January 13, 2026 • 41 mins
The best support specialists can sometimes come from the most unexpected places!
We're getting into what really makes a great support team and exploring the unique, non-traditional paths that led each member of the Buzzsprout podcaster success team to provide remarkable customer support.
You’ll hear from everyone on the Buzzsprout podcaster success team as we share the skills we developed long before we ever worked in support—skills like representation, empathy, relationship-building, communication, adaptability, and staying calm in high-pressure moments.
This episode is for anyone hiring support specialists, building a support team, or looking to transition into customer support, and wondering how their past experience fits. We talk about what to look for beyond a resume, why loving to help people matters more than years of experience, and how diverse backgrounds can create a better support team.
We’d also love to hear from you! If you’ve picked up an unexpected skill from a past job that now helps you in customer support, or if your path into support wasn’t a straight line, text us and tell us your story!
We want to hear from you! Share your support stories and questions with us at happytohelp@buzzsprout.com!
To learn more about Buzzsprout visit Buzzsprout.com.
Thanks for listening!
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Episode Transcript
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Priscilla (00:00):
Welcome to Happy to Help, a podcast about customer
support from the people ofBuzzsprout.
I'm your host, PriscillaBrooke.
Your support team can make orbreak your customers'
experience.
So today, we're talking abouthow important it is to find and
hire the right people and howyour best support specialists
can be found in the mostunlikely places.
Thanks for joining us.
(00:20):
Let's get into it.
So, Jordan, one of the funthings about doing this podcast
is that everyone in my circlealways comes to me now with
their stories about goodcustomer support or bad customer
support.
Really?
Yeah.
All the time.
I get phone calls from friendsof mine and they're like, oh my
(00:42):
gosh, I just got off the phonewith a customer support agent.
I have to tell you about it.
Or they text me and they say,This great thing just happened.
I wanted you to know.
And it's so fun to be like thego-to for that.
But it also gives me all ofthese stories that I want to
tell on this podcast, butthey're not directly related to
me.
So I figured I'd share one ofthem today because it just
(01:05):
happened a couple of days ago.
And I just thought it was agreat little story.
So a friend of mine called meand he had a bad experience with
a customer support team.
I'm not going to name them, buthe got an item that was broken.
And when he told them it wasbroken, they pushed hard on the
no, you broke it.
And he's like, I didn't breakit.
(01:25):
It came broken.
It's a pretty expensive thing.
And they refused to replace ita couple times until finally,
after enough time, they agreedto get him a refurbished one.
Jordan (01:36):
Oh my gosh.
Priscilla (01:36):
But it was a really painful process.
And he was kind of frustratedabout it.
Well, then he called me again,maybe an hour later, and said,
Okay, I have a really goodexperience now that I'm going to
share with you because I justhad a bad one that I shared with
you.
But then I just went to Publixon my way home from work and I
have a good experience.
So it was like a little bit ofwhiplash.
Jordan (01:56):
I was gonna say, like, did do they cancel each other
out?
Priscilla (01:58):
Is that I don't know how it works.
Okay.
So the second story was that hewent to Publix and he grabbed
an item that was on sale.
And it was a pricier thing.
I mean, everything is priceythese days, but it was some kind
of body wash or something likethat.
And it was more expensive.
And it was on sale.
It was like $10 off.
And he was pumped about it andhe went to go check out.
(02:18):
I think he grabbed a couplebecause they were on sale.
Yeah, toiletries are expensiveright now.
And groceries are expensive.
And they rung up at theoriginal price, not the
discounted price.
Oh.
And he said that if it had justrung up incorrectly and no one
was around him, he would havejust paid the full price and
left because it's not worthstaying and trying to figure out
(02:40):
the pricing.
Yeah.
But it was at one of thoseself-check situations, and there
was someone standing there thatwas monitoring the
self-checkout.
And because that person wasclose, he was able to reach out
to them quickly and say, hey,this is ringing up incorrectly
without it being this big hasslefor him.
Yeah.
And they quickly grabbed thebody wash, went back to look at
(03:01):
the pricing to double check it.
They didn't ask him anyquestions.
They didn't make him prove itto them.
Yeah.
You know, he didn't have to doany of that work.
They went back, they checkedit, and they came back and they
said, you know, you'reabsolutely right.
However, the problem was thatwe put the discount on the wrong
item.
So these are actually notdiscounted, even though it shows
(03:22):
that they should be discounted.
Yeah.
You know, it stinks becauseit's a mistake, but the way that
they decided to fix it was togive him the body wash for free
and to not make him pay foranything.
What?
They fully just comped it.
Okay.
I know.
And I just I thought those twostories were so interesting
because then that led us talkingabout how Publix, I mean, if
(03:43):
you're not in the US, in theSouth, yeah, I was gonna say we
don't have you may not befamiliar with Publix.
But Publix is a grocery storethat is so focused on service
and it is so focused on makingyour shopping experience
enjoyable.
And they live that out.
Each person in the store does areally good job of living that
(04:04):
out.
And you see it in the way thatthey bag your groceries, you see
it in the way that they havepeople with a smiling face
checking you out.
You see it when you have to getaround someone to get those
raspberries and someone'sstocking the raspberries and the
way they say hi to you and theydon't make you feel like you're
imposing.
There's so many layers atPublix where they really do,
(04:24):
their slogan is make shopping apleasure.
And I really think they do agreat job of that.
And this was a really goodexample where it was just a
little thing.
It was not that big of a comp,probably 20 bucks or something
like that, but it reinforced hisloyalty to Publix.
He could have gone to anygrocery store and he will always
(04:45):
go to Publix because of thingslike that, because of consistent
service like that.
I just thought it was a reallycool story.
I love that.
That's so cool.
Okay, so today's episode is alittle bit different than we're
used to doing, but I'm actuallyI'm really excited about this.
So we don't have any gueststoday, but we kind of have six
(05:05):
guests at the same time.
Yes.
One thing I said up top is thatyour customer support is really
only as good as the people thatyou have running your customer
support, right?
The people that are actuallyinterfacing with your customers
and giving them that experience.
You can have the best processesin place.
You can have the best missionstatement and values in place.
(05:26):
But if you hire people thatdon't live out those values or
don't live out that missionstatement or run those processes
the way they should be run,then you're not going to have a
good experience for yourcustomers.
So you have to find and hirethe right people in order to
execute on what you want as faras your customer experience.
(05:47):
And I think, you know, we havea really cool team of people
here at Buzzsprout that doreally incredible work in
customer support.
And so I thought it would becool to talk to each of those
people and learn a little bitabout their experience and where
they developed these skillsthat are now serving them so
(06:07):
well in customer support.
And spoiler alert, none of themcame from a customer support
background.
Yeah.
All of the people on our teamcame from other industries.
And I think sometimes whenyou're hiring, and I know this
from experience, you look atsomeone's resume and how much
experience they have in theindustry that you're working in.
(06:29):
So I want to hire someone forcustomer support.
So how much experience do theyhave in customer support?
Oh, yeah.
Or I want to hire someone towork in podcasting.
How much experience do theyhave in podcasting?
And the reality that I havelearned is that that experience
can only take you so far.
And sometimes that experienceis not enough to give your
customers this elevated level ofservice.
(06:52):
And sometimes the lack of thatexperience is actually a benefit
because they're not unlearningthe stereotypical behavior that
you have in customer support.
Yeah.
So my hope is that for anyonelistening to this, you know,
we're starting a new year.
I am sure that there aresupport leaders listening who
are getting ready to starthiring people for the year, or
(07:13):
maybe you're starting a new yearand you want to find a new role
and you're just you don't knowhow to break into a customer
support setting.
Maybe you've been working in,you know, administration and
you're like, I want to work incustomer support, but I don't
know how to make that jump over.
Hopefully, as we talk throughsome of these skills that you
may not have expected to be sopowerful in customer support,
(07:36):
hopefully this will inspire youto write your story in a way
that really can sell yourself toa customer support manager.
And then on the flip side ofthat, if you're hiring,
hopefully this gives you alittle bit of insight into what
to look for to find the rockstars that are going to be on
your customer support team.
Okay, so I'm gonna start byintroducing you to the
(07:57):
Buzzsprout Podcaster successteam.
Each of them will give you alittle insight into their path
that led them to support andwhat skills they learned along
the way before they got into asupport role.
Cara (08:09):
I'm Kara Passetti and I have been a podcaster success
specialist here at Buzzsproutfor two and a half years now.
