evolution of support channels.
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Specials: Fireside 38
Sam Semuhin returns today to talk about how we can empower our teams to achieve their best selves, deliver their best work, and hire the best!
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Specials: Fireside 37
Sophie Heller joins me from Outschool, which, as you might expect, experienced serious hypergrowth in the wake of COVID-19! Sophie explores how those first days and months unfolded, and reflects on her feelings about the experience now.
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Specials: Fireside 36
Sam Semuhin is Customer Care Manager at Upflow. Today, she wanted to talk tools! We cover the pain, the overthinking, the money, the user experience… and everything!
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Specials: Fireside 35
Jason Yun, co-founder of Relay, has a background in the medical profession, and had his interest piqued by my chat with Ethan a couple of weeks ago. Here, we move away from Emergency Care and into the comparison with Community Care. How do we set up our customers for success?
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Specials: Fireside 34
Empress Val has led Product, and led Support. How should these teams work together? We talk about Product accessing Support data, and meander around tagging, customer verbatim and all other related things.
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Specials: Fireside 33
I hooked Craig back, as we kick off 2022 (!), to talk about what is probably top of mind for a lot of us: goals and OKRs.
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Specials: Fireside 32
Ethan Walfish believes there are a lot of things we can learn in Support from the medical profession. Also: when is an Operating Room not an Operating Room? When it’s an Operating Theatre.
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Specials: Fireside 31
Ash returns to tell me I’m wrong. I tell him he’s wrong. And then we have a very civilised discussion about the double-edged sword of getting your team to track their time. Should you or shouldn’t you?
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Specials: Fireside 30
Simone returned for a chat in mid-December ’21, to talk about building careers in Support, and specifically helping people in your team transition to leadership.
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Specials: Fireside 29
Matt joined me in the run-up to Christmas, and in the wake of The Great Resignation, to talk about: what happens when good people leave?
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Specials: Fireside 28
Craig joins me to talk about one of my passions - data! In this case, what’s useful for your Support team to know, right where they are: talking to customers?
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Specials: Fireside 27
Here, 100 weeks into the podcast, we ask: ‘How does your CX match up to your company values, mission and ideals?’ Join me in conversation with Nate Brown as we talk about his idea of “Mission-Driven CX”!
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Week 99 Topic: Reflecting
Looking back over some of the best advice, and a couple of bonus outtakes from the last 99 weeks of the podcast!
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Looking forward to 100+ weeks!
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From The Archives: Fireside with Mo McKibbin
Mo McKibbin talks about the challenges of screening for those magical unicorns: technical, customer success-support hybrids, remote, in Europe, ideally with specific industry experience. And we excitedly steal each others' favourite interview questions.
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From The Archives: Fireside with Tue Søttrup
Tue Søttrup helps me kick off this new Fireside season with a conversation about Product-Led Customer Success, and how Dixa have used this approach to drive product engagement and business improvements for the customers at the same time.
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From The Archives: Diversity and Inclusion
Antonio King joins me to talk about the importance of keeping the conversations going, no matter how uncomfortable it feels..
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From The Archives: Scary Support Stories
Todd Curtis tells the scary story that inspired this whole week of terrible tales. I heard this at a conference two years ago and it still gives me chills.
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From The Archives: Scary Support Stories
Matt Dale joins me to tell the story of a possessed laptop. And I have rather too much fun with sound effects.
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From The Archives:: Support’s Relationship to Sales
Nicholas Zeisler (“Zee” to his friends, and “Zed” to his British friend over here) returns to talk about how CX can minimise friction in this less-obvious relationship. He’s at the end of the phone if you need him!
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From The Archives: Support’s Relationship to Product
Andrea Saez joins me for the first time, where we talk about capturing all customer conversations and using that feedback to validate the product roadmap.
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From The Archives: Freelancing in Support
Andrei Kamarouski joins me from Belarus, to talk about freelancing as a Zendesk consultant, primarily using Upwork.
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From The Archives: CSAT
Mo and I spend quite a significant amount of time talking about the value of those smiley faces. And we take an unexpected hypothetical trip to the airport.
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From The Archives: Support Scope
Mike Redbord believes you can build the scope of Support by saying “Yes” as much as possible!
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Week 87 Topic: “In Support, I Believe…”
Simone Secci shares his Support Belief: It’s not always about giving the customer exactly what they expect.
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Week 86 Topic: “In Support, I Believe…”
Matt Dale shares his Support Belief: It’s all about making a human connection.