And I've taken on a couple ofother roles, uh, hosting our
podcasting QA podcast andoffering live orientations for
new podcasters.
So, in a past life, I startedas an NFL cheerleader for the
(08:30):
Jacksonville Jaguars, which dida lot of shaping for me
professionally.
I was also a golf coursebeverage cart attendant in
college.
I graduated and I was anathletic trainer working in
sports medicine, then moved intothe education world where I
served as an executive secretaryfor the school district.
And briefly I transitioned intoa daycare teacher for four and
(08:55):
five-year-olds.
Brian (08:56):
My name is Brian, and I just celebrated my three-year
anniversary here at Buzzbrook.
I started in recreation.
I'm a big sports guy, so I justthought I'm gonna make sports
my whole life.
And so I started out as theintramural director at a
college, just kind of being thecommissioner of a bunch of
different sports leagues.
And after that, I kind oftransitioned into hospitality.
(09:16):
And I've been in hospitalityfor really the last 15 years of
my career.
This means I've done everythingfrom, like I said, run the
sports leagues on both acollegiate level and I also did
that at an elementary school.
And then in hospitality, I'vedone everything from work at a
hotel planning people'svacations.
I've worked in an insuranceoffice, I've worked at a sports
card shop, and then I worked atChick-fil-A.
(09:39):
I always like to say they uhgave me my master's in customer
service.
Serena (09:44):
My name is Trina Nigro, and I have been with Buzzsprout
on the customer support team foreight months.
So I joined Buzzsprout rightafter graduating college.
So I didn't have a lot offormal work experience.
I did work as a nanny for about10 years, and I also was just
super involved with clubs andleadership and helping people
throughout high school andcollege.
(10:04):
In school, I studied marketing,which was really fun because I
got to help companies bringtheir hopes and dreams to the
next level and help them build areally meaningful business.
Kate (10:15):
My name is Kate, and I've been with the Buzzspout Podcast
Success Team for about a yearand a half now.
I have um a background inmarketing, um, worked for like a
couple different nonprofits andmanaged their social medias and
did things like helped acquirecontrac and did some like
writing support for them, somepress releases and things like
(10:37):
that.
And then I've also worked ineducation and like tutoring and
some teaching with likeelementary school.
And then also some morecreative writing, like working
for a magazine.
I was like a poetry editor fora little bit.
Lindsey (10:53):
My name is Lindsay, and I have been working here since
May of 2021, which is crazy.
It's been four and a halfyears.
It does not feel that long.
I had two jobs really prior tothis.
I worked as a practice liaisonat a medical office.
And then I also worked as anexecutive assistant, kind of
office assistant for acommercial real estate office.
(11:15):
So kind of all over the place.
Priscilla (11:17):
So there's just six of us, me and the five people
you just met.
And so we are a small butreally mighty team.
And I think one of the thingsthat makes us so great is that
we all bring these uniqueexperiences into the support
world from these variedbackgrounds.
Yeah.
I had this realization earlierthis week.
I went to the symphony, theJacksonville Symphony.
(11:39):
It's a great symphony.
And so I went and saw them playover the weekend.
And one of the things thatstruck me while I was watching
the symphony was this idea thatthey are all relying on each
other with so much trust thatit's just it's really powerful
because you look at a symphonyand it's made up of all of these
different musicians that arereally good in their own right.
But when you bring themtogether and you put all of
(12:01):
their strengths together,something really powerful can
happen and really moving andreally impactful.
Yeah, you need the percussionsection and you need the string
section.
Exactly.
Yeah.
But you have to have this levelof trust with the people that
you're playing with.
Because if one person doesn'tcome in on time, or if one
person just decides to get upand walk off the stage, it's
going to affect the music.
(12:22):
It's going to affect the pieceyou're playing and it's going to
affect the people that arethere watching.
And I think that the same thingcan be said about a really good
support team.
You're going to have peoplewith different strengths.
You're going to have peoplethat excel in certain areas and
that need encouragement in otherareas.
And if you're working togetherwith a high level of trust that
(12:43):
the person next to you isworking with the same kind of
intention and mastery that youare, and you can trust that they
are, then you can do somethingthat's way more powerful than
individual customers'experiences.
It can be this really powerfulthing that impacts lives in a
way that you couldn't do on yourown.
And so it was just a coolanalogy sitting there watching
(13:05):
the symphony and thinking thisis in so many ways how our
support team is able to do somany really cool things because
individually on this team, wehave really strong people.
Yeah.
And together we're able to dosome really cool stuff.
I think it's well put.
But I do think it's interestingthat no one in the team right
now came from SaaS support.
(13:26):
Yeah.
Brian came from a Chick-fil-Abackground, which is the closest
thing to like a traditionalsupport background out of
everyone on the team.
I came from advertising.
Lindsay came from working inmore of an admin role at a
medical office.
Serena came straight out ofcollege where she just had a
love of learning.
(13:46):
Kate came from more of awriting background, and Kara has
worn every hat that you couldpossibly wear.
And so it's really interestingto see how all of these people
have come together with all ofthese diverse backgrounds and
are able to use the skills theylearned in those roles to have
incredible, remarkableexperiences for our customers.
(14:08):
I asked everyone on the team tokind of walk me through some of
the skills that they learnedbefore they got into support.
Oh, yeah.
These are the transferableones.
Cara (14:16):
Yes, they're transferable skills.
Yeah.
When I was a cheerleader, Ilearned professionalism and I
learned socialization andrepresentation.
So I was a representative foran organization that was bigger
than myself.
And so I had to conduct myselfin that way as I interacted with
fans.
And so that really shaped memoving into careers.
(14:37):
As a beverage card attendant,that was like I said, during
college, it was kind of apart-time job, but it taught me
responsibility because wehandled money and transactions,
keeping things organized, andalso hospitality.
And again, serving the golfersand the resort guests that were
coming.
And so my job was to make theirexperience a good one and meet
(14:59):
them with positivity and energy.
And then moving on to athletictraining, huge learning curve
there.
I was responsible for thehealth and safety of athletes
many ages, spanning from popwarner five-year-olds all the
way to seniors in high school,rehabbing them from injuries
that took them out of theirsport.
(15:20):
And so not only did I have toinvest in my knowledge on how to
treat these injuries andlearning what to do to diagnose,
treat, but also I learnedresponsibility and how to keep
things private.
What needs to be private, whatneeds to be shared.
And I was trusted with thatinformation.
It seems like a lot ofdifferent hats, but I'm so
thankful for each opportunitybecause it's shaped me in so
(15:43):
many ways.
And now I get to use theseskills as a podcaster success
specialist.
Serena (15:49):
I learned a lot of things from these experiences.
First, I learned a lot ofpatience because I was working
with loads of different types ofpeople.
I mean, working withtwo-year-olds, managing temper
tantrums and figuring out, okay,how am I going to get through
this issue, have a resolution,and also brighten their day,
(16:10):
boost the mood and not take thispersonally.
Kate (16:13):
I think the biggest one is writing skills.
Like in each of my jobs thatI've had, I've had to hone in
how I write.
So yeah, I really do valuebeing able to communicate
effectively in written form.
And I think that's reallyhelped me out in my success team
role.
And learning how to kind ofread people and understand where
(16:35):
they're missing gaps.
Like when I was doing tutoringand teaching and you're working
with a kid who they don'tnecessarily even know what
knowledge gaps they have, butbeing able to sit with them and
kind of understand has been likea really helpful skill and
support as well.
Lindsey (16:51):
One of the main things was just having a deep knowledge
of the practice or of thebusiness and feeling confident
in that.
And then also the, I say it asstrong communication skills,
being able to maybe take sometechnical terms, some harder
situations and be able tocommunicate that to others.
And then another one, which Ithink is really fun, is
(17:11):
relationship building.
It's hard, especially, youknow, when I'm in that medical
practice and we have peoplecoming that are not feeling
well, that have to have surgery,that are nervous and stuff like
that.
It's important to be able tobuild a relationship with them
so that they can trust you andreally hear what you have to
say.
Priscilla (17:28):
I think it's really cool when you listen to all of
these different clips becausethey're all mentioning these
skills that they learned outsideof the support world.
But when you hear them here ina support context, you go, oh
yeah, I can see how being ableto communicate with all levels
of customers is necessary for aremarkable service.
Oh, I can see how someone beinga brand representative is
(17:52):
really important when you'reworking in customer support.
Yeah.
And I think sometimes we lookat these jobs on a resume and we
see it printed on a paper andwe don't immediately think if
this person was able to work andinterface with children at a
daycare, then they're gonna begood at this role in customer
(18:13):
support.
I think we don't make thatconnection.
Yeah.
But there's so many of thoseskills that are transferable
over into customer support.
So as you're reviewing resumesand you're looking for that rock
star, don't write offexperience that doesn't fit into
what we think the mold ofcustomer support is.
(18:33):
You know, there are some ofthese skills with each person on
the support team here atBuzzprout that make them
exceptional at customer supportbecause they are not skills that
you would routinely think aboutfor customer support.
So I asked each person on theteam to really focus on one
skill that they learned outsideof support and perfected outside
(18:57):
of support that has served themreally well in support that
they wouldn't necessarily havethought.
So we'll go through those oneby one and touch on some of what
those skills look like.
Cara (19:08):
So one strength that I've taken away from my previous work
experience is the art ofrepresentation.
Some people don't understandwhen you say cheerleader,
sometimes you kind of think,okay, you're cheering on the
sidelines, you're doing somedances, oh well.
But really, when, especially atthe level of NFL, you are
employed as a representative.
(19:30):
So everything that I did, I hadto think, okay, how am I also
representing something that'sbigger than myself?
And that has really translatedinto working for support.
Because every interaction Ihave with a customer, whether it
be at a conference or in thesupport inbox, I am thinking to
myself what are our values?
(19:51):
What is my responsecommunicating to this person in
front of me?
And am I doing a good job ofrepresenting what we stand for
in honoring that person?
Request or answering theirquestion.
Jordan (20:03):
This is a skill that if you handed me a sheet of paper
and you said, write down all theskills that you would want to
have featured on like a resume,representation would not even
come to mind.
And yet it is such an importantskill to have.
It is such an important mindsetto have.
Priscilla (20:19):
Yeah, it really is.
And what's crazy is the waythat Kara makes that connection
about being a cheerleader.
Yeah.
If you look at a resume and yousee someone listed as a
cheerleader, what do you think?
Well, they're good at dancing.
They're probably like reallygood at always smiling and being
super bubbly and encouraging,but you don't think necessarily,
(20:39):
unless you've been acheerleader, you don't think,
you know what they're reallygood at?
They're good at representing abrand.
Jordan (20:45):
Yeah.
Priscilla (20:46):
They're good at not letting their own personal
struggles come through whenthey're being the face of the
brand.
And I think when you're hiringpeople for your customer support
team, look at the people whoknow how to represent a company
or a brand well.
Because just like with thatCostco story that we heard with
Britney Hodak a couple episodesago, you can lose customers if
(21:10):
your support specialist does notrepresent the brand accurately.
And I think Kara makes a reallygood point that that
representation piece does notneed to only come from working
in a customer support world, butit can be grown and
strengthened in a role likebeing a cheerleader.
Brian (21:27):
Another skill that I learned when I was at the sports
card shop, which might besurprising, is the power of
finding a common ground orbuilding a relationship with
someone.
Because obviously you're bothpeople.
You're just trying toaccomplish the same goal.
In this case, it would be tobuy or sell cards.
And it really helps when you'reon the same level as two human
(21:48):
beings that are just interestedin the same thing.
And so let's say someone walkedin with some baseball cards.
I'm more of a basketball fan,but I still know enough about
baseball where I can find adetail or something to relate to
that person.
And that just creates a littlebit of a connection to give us
momentum for the rest of theconversation.
Now, obviously, that doesn'tmean that I'm always going to
(22:09):
buy or sell his card.
It could just mean that we havea great interaction and maybe
that leads to something elsedown the line, but it leads to a
better experience for thatperson because we have kind of
gotten on the same plane andrelated to each other and just
it's not so transactional and sorobotic.
Priscilla (22:27):
So if you know Brian, then you know that this skill
is like classic Brian.
It is.
Brian is so good about findingcommon ground and building
relationships.
And I love that his example waswhen he was working at a sports
card shop, which basically wasmore of a sales role trying to
convince people to sell to himor convince people to buy the
(22:51):
cards that he had.
And I think it's a really coolconnection of okay, in order to
make this sale, I have to find acommon ground with this person
and build a relationship.
And that is so obviouslycustomer support, right?
In order to build those loyalcustomers that are going to keep
coming back, you have to beable to find common ground with
(23:15):
them, treat them as people, andmake a connection.
Even if that connectionultimately doesn't land them
being a customer right away, itstill is building a
relationship.
So down the line, they may comeback.
Serena (23:28):
Well, I just love to learn.
I did not want to graduate.
So as someone who's alwaysloved learning and fell in love
truly with education, it'sreally served me well in helping
our customers.
Jordan (23:41):
We talked so many times about needing to be sort of
self-starting in learninginformation and constantly like
sharpening your axe.
Like we've talked about that amillion times.
So this is perfect.
Priscilla (23:52):
Well, and Serena's unique because she came to us
straight from college.
Yeah.
But she had such a love oflearning and she had such a love
of people.
And it was so clear early onwhen we met her that I knew she
was going to be great at thisrole because she loves the
learning aspect.
And if there's anything youwill hear in support, it's that
you are always learning.
(24:13):
You are always figuring out thenext upgrade that just got
rolled out by the, you know,developers, or you're figuring
out this new pricing that wejust pushed out or something
like that.
So there's this constantlearning, a constant staying on
top of the industry.
And so having someone who lovesthat can be a huge asset for
the people on your team becausethey will do the research and
(24:34):
they will share it with yourteam.
Kate (24:37):
Something I've learned is I think they did a study that
70% of communication isnonverbal.
And so learning how to kind ofcommunicate those nonverbal
things that you would normallyget through like hand motions or
like tone of voice, and a lotof like empathy and things come
from those nonverbal things.
And so things that I've justlearned in my career and in my
(25:01):
education to translate thoseinto the written form through
like sentence structure orpunctuation, even has been like
a really surprising thing that'sreally helped me in support to
communicate like clearly andempathetically with our
customers.
Priscilla (25:15):
I mean, I've said it before and I'll say it again.
Writing is so important insupport.
Jordan (25:20):
Yeah.
Priscilla (25:20):
And I think when I first started in customer
support, and when I was firstlooking at hiring the first
couple of people for my team, Iremember thinking, you need to
be a good writer.
You don't have to be the bestwriter, but you need to be a
good writer.
When you have someone on yourteam who is really skilled at
writing, and I'm talking likethey know all the technical ins
(25:41):
and outs of it, that can be ahuge differentiator for your
customer support because itallows you to communicate so
much better with your customers.
Jordan (25:50):
And it's not like copy and pasted from like a template.
Priscilla (25:53):
Exactly.
And I think Kate does a reallygood job bringing that skill to
our team and making all of usbetter writers because she has a
passion for writing and shebrings that into support every
single day.
Lindsey (26:07):
So one thing that I think has been really
interesting to see how it kindof transfers over is the ability
to talk to people of allknowledge levels.
So with my job as the practiceliaison at this medical office,
I would sometimes be talkingwith physicians.
I would also sometimes betalking with patients.
Physicians tend to know waymore than an average person
(26:29):
that's coming in as a patient.
So they have a lot of technicalquestions.
They want to know what type ofsurgeries do we offer, stuff
like that.
Well, patients are coming inand they just know something's
wrong.
So they need help.
And so being able to quicklyassess where somebody's
knowledge level is and then beable to provide them with the
information that they need attheir level.
(26:50):
I think that's very important.
Taking that skill and moving itover to a support role, it
really almost is the same.
The only difference is that I'mnow behind a screen.
So I'm answering these emails.
I'm not able to see them faceto face, but I can also assess
the email based on the questionsthat they're asking, the
language that they're using.
And so I can figure out wherethey are in their knowledge
(27:11):
level and then be able torespond in a similar way to give
them the answers that they'relooking for, but knowing, hey,
this person is just startingout, or this person's clearly
been doing this for years.
Priscilla (27:22):
I think Lindsay's example is really great.
And I think it's one of thethings that really solidifies
the need to look at these kindsof skills in a support context
when you're looking for newpeople to come on your team.
Lindsay's example is reallyinteresting because when you're
in a setting like a medicaloffice, when someone is walking
(27:42):
in, it is very clear right offthe bat, is this someone who is
familiar with the terminology?