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Week 85 Topic: “In Support, I Believe…”
Craig Stoss shares his foremost Support Belief: The Customer Experience is the most import consideration
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Week 84 Topic: “In Support, I Believe…”
Ryan Klausner returns, this time from a new role, to share his most fundamental Support Belief: Agent Experience is as important as Customer Experience.
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Week 83 Topic: “In Support, I Believe…”
Your very host, Charlotte Ward, tells of her most fundamental Support Belief: Metrics should measure, not rule.
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Announcing a new format, based on “This, I Believe…”
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Week 81 Throwback: Panel 10
Five leaders join me to talk about the wonderful, frustrating and elusive nature of hindsight. If only we’d know then, what we know now.
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Week 81 Throwback: Panel 7
Six leaders join me to talk about managing change. We come to the conclusion it involves data, a 4-type taxonomy, a workshop, and a lot of cheese.
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Week 81 Throwback: Process Improvement
Ash and I talk about how a culture willing to accept feedback and examination is best placed to improve on the status quo.
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Week 81 Throwback: First 30 Days in a New Role
Alyssa Percell and I start talking about ‘new to us’ roles, but unexpectedly dwell more on the plans we’re forming before we even get in the door.
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Week 81 Throwback: Remote Work
Ash Rhodes pitched this topic to me with one phrase, and I took him up on his offer.
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Week 80 Throwback: Forecasting in Support
Matt Dale tells how he’s been refining his model for seven years, so don’t go looking for any quick and accurate answers in your first forecasting efforts.
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Week 80 Throwback: Support Contributing to Revenue
This is such an interesting topic for most of us, that we’re visiting it twice this Throwback Week! In this episode from the archives, Mo McKibbin joins me for the first time to talk about the topic that has defined such a huge part of her CS leadership career: Support Driven Growth
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Week 80 Throwback: Support Contributing to Revenue
Mike Redbord talks about the invaluable information and data your support team is already gathering, that might very well generate revenue.
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Week 80 Throwback: Onboarding New Hires
Ash Rhodes isn’t a List Person, but he knows they’re useful for onboarding. We also find a name for that spyglass thing you do with your hands.
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Week 80 Throwback: Building Leaders in Your Team
Meredith Molloy returns to talk about how you spot, and care for a unicorn!
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Week 79 Topic: Building a Team from Scratch
When is a full-time job not a full-time job? When it’s a two-person job! It’s been a while since Matt Dale built a team from scratch, but nonetheless, he returns to round out this week with his own wisdom and perspectives from further on in the journey.
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Week 79 Topic: Building a Team from Scratch
In Kat Olsheske’s first outing on the podcast, she talks about the transferrable skills and knowledge every support leader brings to a new team, and what might be different between each team building experience.
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Week 79 Topic: Building a Team from Scratch
Adela Bodor returns to talk about building a support team from scratch: which she has done multiple times and has down to a fine art now!
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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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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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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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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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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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Specials: You’re the Host! #2
Recorded the week after I spoke to five leaders about Slack as a support channel, Vlad grills me on how much I learned from those conversations.
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Craig Stoss joins me again to talk about providing support through social media channels, and some of our common frustrations as customers who also happen to be support leaders..
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Specials: You’re the Host! #1
Natalie Ruhl returns to flip the table and take over hosting an episode. She brings quite a collection of questions about challenges and seeking help.
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Specials: Fireside 11
Sandra Thompson comes to share her significant expertise on Emotional Intelligence and its importance in our ability to serve customers.
We break EI away from Empathy, and talk about some of the elements of EI. After we finished recording, Sandra also mentioned a workshop she runs using Riders and Elephants, a brilliant resource to help businesses build emotional intelligence. Sandra also mentioned Dr. Daniel Goleman and his insights on the topic of EI, which I highly recommend you check out.
In passing, I also talked briefly about a notion of walking alongside our emotions that I'd heard in a TEDTalk, but couldn't recall this one. I found it. It is Susan David talking about Emotional Courage.
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Week 53: Slack Support
Mo McKibbin returns to compare the three occasions when she’s inherited Slack support and what she’s loved and hated about it each time.
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Week 53: Slack Support
Chris Jewitt tells how Klaus used to support customers through Slack, but made the decision to move away from it.
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Week 53: Slack Support
Sean Tanos takes us from supporting humans to support robots through Slack!
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Week 53: Slack Support
Fletcher Richman joins me to talk about 'decreasing the distance' to your customers with Slack, and how it gives support some personality.