Is this someone who has no ideawhat I'm talking about?
Yeah.
Is this someone who's nervousabout a surgery or something
like that?
And you have to, you have nooption but to adjust and talk to
them in the way that will workfor them.
(28:03):
Because if you talk to a doctorlike they're a patient, they're
gonna get frustrated.
It's gonna be clear right offthe bat.
If you talk to a patient likethey're a doctor or without any
of that empathy, then it's gonnabe really hard to communicate
with them and they're gonna getfrustrated and it's a high
stress, high emotional moment.
Yeah.
You don't have to have thatskill in support.
(28:24):
You don't.
You can copy and paste the samekind of answer to a simple
question to anyone who writesin.
And for most of those people,they will go, okay, I'm gonna
convert this into a tone thatworks for me and take it and go.
For most people, it will beadequate.
But if you have figured out howto do what Lindsay can do,
which is talking to people onall different levels, and then
(28:46):
you come into support and youtreat every customer that way
and you give them thatpersonalized care based on where
they stand in their experience,then it feels like you're being
taken care of, right?
As a customer, you feel thecare that you don't necessarily
have to feel over email.
That's what makes, you know, apretty good experience a great
(29:08):
experience if you feel thatpersonal level of care.
Yeah.
And so I think that thisexample from Lindsay is so
important because it's somethingshe had to learn.
She had no option.
She had to learn it when shewas in that medical setting.
And because she learned itthere, she can use it here where
she doesn't have to use it.
But when she does, which is allthe time, it levels the service
(29:31):
up so much more.
So these are just fiveexamples, right?
These are just five skills thatI asked each person to pick one
and highlight.
But I think there are so manymore like this.
Oh, yeah.
And another kind of level ofthis, another layer is that, you
know, in support, we deal withfrustrated customers a lot.
That's just the nature of thejob.
And so one of the things I wascurious about that I asked the
(29:53):
team to talk about a little bitwas how their experience has
changed the way they approachthese tough conversations and
these hard situations because ittakes a certain kind of person
to be able to work with afrustrated customer and stay
calm and stay cool and not letit affect them in a personal
way.
And so I asked everyone on theteam to kind of share a little
(30:14):
bit about how their experiencehas helped them build strategies
for handling these toughconversations.
Cara (30:22):
In athletic training, working on the field in an
emergent situation, I had toremain calm and I had to figure
out what was going on with thisathlete.
There was no walking away andsaying, oh, well, I don't know.
And so I had to know yes, thisinjury is enough where they
cannot go back into the game.
They need to come to thesideline with me.
(30:44):
Yep, we can stretch ice, theycan go back.
But it was a calm, I had to bedecisive.
And I had to continue onwithout ceasing until we had an
answer.
Brian (30:53):
I really think it's helped me separate myself from
the situation.
And by that I mean when I firststarted out in hospitality, I
would take every difficultconversation to heart.
I would take it personally.
Some of those difficultconversations would stick with
me for days or weeks even.
And when you take that stuffhome, it just snowballs.
And you'll eventually get burntout if you're always thinking
(31:15):
about those negativeconversations, or even if the
conversation ended up turningout just fine, but you're still
thinking about those personalattacks that someone had with
you, it really weighs on you.
And I've learned over the yearsjust to separate myself.
Kate (31:27):
In creative writing, when you're looking at like a short
story or a poem, you're kind ofreading between the lines to
understand the subtext of whatthe author is communicating or
the piece of art iscommunicating.
Kind of the same thing happensin the sport inbox, where that
analytical reading skill isreally important when you are
looking at an email from acustomer.
Lindsey (31:49):
So I will be the first to tell you I am not necessarily
a confrontational person,right?
So as soon as things seem to bea little heated or a little
frustrated, I have a tendency toretreat.
But what I've learned is thatknowing that in a sense I am the
expert in this area, I reallyhave to lean into the knowledge
that I have about our product.
(32:10):
So I have to be able tocommunicate that knowledge with
confidence to customers, not ina sense that I could never be
proven wrong, but know that I'mreally the expert in this area.
Priscilla (32:21):
Not only do these skills help in offering
remarkable services, but theyalso come in handy when things
get hard.
Yeah.
And one key to a great supportteam is having people who are
around long enough to haveconfidence in their ability and
their knowledge.
Jordan (32:36):
Yeah.
Priscilla (32:36):
And are people that are able to handle these tough
situations in a way that avoidsburnout.
And I think Brian saidsomething about being able to
let these tough situations rolloff his back and that he had to
do that in other roles.
And so now when he's in asupport role, he has that skill
already ready to go.
And I think those kind ofskills really help you in the
(32:58):
longevity of the people on yourteam.
And so when you have people whoare able to hit those tough
conversations and those hardquestions head on and not shy
away from them, but do it in ahealthy way.
I think that allows you to havepeople around for a long time,
which levels up your service.
Yeah.
So I asked everyone one lastquestion.
(33:20):
I wanted to know what makesthem passionate about working in
customer support.
Cara (33:25):
The fact that I get to cheer them on and problem solve
when they have a challenge orlet them know a different way of
doing something.
All these ways of encouragingand inspiring these creators to
continue chasing after theirpassion is so fulfilling to me.
And so I feel like work is onlyenjoyable when you really love
(33:46):
it and you really get to enjoywhat you're doing and you feel
like you're making a difference.
And truly, when I'm helpingthese podcasters continue on
with their passion, that fillsme.
Brian (33:56):
What makes me passionate about support is being an
outlier on the other side.
I really get fulfilled bygiving excellent service and
just knowing that I helpedpeople at the end of the day.
Now, when you help someone,people may express their
gratitude either through a thankyou or even a good review.
And some people may not, but Iknow for myself at the end of
(34:18):
the day that I did help people.
And it really doesn't getbetter than that.
Serena (34:23):
There's nothing I love more than helping people.
Every day, I my goal for theday is to, regardless of this
job, my goal is to help peopleand make their lives easier.
Kate (34:34):
I love um helping our customers understand something
and helping meet them wherethey're at.
And I love that moment whereit's like things click for them
and they understand.
And I think that's just such acool moment to get to be a part
of.
Lindsey (34:49):
At the end of the day, if I feel like I've helped 15
customers, 30 customers,sometimes it's 70 customers,
right?
It just fills me with joy.
I think it's something that isimportant in this role and that
you can just really make adifference on either a grand
scale or on a small scale.
Priscilla (35:06):
I think that's the key to all of this, to this
entire episode.
When you're looking for someoneto join your support team, look
at their experience, look attheir skills, but most
importantly, look at who theyare.
Because your best supportspecialists will be the people
who love helping people.
They're gonna feel genuinelygood at the end of the day
(35:29):
because they've helped people.
And if you hire people who areexperts in your product and
they're experts in support, theycould do a really good job.
Oh yeah.
But if you hire people who lovehelping people, that is going
to come through in every singleinteraction.
Whether they're tired orwhether they're frustrated, they
(35:52):
are going to see the value inhelping people.
And at the end of the day,they're gonna feel good about
that.
I think there is nothing moreimportant than that, honestly.
It kind of makes me emotional.
Like it is a value that is sonot celebrated.
This idea that helping peopleand being a support for people
(36:13):
can be super rewarding.
Yeah.
And if you find people for yourteam that have these skills,
but have this love and thispassion for helping people.
And it fills their bucket.
Yeah, you're gonna set yourselfup for having incredible
experiences.
And you know who's gonnabenefit from that?
Your customers.
Yeah.
Because they're talking tosomeone who genuinely cares
(36:35):
about them, that is genuinelyhappy to help.
Yeah.
Right.
Because they want to do it.
And I think that when you lookat resumes, it can be really
difficult to look and seesomeone with 30 years of
experience in a customer supportrole and not go, oh, that's
great.
They've got so much experience,they're number one.
Yeah.
You've got to sit down and talkwith them and you've got to ask
(36:57):
them about these things.
Like what drives you?
What is it that you love aboutcustomer support?
Is it the fact that you canclock in and clock off and you
can work remotely?
If it is, that's not a badthing to love, but that might
not be the strongest supportspecialist.
It's not the main thing.
Right.
But if it's someone who says, Ilove helping people, I love
knowing at the end of the daythat I got the ability to
(37:19):
positively impact 50 people.
That's the person you want tohold on to because you can train
them.