Fletcher was the CEO & Cofounder of Halp, acquired by Atlassian (NASDAQ:$TEAM) in May 2020. He is currently a Sr. Manager, Product for Halp at Atlassian.
Fletcher received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical & Computer Engineering, Cum Laude, from The University of Colorado. As a student, Fletcher co-founded Spark Boulder, a co-working space for student entrepreneurs, which was supported by many community leaders including Brad Feld and David Cohen, the Co-Founders of Techstars. Fletcher spent several years working as the Growth Engineer for PivotDesk, a Techstars Boulder graduate, and as the Platform Manager for Galvanize Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund.
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Week 53: Slack Support
Vlad Shlosberg shares what support and success can look like on Slack.
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Week 52: Year in Review
Just Charlotte this week! It’s the first day of 2021, so to conclude our review of 2020 on the podcast, let’s talk about satisfaction in an otherwise unsatisfying year.
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Week 52: Year in Review
Just Charlotte this week! How do we ensure our processes are the best they can be, and that they stick?
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Week 52: Year in Review
Just Charlotte this week! This time we look at forecasting fur the future, however uncertain it may be.
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Week 52: Year in Review
Just Charlotte this week! Growing pains again, or opportunities. This time, we explore how to leverage Support in revenue generation.
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Week 52: Year in Review
Just Charlotte this week! Today, I look back on some of the pains of growing teams.
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Week 51: Year in Review
Just Charlotte this week! As we spend time with family and friends, I look back at when I brought podcast guests together.
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Week 51: Year in Review
Just Charlotte this week! Looking at building a career in Support next year? This episode is for you!
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Week 51: Year in Review
Just Charlotte this week! As we approach a big number, I revisit the week where we looked beyond the numbers.
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Week 51: Year in Review
Just Charlotte this week! A year in review deserves a look back at other reviews.
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Week 51: Year in Review
Just Charlotte this week! So many leaders, so many lenses on support metrics!
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Week 50: Year in Review
Just Charlotte this week! In a year where I started a new role, it’s also been interesting to explore careers in Support, and other folks’ leadership experiences.
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Week 50: Year in Review
Just Charlotte this week! I look back at my own awkward conversations, and wonder why the world isn’t changing faster.
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Week 50: Year in Review
Just Charlotte this week! I look back over the first week’s topic: Empathy in Customer Support
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Week 50: Year in Review
Just Charlotte this week! How remote work and the podcast have intertwined.
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Week 50: Year in Review
Just Charlotte this week! Here I tell a little about where it all began….
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Specials: Fireside 10
Mo McKibbin talks about the challenges of screening for those magical unicorns: technical, customer success-support hybrids, remote, in Europe, ideally with specific industry experience. And we excitedly steal each others' favourite interview questions.
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Specials: Fireside 9
Steve Bederman joins me to talk about omni-channel support, and managing big tool and process changes for larger teams.
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Specials: Fireside 8
Greg Skirving describes how the scope of support can creep through the ease of access to a support team.
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Specials: Fireside 7
Kaylin Bailey returns to talk about productivity in support at all levels - personally, across the organisation, and on the front line.
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Specials: Fireside 6
Tue Søttrup helps me kick off this new Fireside season with a conversation about Product-Led Customer Success, and how Dixa have used this approach to drive product engagement and business improvements for the customers at the same time.
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Just a quick update... and do you happen to know anything about SEO?
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Week 44 Topic: Diversity and Inclusion
Vanessa Subramaniam talks about the kind of things she might look for when considering whether she’d be successful at a potential future employer’s organisation.
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Week 44 Topic: Diversity and Inclusion
Stacy Justino has spent time carefully considering the hiring process, right from the job description.
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Week 44 Topic: Diversity and Inclusion
Josh Magsam believes a remote workforce encourages diversity, but even largely remote companies need to work hard to foster diversity in each geography.
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Week 44 Topic: Diversity and Inclusion
Antonio King joins me to talk about the importance of keeping the conversations going, no matter how uncomfortable it feels..
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Week 44 Topic: Diversity and Inclusion
Ian Jordan has successfully driven initiatives that lead to a 50-50 gender split in leadership positions in Support. Here, he tells how he began by looking at the hiring pipeline.
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Week 43 Topic: Scary Support Stories
Todd Curtis tells the scary story that inspired this whole week of terrible tales. I heard this at a conference two years ago and it still gives me chills.
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Week 43 Topic: Scary Support Stories
Nancy Dandolos woke to a nightmare of a chat in ALL CAPS... only it turned out not to be a dream…!