You can train them on yourproduct and you can train them
on the necessary things to know.
But what you can't train peopleon is getting fulfillment from
helping people.
That's not gonna be foreveryone.
And so you've got to find thosepeople who love that already in
(37:40):
their soul.
Those are the people that youwant on your team.
Jordan (37:42):
Absolutely.
This whole conversation andhearing the backgrounds of
everyone like on our team andhow diverse it is.
I would actually really becurious to see what our
listeners' backgrounds are.
So, like if any of thesequestions inspire them or they
go, oh yeah, actually, you knowwhat?
I actually learned somethingreally weird from my background.
I would love if they would tapthe Texas Show link in the show
(38:04):
notes to like ride in and let usknow what weird skill that they
learned from their previousthat they didn't expect to help
them in customer support, ormaybe they had like an
unexpected past career that likeled them into customer support
in a weird way.
Like that would just be sofascinating.
Priscilla (38:20):
Yeah, I think that would be great.
I will also say this was areally fun experience for me as
the head of this team to sitdown with each individual person
on the team and talk to themabout their strengths and talk
to them about the things thatthey are really good at.
And I recommend it to anyonewho is leading a team.
Sometimes we get so caught upin like the day-to-day and the
(38:42):
task list and the inbox queueand all of these things, which
are all things that need yourattention.
Yeah.
But take 20 minutes and sitdown and just say, let's find
those through lines that theskills that you have today that
you do really well and support,let's find where they came from.
Yeah.
What spawned that?
You know, where did that skillcome from?
Where did you develop thatskill?
It's a really fun exercise andit was really encouraging for
(39:06):
me.
And also I think it wasencouraging for the people on my
team.
So I highly recommend that.
And, you know, like I said uptop, if you are in a hiring
position and you are looking atresumes and you're trying to
make sense of hundreds andthousands of resumes.
And who do you hire?
I hope this episode is helpfulwhen you're looking at those
skills.
And I really hope if you'resomeone who's looking to get
(39:29):
into a support role or totransition from a support role
to another, I hope that this caninspire you to see the skills
that you have that you may nothave put under the support
umbrella and to see how thosecan really brand you as a rock
star support specialist.
Yes.
So that you can walk into yournext interview equipped to be
(39:50):
like, here's what I did in thisother role that has nothing to
do with support.
And here's how it's gonnabenefit your customers when I
get to do it in the supportteam.
Yep.
those are the kind of skillsthat are going to level up your
service and set you apart fromyour competition.
Love it.
So if you have a supportquestion or a support story or a
(40:11):
situation that you would likeus to discuss in a future
episode, or if there's somethingthat you really want to dive
deep into and you want us to dothat, send us a text and let us
know because we would love to doan episode specifically about
that topic for you.
So you can send us a text byclicking the send a text link in
the show notes.
(40:31):
And then it like opens yourtext messages right on your
phone and you can just send us aquick text.
It's super easy.
So I would love it if anyonelistening to that who has kind
of a suggestion for a topicepisode or a question, go ahead
and send that into us.
We would love to see that.
As always, if you liked thisepisode, I would love it if you
would share it with someone whoworks in customer support or you
(40:53):
leave a review on ApplePodcasts.
It really can help the show alot and it just makes us feel
good to get good reviews.
So I would love it if you'd dothat.
Thank you, Jordan, for beingwith me on this episode.
And thank you to the entireBuzzsprout Podcaster success
team for taking the time to talkabout their experiences and
their skills.
It was really fun to do thiswith all of them and I really
appreciate them taking the timeto do that.
(41:14):
They're the MVPs.
They are the true MVPs.
You are absolutely right.
So thank you all for listening.
Now go and make someone's day.
Welcome to Happy to Help, a podcast about customer
support from the people ofBuzzsprout.
I'm your host, PriscillaBrooke.
Your support team can make orbreak your customers'
experience.
So today, we're talking abouthow important it is to find and
hire the right people and howyour best support specialists
can be found in the mostunlikely places.
Thanks for joining us.
(00:20):
Let's get into it.
So, Jordan, one of the funthings about doing this podcast
is that everyone in my circlealways comes to me now with
their stories about goodcustomer support or bad customer
support.
Really?
Yeah.
All the time.
I get phone calls from friendsof mine and they're like, oh my
(00:42):
gosh, I just got off the phonewith a customer support agent.
I have to tell you about it.
Or they text me and they say,This great thing just happened.
I wanted you to know.
And it's so fun to be like thego-to for that.
But it also gives me all ofthese stories that I want to
tell on this podcast, butthey're not directly related to
me.
So I figured I'd share one ofthem today because it just
(01:05):
happened a couple of days ago.
And I just thought it was agreat little story.
So a friend of mine called meand he had a bad experience with
a customer support team.
I'm not going to name them, buthe got an item that was broken.
And when he told them it wasbroken, they pushed hard on the
no, you broke it.
And he's like, I didn't breakit.
(01:25):
It came broken.
It's a pretty expensive thing.
And they refused to replace ita couple times until finally,
after enough time, they agreedto get him a refurbished one.
Jordan (01:36):
Oh my gosh.
Priscilla (01:36):
But it was a really painful process.
And he was kind of frustratedabout it.
Well, then he called me again,maybe an hour later, and said,
Okay, I have a really goodexperience now that I'm going to
share with you because I justhad a bad one that I shared with
you.
But then I just went to Publixon my way home from work and I
have a good experience.
So it was like a little bit ofwhiplash.
Jordan (01:56):
I was gonna say, like, did do they cancel each other
out?
Priscilla (01:58):
Is that I don't know how it works.
Okay.
So the second story was that hewent to Publix and he grabbed
an item that was on sale.
And it was a pricier thing.
I mean, everything is priceythese days, but it was some kind
of body wash or something likethat.
And it was more expensive.
And it was on sale.
It was like $10 off.
And he was pumped about it andhe went to go check out.
(02:18):
I think he grabbed a couplebecause they were on sale.
Yeah, toiletries are expensiveright now.
And groceries are expensive.
And they rung up at theoriginal price, not the
discounted price.
Oh.
And he said that if it had justrung up incorrectly and no one
was around him, he would havejust paid the full price and
left because it's not worthstaying and trying to figure out
(02:40):
the pricing.
Yeah.
But it was at one of thoseself-check situations, and there
was someone standing there thatwas monitoring the
self-checkout.
And because that person wasclose, he was able to reach out
to them quickly and say, hey,this is ringing up incorrectly
without it being this big hasslefor him.
Yeah.
And they quickly grabbed thebody wash, went back to look at
(03:01):
the pricing to double check it.
They didn't ask him anyquestions.
They didn't make him prove itto them.
Yeah.
You know, he didn't have to doany of that work.
They went back, they checkedit, and they came back and they
said, you know, you'reabsolutely right.
However, the problem was thatwe put the discount on the wrong
item.
So these are actually notdiscounted, even though it shows
(03:22):
that they should be discounted.
Yeah.
You know, it stinks becauseit's a mistake, but the way that
they decided to fix it was togive him the body wash for free
and to not make him pay foranything.
What?
They fully just comped it.
Okay.
I know.
And I just I thought those twostories were so interesting
because then that led us talkingabout how Publix, I mean, if
(03:43):
you're not in the US, in theSouth, yeah, I was gonna say we
don't have you may not befamiliar with Publix.
But Publix is a grocery storethat is so focused on service
and it is so focused on makingyour shopping experience
enjoyable.
And they live that out.
Each person in the store does areally good job of living that
(04:04):
out.
And you see it in the way thatthey bag your groceries, you see
it in the way that they havepeople with a smiling face
checking you out.
You see it when you have to getaround someone to get those
raspberries and someone'sstocking the raspberries and the
way they say hi to you and theydon't make you feel like you're
imposing.
There's so many layers atPublix where they really do,
(04:24):
their slogan is make shopping apleasure.
And I really think they do agreat job of that.
And this was a really goodexample where it was just a
little thing.
It was not that big of a comp,probably 20 bucks or something
like that, but it reinforced hisloyalty to Publix.
He could have gone to anygrocery store and he will always
(04:45):
go to Publix because of thingslike that, because of consistent
service like that.
I just thought it was a reallycool story.
I love that.
That's so cool.
Okay, so today's episode is alittle bit different than we're
used to doing, but I'm actuallyI'm really excited about this.
So we don't have any gueststoday, but we kind of have six
(05:05):
guests at the same time.