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Week 43 Topic: Scary Support Stories
Antonio King digs into the s’mores while telling of the time they oversold the shoes and the systems shut down one by one…
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Nate Brown tells how he had to join the dark side to get anything like a resolution to a problem with a demonic service provider.
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Matt Dale joins me to tell the story of a possessed laptop. And I have rather too much fun with sound effects.
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Week 42 Topic: Support’s Relationship to Sales
Liz Love, CCO at ProdPad, comes on the podcast for the first time, to talk about how ProdPad has joined up the customer journey end-to-end, from Sales to Support.
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Week 42 Topic: Support’s Relationship to Sales
Nicholas Zeisler (“Zee” to his friends, and “Zed” to his British friend over here) returns to talk about how CX can minimise friction in this less-obvious relationship. He’s at the end of the phone if you need him!
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Week 42 Topic: Support’s Relationship to Sales
Greg Skirving returns to talk about the Three Days with the customer, and how nothing happens without the sale.
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Week 42 Topic: Support’s Relationship to Sales
Natalie Petruch-Trent has been a panel guest before, but joins me one-to-one for the first time today. We talk about the importance of trust in handing over the customer relationship from Sales to Support.
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Week 42 Topic: Support’s Relationship to Sales
Jason Cutter joins me for the first time to talk about how we might bridge what can seem to be the biggest organisational gap!
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Week 41 Topic: Support’s Relationship to Product
Ashley Sachs joins me for the first time. We ponder the particular challenges of remote work in the communications between Support and Product.
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129: Support’s Relationship to Product with Andrea Saez
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Week 41 Topic: Support’s Relationship to Product
Matt Dale returns to the podcast, to share the importance of two-way conversations in this relationship.
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Week 41 Topic: Support’s Relationship to Product
Craig and I talk about how the Support<->Product loop can be a positively charged spiral.
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Week 41 Topic: Support’s Relationship to Product
Simone and I talk about strategising with Product on how to use customer feedback.
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Week 40 Topic: Freelancing in Support
Nicole Jackson joins me for the first time, as we explore the balance between creating content and creating consultancy.
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Week 40 Topic: Freelancing in Support
Mo McKibbin and I talk about the dark side of freelancing, and how hard it is to sell oneself, and hear the ker-ching of the cash register for our expertise.
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Week 40 Topic: Freelancing in Support
Andrei Kamarouski joins me from Belarus, to talk about freelancing as a Zendesk consultant, primarily using Upwork.
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Week 40 Topic: Freelancing in Support
Jenny, who was my first ever guest, returns to talk about how her side hustle became a full-time job, and how she’s had to find a balance that works for her.
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Week 40 Topic: Freelancing in Support
Zeni Bandy returns to talk about how freelancing is a great opportunity to both pivot and learn.
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Week 39: Bonus - INBOUND 2020
Today I finally get the opportunity to share my session from INBOUND 2020 with you! Thanks to the awesome folks at HubSpot for producing this amazing virtual event. Also, I have a request for you.
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Week 38 Topic: CSAT
Simone Secci thinks we should pay particular attention to the negative reviews.
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Week 38 Topic: CSAT
Chris Taylor and I talk about what happens when CSAT takes a turn for the worse.
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Week 38 Topic: CSAT
Nicholas Zeisler joins me for the first time, and we talk about all the levers and at play in a CSAT measure.
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Week 38 Topic: CSAT
Mo and I spend quite a significant amount of time talking about the value of those smiley faces. And we take an unexpected hypothetical trip to the airport.
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Week 38 Topic: CSAT
Denise Twum talks about how we might look at all the different aspects and influences on any CSAT measure, and how we might react to them.
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Week 37 Topic: Support Scope
Mike Redbord believes you can build the scope of Support by saying “Yes” as much as possible!
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Week 37 Topic: Support Scope
Mo McKibbin and I discuss whether it’s better for a support team to fragment internally to scale, or it’s better to limit scope and move responsibilities to other teams.
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Week 37 Topic: Support Scope
Craig Stoss talks about how the scope of support evolves over time.
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Week 37 Topic: Support Scope
Zeni Bandy joins me for our first one-to-one chat, where she recommends setting boundaries early for support teams.
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Week 37 Topic: Support Scope
Chris Taylor returns to help me figure out how a varied approach to support can drive value for the business.
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Specials: Fireside 5
Craig Stoss talks to me about “flipping Support”. And that’s not a Brit euphemism - he really means it: turning attitudes to Support on their head.
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Specials: Panel 10
Five leaders join me to talk about the wonderful, frustrating and elusive nature of hindsight. If only we’d know then, what we know now.
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Specials: Fireside 4
Chris Taylor joins me in the new Customer Support Leaders Fireside series. In these sessions, guests bring their own topics for a more relaxed, longer chat. Chris is moving to a house with a fireside very soon, but for now, we content ourself with a conversation on the challenges of forecasting for scale-up.
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Specials: Panel 9
Five leaders join me to talk about the evolution of metrics in Support - which I’m whimsically calling Metrics 2.0. Welcome to Antonio King, who joins me for the first time. Watch out for him later in the series.
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Specials: Fireside 3
Josh Magsam joins me in the new Customer Support Leaders Fireside series. In these sessions, guests bring their own topics for a more relaxed, longer chat. Josh is in the room next-door to a fireside, and this time we talk about the role of Support in the wider CX space.
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Specials: Panel 8
Six leaders join me to talk about the future of Support Leadership - which I’m whimsically calling Support Leadership 2.0. Welcome to Zeni Bandy and Ethan Walfish, who join me for the first time. Watch out for them later in the series.
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Specials: Fireside 2
Simone Secci is second up in the new Customer Support Leaders Fireside series. In these sessions, guests bring their own topics for a more relaxed, longer chat. In a rapidly developing tradition, Simone also brings a fireside (albeit a virtual one) to our discussion on data in support.
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Specials: Panel 7
Six leaders join me to talk about managing change. We come to the conclusion it involves data, a 4-type taxonomy, a workshop, and a lot of cheese.
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Specials: Fireside 1
Our new Customer Support Leaders Fireside series kicks off this week! In these sessions, guests bring their own topics for a more relaxed, longer chat. First up is Ash Rhodes, brings his own topic, AND his own fireside! Here we are, talking about losing key contributors in his team.
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Specials: Panel 6
Six leaders join me to talk about the impact of the recent COVID crisis on Support, and how we might return to normality.
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One hundred episodes is a great place to change pace for a few weeks, just like we did at episode 50. So, stay tuned for some more panels!
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Week 26 Topic: Process Improvement
Alyssa gets all “meta” on me, with the idea of having a process for process improvement!
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Week 26 Topic: Process Improvement
Ash and I talk about how a culture willing to accept feedback and examination is best placed to improve on the status quo.
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Week 26 Topic: Process Improvement
Matt Dale and I talk about choosing the right time for big changes, and the right time for small improvements.
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Week 26 Topic: Process Improvement
Kaylin Bailey and I talk about asking the same question five times, and how we communicate the outcomes.
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Week 26 Topic: Process Improvement
Denise Twum joins me for the first time to talk about the joys of automation!
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Today, I spend some time looking back at some of my favourite bits. It was so hard to choose. Also, I have a request for you.
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Week 24 Topic: First 30 Days in a New Role
Greg Skirving joins me to talk about spending time intentionally building relationships and observing the status quo.
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Week 24 Topic: First 30 Days in a New Role
Alyssa Percell and I start talking about ‘new to us’ roles, but unexpectedly dwell more on the plans we’re forming before we even get in the door.
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Week 24 Topic: First 30 Days in a New Role
Natalie Ruhl and I talk about all those notes you take in the first month, and when it all starts to come together.
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Week 24 Topic: First 30 Days in a New Role
Lauren Rose Eimers and I talk about how important it is to listen, so you can learn.
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Week 24 Topic: First 30 Days in a New Role
Stacy Justino joins the podcast for the first time talk about being patient with ourselves in a new role.
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Week 23 Topic: Cross-cultural Support
Josh Magsam helps me round out the week with an unexpected turn. This time, instead of talking about customers, we talk about the different cultures in our teams.
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Week 23 Topic: Cross-cultural Support
Simone Secci comes up with a brilliant analogy to the name for subtitling and translation in the movies - “adaptation” - and how that works for Support, too.
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Week 23 Topic: Cross-cultural Support
Aurore Lanchart has led teams supporting customers across the world, and here wee talk about how culture is more than just the language.
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Week 23 Topic: Cross-cultural Support
Ulrike Pitzschke and I compare notes on our respective nationalities and how, in the heart of Europe, what you really need are cultural gymnasts.
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Week 23 Topic: Cross-cultural Support
Chris Taylor returns to talk about cross-cultural support, and homes in on customer expectation metrics.