Yes.
One thing I said up top is thatyour customer support is really
only as good as the people thatyou have running your customer
support, right?
The people that are actuallyinterfacing with your customers
and giving them that experience.
You can have the best processesin place.
You can have the best missionstatement and values in place.
(05:26):
But if you hire people thatdon't live out those values or
don't live out that missionstatement or run those processes
the way they should be run,then you're not going to have a
good experience for yourcustomers.
So you have to find and hirethe right people in order to
execute on what you want as faras your customer experience.
(05:47):
And I think, you know, we havea really cool team of people
here at Buzzsprout that doreally incredible work in
customer support.
And so I thought it would becool to talk to each of those
people and learn a little bitabout their experience and where
they developed these skillsthat are now serving them so
(06:07):
well in customer support.
And spoiler alert, none of themcame from a customer support
background.
Yeah.
All of the people on our teamcame from other industries.
And I think sometimes whenyou're hiring, and I know this
from experience, you look atsomeone's resume and how much
experience they have in theindustry that you're working in.
(06:29):
So I want to hire someone forcustomer support.
So how much experience do theyhave in customer support?
Oh, yeah.
Or I want to hire someone towork in podcasting.
How much experience do theyhave in podcasting?
And the reality that I havelearned is that that experience
can only take you so far.
And sometimes that experienceis not enough to give your
customers this elevated level ofservice.
(06:52):
And sometimes the lack of thatexperience is actually a benefit
because they're not unlearningthe stereotypical behavior that
you have in customer support.
Yeah.
So my hope is that for anyonelistening to this, you know,
we're starting a new year.
I am sure that there aresupport leaders listening who
are getting ready to starthiring people for the year, or
(07:13):
maybe you're starting a new yearand you want to find a new role
and you're just you don't knowhow to break into a customer
support setting.
Maybe you've been working in,you know, administration and
you're like, I want to work incustomer support, but I don't
know how to make that jump over.
Hopefully, as we talk throughsome of these skills that you
may not have expected to be sopowerful in customer support,
(07:36):
hopefully this will inspire youto write your story in a way
that really can sell yourself toa customer support manager.
And then on the flip side ofthat, if you're hiring,
hopefully this gives you alittle bit of insight into what
to look for to find the rockstars that are going to be on
your customer support team.
Okay, so I'm gonna start byintroducing you to the
(07:57):
Buzzsprout Podcaster successteam.
Each of them will give you alittle insight into their path
that led them to support andwhat skills they learned along
the way before they got into asupport role.
Cara (08:09):
I'm Kara Passetti and I have been a podcaster success
specialist here at Buzzsproutfor two and a half years now.
And I've taken on a couple ofother roles, uh, hosting our
podcasting QA podcast andoffering live orientations for
new podcasters.
So, in a past life, I startedas an NFL cheerleader for the
(08:30):
Jacksonville Jaguars, which dida lot of shaping for me
professionally.
I was also a golf coursebeverage cart attendant in
college.
I graduated and I was anathletic trainer working in
sports medicine, then moved intothe education world where I
served as an executive secretaryfor the school district.
And briefly I transitioned intoa daycare teacher for four and
(08:55):
five-year-olds.
Brian (08:56):
My name is Brian, and I just celebrated my three-year
anniversary here at Buzzbrook.
I started in recreation.
I'm a big sports guy, so I justthought I'm gonna make sports
my whole life.
And so I started out as theintramural director at a
college, just kind of being thecommissioner of a bunch of
different sports leagues.
And after that, I kind oftransitioned into hospitality.
(09:16):
And I've been in hospitalityfor really the last 15 years of
my career.
This means I've done everythingfrom, like I said, run the
sports leagues on both acollegiate level and I also did
that at an elementary school.
And then in hospitality, I'vedone everything from work at a
hotel planning people'svacations.
I've worked in an insuranceoffice, I've worked at a sports
card shop, and then I worked atChick-fil-A.
(09:39):
I always like to say they uhgave me my master's in customer
service.
Serena (09:44):
My name is Trina Nigro, and I have been with Buzzsprout
on the customer support team foreight months.
So I joined Buzzsprout rightafter graduating college.
So I didn't have a lot offormal work experience.
I did work as a nanny for about10 years, and I also was just
super involved with clubs andleadership and helping people
throughout high school andcollege.
(10:04):
In school, I studied marketing,which was really fun because I
got to help companies bringtheir hopes and dreams to the
next level and help them build areally meaningful business.
Kate (10:15):
My name is Kate, and I've been with the Buzzspout Podcast
Success Team for about a yearand a half now.
I have um a background inmarketing, um, worked for like a
couple different nonprofits andmanaged their social medias and
did things like helped acquirecontrac and did some like
writing support for them, somepress releases and things like
(10:37):
that.
And then I've also worked ineducation and like tutoring and
some teaching with likeelementary school.
And then also some morecreative writing, like working
for a magazine.
I was like a poetry editor fora little bit.
Lindsey (10:53):
My name is Lindsay, and I have been working here since
May of 2021, which is crazy.
It's been four and a halfyears.
It does not feel that long.
I had two jobs really prior tothis.
I worked as a practice liaisonat a medical office.
And then I also worked as anexecutive assistant, kind of
office assistant for acommercial real estate office.
(11:15):
So kind of all over the place.
Priscilla (11:17):
So there's just six of us, me and the five people
you just met.
And so we are a small butreally mighty team.
And I think one of the thingsthat makes us so great is that
we all bring these uniqueexperiences into the support
world from these variedbackgrounds.
Yeah.
I had this realization earlierthis week.
I went to the symphony, theJacksonville Symphony.
(11:39):
It's a great symphony.
And so I went and saw them playover the weekend.
And one of the things thatstruck me while I was watching
the symphony was this idea thatthey are all relying on each
other with so much trust thatit's just it's really powerful
because you look at a symphonyand it's made up of all of these
different musicians that arereally good in their own right.
But when you bring themtogether and you put all of
(12:01):
their strengths together,something really powerful can
happen and really moving andreally impactful.
Yeah, you need the percussionsection and you need the string
section.
Exactly.
Yeah.
But you have to have this levelof trust with the people that
you're playing with.
Because if one person doesn'tcome in on time, or if one
person just decides to get upand walk off the stage, it's
going to affect the music.
(12:22):
It's going to affect the pieceyou're playing and it's going to
affect the people that arethere watching.
And I think that the same thingcan be said about a really good
support team.
You're going to have peoplewith different strengths.
You're going to have peoplethat excel in certain areas and
that need encouragement in otherareas.
And if you're working togetherwith a high level of trust that
(12:43):
the person next to you isworking with the same kind of
intention and mastery that youare, and you can trust that they
are, then you can do somethingthat's way more powerful than
individual customers'experiences.
It can be this really powerfulthing that impacts lives in a
way that you couldn't do on yourown.
And so it was just a coolanalogy sitting there watching
(13:05):
the symphony and thinking thisis in so many ways how our
support team is able to do somany really cool things because
individually on this team, wehave really strong people.
Yeah.
And together we're able to dosome really cool stuff.
I think it's well put.
But I do think it's interestingthat no one in the team right
now came from SaaS support.
(13:26):
Yeah.
Brian came from a Chick-fil-Abackground, which is the closest
thing to like a traditionalsupport background out of
everyone on the team.
I came from advertising.
Lindsay came from working inmore of an admin role at a
medical office.
Serena came straight out ofcollege where she just had a
love of learning.
(13:46):
Kate came from more of awriting background, and Kara has
worn every hat that you couldpossibly wear.
And so it's really interestingto see how all of these people
have come together with all ofthese diverse backgrounds and
are able to use the skills theylearned in those roles to have
incredible, remarkableexperiences for our customers.
(14:08):
I asked everyone on the team tokind of walk me through some of
the skills that they learnedbefore they got into support.
Oh, yeah.
These are the transferableones.
Cara (14:16):
Yes, they're transferable skills.
Yeah.
When I was a cheerleader, Ilearned professionalism and I
learned socialization andrepresentation.
So I was a representative foran organization that was bigger
than myself.
And so I had to conduct myselfin that way as I interacted with
fans.
And so that really shaped memoving into careers.
(14:37):
As a beverage card attendant,that was like I said, during
college, it was kind of apart-time job, but it taught me
responsibility because wehandled money and transactions,
keeping things organized, andalso hospitality.