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Week 22 Throwback: Hiring in Support
Alyssa Percell has a top tip for getting more from the interview process!
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Week 22 Throwback: Looking Beyond the Numbers
Mike Redbord joins me for the first time, to talk about keeping metrics thin, and stories big.
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Week 22 Throwback: Moving from Doing to Leading the Work
Ash Rhodes talks about why he believes a leader should stay in the queue.
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Week 22 Throwback: Future of Support
Craig Stoss and I tackled support in 2020 and beyond. How will the IoT and data shape our service?
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Week 22 Throwback: Empathy in Support
This week, we're visiting the archives for some of our most popular episodes. We start with our very first ever conversation!
Can you feel too much or too little empathy in support? I spoke to Jenny Dempsey about how this affects the service, and how you might manage both ends of the empathy spectrum in your team.
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Week 21 Topic: Remote Work
Mo McKibbin and I talk about how well suited CS is to remote work, and how to use Slack like a pro.
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Week 21 Topic: Remote Work
Craig Stoss shares his insights on how we communicate with highly distributed teams.
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Week 21 Topic: Remote Work
Ash Rhodes pitched this topic to me with one phrase, and I took him up on his offer.
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Week 21 Topic: Remote Work
Hilary Dudek leads a fully remote team, and is currently hiring. We talk about the challenges and non-challenges in that process.
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Week 21 Topic: Remote Work
Matt Dale is back after a brief sojourn of just one episode (!) to talk about how his organisation transitioned to remote work.
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Week 20 Topic: Forecasting in Support
Ash Rhodes returns to talk about the uncertainties and vulnerabilities in forecasting.
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Week 20 Topic: Forecasting in Support
Matt Dale tells how he’s been refining his model for seven years, so don’t go looking for any quick and accurate answers in your first forecasting efforts.
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Week 20 Topic: Forecasting in Support
Greg Skirving talks about how to deal with all the data variance that gives us so much trouble in forecasting.
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Week 20 Topic: Forecasting in Support
Mike Redboard returns give really specific instructions on how to build a spreadsheet that does a lot of heavy maths lifting for our forecasting attempts.
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Week 20 Topic: Forecasting in Support
Craig Stoss describes how he maps support load across the day, and looks for markers that might indicate he needs to increase coverage in his team.
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Week 19 Topic: Support Contributing to Revenue
Josh Magsam and I consider how a Voice of the Customer program might be so much more than a few customer interviews, and can actually help your team surface valuable insights for the rest of the company.
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Week 19 Topic: Support Contributing to Revenue
Erica Mancuso talks with me one-to-one for the first time, having guested earlier in the year on a panel. Here, we talk about how customer segmenting is key to setting support tiers and finding leads to sell those.
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Week 19 Topic: Support Contributing to Revenue
Craig Stoss and I talk about recognising the value your product or service brings to your customers, and how that relates to revenue.
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Week 19 Topic: Support Contributing to Revenue
Mo McKibbin joins me for the first time to talk about the topic that has defined such a huge part of her CS leadership career: Support Driven Growth.
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Week 19 Topic: Support Contributing to Revenue
Mike Redbord talks about the invaluable information and data your support team is already gathering, that might very well generate revenue.
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Week 18 Topic: Self-care in Support
Lauren Rose Eimers has a background in genetic counselling, and joins me on the podcast to talk about looking after ourselves in a draining support environment.
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Week 18 Topic: Self-care in Support
Hilary Dudek returns to talk about the oxygen mask approach to looking after a team during stressful times.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=28654526)
Week 18 Topic: Self-care in Support
Ryan Klausner believes burnout doesn’t always automatically mean time out.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=28654526)
Week 18 Topic: Self-care in Support
Greg Skirving references ancient history and how we should work on our perception of time to take greater control of our day.
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Week 18 Topic: Self-care in Support
Ulrike Pitzschke and I talked about self-care before the current coronavirus crisis, but the topic seems all the more timely now. Listen to her talk about boundaries in remote work, and how to find space in a busy day.
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Week 17 Topic: Onboarding New Hires
Ackerman joins me for the first time on the podcast, describing how onboarding should be seen as a way of introducing your new hire to both product and company.
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Week 17 Topic: Onboarding New Hires
Kaylin Bailey joins me to talk one-to-one for the first time, where we discuss the value of leaving down time in your onboarding agenda.
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Week 17 Topic: Onboarding New Hires
Craig Stoss and I compare notes as two seasoned Support Leaders who are onboarding at new companies in the same month!