And again, serving the golfersand the resort guests that were
coming.
And so my job was to make theirexperience a good one and meet
(14:59):
them with positivity and energy.
And then moving on to athletictraining, huge learning curve
there.
I was responsible for thehealth and safety of athletes
many ages, spanning from popwarner five-year-olds all the
way to seniors in high school,rehabbing them from injuries
that took them out of theirsport.
(15:20):
And so not only did I have toinvest in my knowledge on how to
treat these injuries andlearning what to do to diagnose,
treat, but also I learnedresponsibility and how to keep
things private.
What needs to be private, whatneeds to be shared.
And I was trusted with thatinformation.
It seems like a lot ofdifferent hats, but I'm so
thankful for each opportunitybecause it's shaped me in so
(15:43):
many ways.
And now I get to use theseskills as a podcaster success
specialist.
Serena (15:49):
I learned a lot of things from these experiences.
First, I learned a lot ofpatience because I was working
with loads of different types ofpeople.
I mean, working withtwo-year-olds, managing temper
tantrums and figuring out, okay,how am I going to get through
this issue, have a resolution,and also brighten their day,
(16:10):
boost the mood and not take thispersonally.
Kate (16:13):
I think the biggest one is writing skills.
Like in each of my jobs thatI've had, I've had to hone in
how I write.
So yeah, I really do valuebeing able to communicate
effectively in written form.
And I think that's reallyhelped me out in my success team
role.
And learning how to kind ofread people and understand where
(16:35):
they're missing gaps.
Like when I was doing tutoringand teaching and you're working
with a kid who they don'tnecessarily even know what
knowledge gaps they have, butbeing able to sit with them and
kind of understand has been likea really helpful skill and
support as well.
Lindsey (16:51):
One of the main things was just having a deep knowledge
of the practice or of thebusiness and feeling confident
in that.
And then also the, I say it asstrong communication skills,
being able to maybe take sometechnical terms, some harder
situations and be able tocommunicate that to others.
And then another one, which Ithink is really fun, is
(17:11):
relationship building.
It's hard, especially, youknow, when I'm in that medical
practice and we have peoplecoming that are not feeling
well, that have to have surgery,that are nervous and stuff like
that.
It's important to be able tobuild a relationship with them
so that they can trust you andreally hear what you have to
say.
Priscilla (17:28):
I think it's really cool when you listen to all of
these different clips becausethey're all mentioning these
skills that they learned outsideof the support world.
But when you hear them here ina support context, you go, oh
yeah, I can see how being ableto communicate with all levels
of customers is necessary for aremarkable service.
Oh, I can see how someone beinga brand representative is
(17:52):
really important when you'reworking in customer support.
Yeah.
And I think sometimes we lookat these jobs on a resume and we
see it printed on a paper andwe don't immediately think if
this person was able to work andinterface with children at a
daycare, then they're gonna begood at this role in customer
(18:13):
support.
I think we don't make thatconnection.
Yeah.
But there's so many of thoseskills that are transferable
over into customer support.
So as you're reviewing resumesand you're looking for that rock
star, don't write offexperience that doesn't fit into
what we think the mold ofcustomer support is.
(18:33):
You know, there are some ofthese skills with each person on
the support team here atBuzzprout that make them
exceptional at customer supportbecause they are not skills that
you would routinely think aboutfor customer support.
So I asked each person on theteam to really focus on one
skill that they learned outsideof support and perfected outside
(18:57):
of support that has served themreally well in support that
they wouldn't necessarily havethought.
So we'll go through those oneby one and touch on some of what
those skills look like.
Cara (19:08):
So one strength that I've taken away from my previous work
experience is the art ofrepresentation.
Some people don't understandwhen you say cheerleader,
sometimes you kind of think,okay, you're cheering on the
sidelines, you're doing somedances, oh well.
But really, when, especially atthe level of NFL, you are
employed as a representative.
(19:30):
So everything that I did, I hadto think, okay, how am I also
representing something that'sbigger than myself?
And that has really translatedinto working for support.
Because every interaction Ihave with a customer, whether it
be at a conference or in thesupport inbox, I am thinking to
myself what are our values?
(19:51):
What is my responsecommunicating to this person in
front of me?
And am I doing a good job ofrepresenting what we stand for
in honoring that person?
Request or answering theirquestion.
Jordan (20:03):
This is a skill that if you handed me a sheet of paper
and you said, write down all theskills that you would want to
have featured on like a resume,representation would not even
come to mind.
And yet it is such an importantskill to have.
It is such an important mindsetto have.
Priscilla (20:19):
Yeah, it really is.
And what's crazy is the waythat Kara makes that connection
about being a cheerleader.
Yeah.
If you look at a resume and yousee someone listed as a
cheerleader, what do you think?
Well, they're good at dancing.
They're probably like reallygood at always smiling and being
super bubbly and encouraging,but you don't think necessarily,
(20:39):
unless you've been acheerleader, you don't think,
you know what they're reallygood at?
They're good at representing abrand.
Jordan (20:45):
Yeah.
Priscilla (20:46):
They're good at not letting their own personal
struggles come through whenthey're being the face of the
brand.
And I think when you're hiringpeople for your customer support
team, look at the people whoknow how to represent a company
or a brand well.
Because just like with thatCostco story that we heard with
Britney Hodak a couple episodesago, you can lose customers if
(21:10):
your support specialist does notrepresent the brand accurately.
And I think Kara makes a reallygood point that that
representation piece does notneed to only come from working
in a customer support world, butit can be grown and
strengthened in a role likebeing a cheerleader.
Brian (21:27):
Another skill that I learned when I was at the sports
card shop, which might besurprising, is the power of
finding a common ground orbuilding a relationship with
someone.
Because obviously you're bothpeople.
You're just trying toaccomplish the same goal.
In this case, it would be tobuy or sell cards.
And it really helps when you'reon the same level as two human
(21:48):
beings that are just interestedin the same thing.
And so let's say someone walkedin with some baseball cards.
I'm more of a basketball fan,but I still know enough about
baseball where I can find adetail or something to relate to
that person.
And that just creates a littlebit of a connection to give us
momentum for the rest of theconversation.
Now, obviously, that doesn'tmean that I'm always going to
(22:09):
buy or sell his card.
It could just mean that we havea great interaction and maybe
that leads to something elsedown the line, but it leads to a
better experience for thatperson because we have kind of
gotten on the same plane andrelated to each other and just
it's not so transactional and sorobotic.
Priscilla (22:27):
So if you know Brian, then you know that this skill
is like classic Brian.
It is.
Brian is so good about findingcommon ground and building
relationships.
And I love that his example waswhen he was working at a sports
card shop, which basically wasmore of a sales role trying to
convince people to sell to himor convince people to buy the
(22:51):
cards that he had.
And I think it's a really coolconnection of okay, in order to
make this sale, I have to find acommon ground with this person
and build a relationship.
And that is so obviouslycustomer support, right?
In order to build those loyalcustomers that are going to keep
coming back, you have to beable to find common ground with
(23:15):
them, treat them as people, andmake a connection.
Even if that connectionultimately doesn't land them
being a customer right away, itstill is building a
relationship.
So down the line, they may comeback.
Serena (23:28):
Well, I just love to learn.
I did not want to graduate.
So as someone who's alwaysloved learning and fell in love
truly with education, it'sreally served me well in helping
our customers.
Jordan (23:41):
We talked so many times about needing to be sort of
self-starting in learninginformation and constantly like
sharpening your axe.
Like we've talked about that amillion times.
So this is perfect.
Priscilla (23:52):
Well, and Serena's unique because she came to us
straight from college.
Yeah.
But she had such a love oflearning and she had such a love
of people.
And it was so clear early onwhen we met her that I knew she
was going to be great at thisrole because she loves the
learning aspect.
And if there's anything youwill hear in support, it's that
you are always learning.
(24:13):
You are always figuring out thenext upgrade that just got
rolled out by the, you know,developers, or you're figuring
out this new pricing that wejust pushed out or something
like that.
So there's this constantlearning, a constant staying on
top of the industry.
And so having someone who lovesthat can be a huge asset for
the people on your team becausethey will do the research and
(24:34):
they will share it with yourteam.
Kate (24:37):
Something I've learned is I think they did a study that
70% of communication isnonverbal.
And so learning how to kind ofcommunicate those nonverbal
things that you would normallyget through like hand motions or
like tone of voice, and a lotof like empathy and things come
from those nonverbal things.