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Week 17 Topic: Onboarding New Hires
Ash Rhodes isn’t a List Person, but he knows they’re useful for onboarding. We also find a name for that spyglass thing you do with your hands.
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Week 17 Topic: Onboarding New Hires
Lauren Rose Eimers returns to the show, to tell of the advantages of a strong knowledge base and hiring self-starters.
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Week 16 Topic: Building Leaders in Your Team
Greg Skirving describes the value of “de facto leaders” in our team, and how that’s often a natural stepping stone to leadership.
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Week 16 Topic: Building Leaders in Your Team
Ryan Klausner makes his debut on a single guest spot, to discuss the importance of investing in potential leaders in your team.
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Week 16 Topic: Building Leaders in Your Team
Josh Magsam returns, and describes how he eventually lets budding leaders make their own mistakes, or achieve their own successes, without hovering around them too much.
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Week 16 Topic: Building Leaders in Your Team
Ash Rhodes believes that potential leaders make themselves known through demonstrating initiative and ownership. What’s next is how we foster those qualities.
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Week 16 Topic: Building Leaders in Your Team
Meredith Molloy returns to talk about how you spot, and care for a unicorn!
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Specials: Panel 5
Seven leaders join me on this large, diverse panel, talking about what being customer-centric means to them, their teams and their organisations. We cover the good, and the bad, and finish with some great advice from all.
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Specials: Panel 4
Five leaders talk with me about their strategies for communicating with customers during this, and any other, crisis.
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Specials: Panel 3:
Six leaders join me on this panel, discussing how to handle layoffs, and treat humans with dignity and grace in difficult times.
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Specials: Panel 2:
Five leaders join me in this special episode which concentrates on real experiences in the aftermath of the first escalation of COVID-19, where many of us are in voluntary or enforced home-based isolation.
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Specials: Panel 1:
Five leaders join me in this International Women’s Day Special, to talk about Women Leaders in Support, and Women in Leadership in general. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=28654526)
Week 10 Topic: Hiring in Support
Josh Magsam hires leaders for support programs. Here we talk about finding and assessing those potential leaders.
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Week 10 Topic: Hiring in Support
Alyssa Percell has a top tip for getting more from the interview process!
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Week 10 Topic: Hiring in Support
Craig Stoss ponders how we might hire for more than a basic job description checklist.
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Week 10 Topic: Hiring in Support
Kristina King uses a 6-month internship to hire people with diverse backgrounds.
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Week 10 Topic: Hiring in Support
Ulrike Pitzschke talks about the challenges of hiring for support in those early startup days.
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Week 9 Topic: Careers in Support
Kristina King has put a career structure in place, and we talk about how it benefits the team and the business.
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Week 9 Topic: Careers in Support
Mike Redbord and I talk over how a career can be built in support, within the context of the business.
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Week 9 Topic: Careers in Support
Vanessa Subramaniam describes how finding your own personal growth opportunities is easier if you think about the company, too.
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Week 9 Topic: Careers in Support
Natalie Ruhl and I talk about making a career out of component skills. And quite a lot about apples, too.
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Week 9 Topic: Careers in Support
Matt Dale has built processes to manage the flow of good people out of his team, and has learned to be okay with that.
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Week 8 Topic: Looking Beyond the Numbers
Mike Redbord joins me for the first time, to talk about keeping metrics thin, and stories big.
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Week 8 Topic: Looking Beyond the Numbers
Meredith Molloy shares how goals should be realistic, and work for your team.
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Week 8 Topic: Looking Beyond the Numbers
Jenny Dempsey tells a story about ‘number languages’.
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Week 8 Topic: Looking Beyond the Numbers
Natalie Ruhl returns to tell how she looks for bigger impact from her team than just ticket metrics.
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Week 8 Topic: Looking Beyond the Numbers
Ash Rhodes gives compelling reasons to not only listen to your spreadsheet.
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Week 7 Topic: Managing Performance Issues
Simone Secci returns to talk about the particular challenges involved in the performance of outsourced teams.
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Week 7 Topic: Managing Performance Issues
Brittany Naylor describes how different people have different motivating factors that may affect their performance, and how to work with those.
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Week 7 Topic: Managing Performance Issues
Josh Magsam joins me to talk about clarity in performance management.
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Week 7 Topic: Managing Performance Issues
Hilary Dudek tells me how she likes to coach for positive behaviours, rather than rely on metrics to measure performance.
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Week 7 Topic: Managing Performance Issues
Ash Rhodes returns to talk about the unknown influences on your folks’ performance, and how we can attempt to manage the resulting issues.
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Week 6 Topic: Metrics
Simone Secci remembers what a struggle he had getting to grips with metrics at first.
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Week 6 Topic: Metrics
Chris Taylor knows it’s easy to drown in metrics.
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Week 6 Topic: Metrics
Meredith Molloy explains a new metric that she believes is a good measure of service from the customer’s point of view.
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Week 6 Topic: Metrics
Vanessa Subramaniam explains her customer-centric and data-driven approach to metrics.
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Week 6 Topic: Metrics
Craig Stoss talks about stories, and the Source of All Truth.
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Week 5 Topic: Moving from Doing to Leading the Work
Jenny Dempsey likes to be in a queue when needed, but recognises how key it is to trust your team, too.
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Week 5 Topic: Moving from Doing to Leading the Work
Hilary Dudek talks about how she is now challenged in a new organisation with a product set she doesn’t know.
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Week 5 Topic: Moving from Doing to Leading the Work
Matt Dale returns to talk about why you can’t expect to successfully do two jobs at once.
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Week 5 Topic: Moving from Doing to Leading the Work
Natalie Ruhl tells how she keeps in touch with the needs of her team.
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Week 5 Topic: Moving from Doing to Leading the Work
Ash Rhodes talks about why he believes a leader should stay in the queue.
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Week 4 Topic: Personal Stories of Transitioning to Leadership
Simone Secci tells us his story, and his recommendations for good resources for CS Leaders.
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Week 4 Topic: Personal Stories of Transitioning to Leadership
Chris Taylor didn’t take the route he expected into leadership, and tells us how the key was in understanding where his strengths really lie.
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Week 4 Topic: Personal Stories of Transitioning to Leadership
Kristina King says we should be vocal about our desire to become leaders.
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Week 4 Topic: Personal Stories of Transitioning to Leadership
Natalie Ruhl had a dream….
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Week 4 Topic: Personal Stories of Transitioning to Leadership
Ash Rhodes talks about his personal story, of bubbling up into leadership, and how little guidance he had. How not to do it!
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Week 3 Topic: Awkward Conversations
Lauren Eimers rounds out the week with the science bit. Great advice on social and biological signals!
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Week 3 Topic: Awkward Conversations
Matt Dale places great importance on prep and space when handling difficult conversations.
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Week 3 Topic: Awkward Conversations
Meredith Molloy believes being an IC stands us in good stead for awkward conversations.
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Week 3 Topic: Awkward Conversations
Ash Rhodes is much better at handling awkward conversations than he used to be. Thanks goodness!
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Week 3 Topic: Awkward Conversations
Hilary Dudek needs to practice her poker face. (Also, although the title is “Awkward Conversations with Hilary Dudek”, this most definitely was not one.)
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Week 2 Topic: Future of Support
Jenny Dempsey returns to talk about her vision for the future, and how pigs can be an experience.
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Week 2 Topic: Future of Support
Kristina King talks about how innovation is driven in her team.
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Week 2 Topic: Future of Support
Meredith Molloy and I come to an (un)surprising conclusion about the future!
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Week 2 Topic: Future of Support
Vanessa Subramaniam believes the immediate future of support will focus on understanding how each customer will interact with your service, and being able to react accordingly.
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Week 2 Topic: Future of Support
Craig Stoss and I tackled support in 2020 and beyond. How will the IoT and data shape our service?
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Week 1 Topic: Empathy in Support
We round out this week’s topic with Ash Rhodes. How much weight should we place on empathy when we’re hiring for support? And Ash pulls some very funny faces (entirely for my benefit).
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Week 1 Topic: Empathy in Support
Craig and I chewed over customer context and how it relates to empathic support.
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Week 1 Topic: Empathy in Support
I spoke to Natalie Ruhl about whether empathy is a teachable skill, and how empathy exercises can help.
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Week 1 Topic: Empathy in Support
How important is empathy in support? I spoke to Matt Dale about that and whether you can foster or build empathy as a skill.
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Week 1 Topic: Empathy in Support
Can you feel too much or too little empathy in support? I spoke to Jenny Dempsey about how this affects the service, and how you might manage both ends of the empathy spectrum in your team.
I grabbed Jenny just as she'd moved into a new home and was waiting on her soft furnishings, which is why this episode is a little echo-ey!
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A little teaser for the new Customer Support Leaders podcast!
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