And so things that I've justlearned in my career and in my
(25:01):
education to translate thoseinto the written form through
like sentence structure orpunctuation, even has been like
a really surprising thing that'sreally helped me in support to
communicate like clearly andempathetically with our
customers.
Priscilla (25:15):
I mean, I've said it before and I'll say it again.
Writing is so important insupport.
Jordan (25:20):
Yeah.
Priscilla (25:20):
And I think when I first started in customer
support, and when I was firstlooking at hiring the first
couple of people for my team, Iremember thinking, you need to
be a good writer.
You don't have to be the bestwriter, but you need to be a
good writer.
When you have someone on yourteam who is really skilled at
writing, and I'm talking likethey know all the technical ins
(25:41):
and outs of it, that can be ahuge differentiator for your
customer support because itallows you to communicate so
much better with your customers.
Jordan (25:50):
And it's not like copy and pasted from like a template.
Priscilla (25:53):
Exactly.
And I think Kate does a reallygood job bringing that skill to
our team and making all of usbetter writers because she has a
passion for writing and shebrings that into support every
single day.
Lindsey (26:07):
So one thing that I think has been really
interesting to see how it kindof transfers over is the ability
to talk to people of allknowledge levels.
So with my job as the practiceliaison at this medical office,
I would sometimes be talkingwith physicians.
I would also sometimes betalking with patients.
Physicians tend to know waymore than an average person
(26:29):
that's coming in as a patient.
So they have a lot of technicalquestions.
They want to know what type ofsurgeries do we offer, stuff
like that.
Well, patients are coming inand they just know something's
wrong.
So they need help.
And so being able to quicklyassess where somebody's
knowledge level is and then beable to provide them with the
information that they need attheir level.
(26:50):
I think that's very important.
Taking that skill and moving itover to a support role, it
really almost is the same.
The only difference is that I'mnow behind a screen.
So I'm answering these emails.
I'm not able to see them faceto face, but I can also assess
the email based on the questionsthat they're asking, the
language that they're using.
And so I can figure out wherethey are in their knowledge
(27:11):
level and then be able torespond in a similar way to give
them the answers that they'relooking for, but knowing, hey,
this person is just startingout, or this person's clearly
been doing this for years.
Priscilla (27:22):
I think Lindsay's example is really great.
And I think it's one of thethings that really solidifies
the need to look at these kindsof skills in a support context
when you're looking for newpeople to come on your team.
Lindsay's example is reallyinteresting because when you're
in a setting like a medicaloffice, when someone is walking
(27:42):
in, it is very clear right offthe bat, is this someone who is
familiar with the terminology?
Is this someone who has no ideawhat I'm talking about?
Yeah.
Is this someone who's nervousabout a surgery or something
like that?
And you have to, you have nooption but to adjust and talk to
them in the way that will workfor them.
(28:03):
Because if you talk to a doctorlike they're a patient, they're
gonna get frustrated.
It's gonna be clear right offthe bat.
If you talk to a patient likethey're a doctor or without any
of that empathy, then it's gonnabe really hard to communicate
with them and they're gonna getfrustrated and it's a high
stress, high emotional moment.
Yeah.
You don't have to have thatskill in support.
(28:24):
You don't.
You can copy and paste the samekind of answer to a simple
question to anyone who writesin.
And for most of those people,they will go, okay, I'm gonna
convert this into a tone thatworks for me and take it and go.
For most people, it will beadequate.
But if you have figured out howto do what Lindsay can do,
which is talking to people onall different levels, and then
(28:46):
you come into support and youtreat every customer that way
and you give them thatpersonalized care based on where
they stand in their experience,then it feels like you're being
taken care of, right?
As a customer, you feel thecare that you don't necessarily
have to feel over email.
That's what makes, you know, apretty good experience a great
(29:08):
experience if you feel thatpersonal level of care.
Yeah.
And so I think that thisexample from Lindsay is so
important because it's somethingshe had to learn.
She had no option.
She had to learn it when shewas in that medical setting.
And because she learned itthere, she can use it here where
she doesn't have to use it.
But when she does, which is allthe time, it levels the service
(29:31):
up so much more.
So these are just fiveexamples, right?
These are just five skills thatI asked each person to pick one
and highlight.
But I think there are so manymore like this.
Oh, yeah.
And another kind of level ofthis, another layer is that, you
know, in support, we deal withfrustrated customers a lot.
That's just the nature of thejob.
And so one of the things I wascurious about that I asked the
(29:53):
team to talk about a little bitwas how their experience has
changed the way they approachthese tough conversations and
these hard situations because ittakes a certain kind of person
to be able to work with afrustrated customer and stay
calm and stay cool and not letit affect them in a personal
way.
And so I asked everyone on theteam to kind of share a little
(30:14):
bit about how their experiencehas helped them build strategies
for handling these toughconversations.
Cara (30:22):
In athletic training, working on the field in an
emergent situation, I had toremain calm and I had to figure
out what was going on with thisathlete.
There was no walking away andsaying, oh, well, I don't know.
And so I had to know yes, thisinjury is enough where they
cannot go back into the game.
They need to come to thesideline with me.
(30:44):
Yep, we can stretch ice, theycan go back.
But it was a calm, I had to bedecisive.
And I had to continue onwithout ceasing until we had an
answer.
Brian (30:53):
I really think it's helped me separate myself from
the situation.
And by that I mean when I firststarted out in hospitality, I
would take every difficultconversation to heart.
I would take it personally.
Some of those difficultconversations would stick with
me for days or weeks even.
And when you take that stuffhome, it just snowballs.
And you'll eventually get burntout if you're always thinking
(31:15):
about those negativeconversations, or even if the
conversation ended up turningout just fine, but you're still
thinking about those personalattacks that someone had with
you, it really weighs on you.
And I've learned over the yearsjust to separate myself.
Kate (31:27):
In creative writing, when you're looking at like a short
story or a poem, you're kind ofreading between the lines to
understand the subtext of whatthe author is communicating or
the piece of art iscommunicating.
Kind of the same thing happensin the sport inbox, where that
analytical reading skill isreally important when you are
looking at an email from acustomer.
Lindsey (31:49):
So I will be the first to tell you I am not necessarily
a confrontational person,right?
So as soon as things seem to bea little heated or a little
frustrated, I have a tendency toretreat.
But what I've learned is thatknowing that in a sense I am the
expert in this area, I reallyhave to lean into the knowledge
that I have about our product.
(32:10):
So I have to be able tocommunicate that knowledge with
confidence to customers, not ina sense that I could never be
proven wrong, but know that I'mreally the expert in this area.
Priscilla (32:21):
Not only do these skills help in offering
remarkable services, but theyalso come in handy when things
get hard.
Yeah.
And one key to a great supportteam is having people who are
around long enough to haveconfidence in their ability and
their knowledge.
Jordan (32:36):
Yeah.
Priscilla (32:36):
And are people that are able to handle these tough
situations in a way that avoidsburnout.
And I think Brian saidsomething about being able to
let these tough situations rolloff his back and that he had to
do that in other roles.
And so now when he's in asupport role, he has that skill
already ready to go.
And I think those kind ofskills really help you in the
(32:58):
longevity of the people on yourteam.
And so when you have people whoare able to hit those tough
conversations and those hardquestions head on and not shy
away from them, but do it in ahealthy way.
I think that allows you to havepeople around for a long time,
which levels up your service.
Yeah.
So I asked everyone one lastquestion.
(33:20):
I wanted to know what makesthem passionate about working in
customer support.
Cara (33:25):
The fact that I get to cheer them on and problem solve
when they have a challenge orlet them know a different way of
doing something.
All these ways of encouragingand inspiring these creators to
continue chasing after theirpassion is so fulfilling to me.
And so I feel like work is onlyenjoyable when you really love
(33:46):
it and you really get to enjoywhat you're doing and you feel
like you're making a difference.
And truly, when I'm helpingthese podcasters continue on
with their passion, that fillsme.
Brian (33:56):
What makes me passionate about support is being an
outlier on the other side.
I really get fulfilled bygiving excellent service and
just knowing that I helpedpeople at the end of the day.
Now, when you help someone,people may express their
gratitude either through a thankyou or even a good review.
And some people may not, but Iknow for myself at the end of
(34:18):
the day that I did help people.
And it really doesn't getbetter than that.
Serena (34:23):
There's nothing I love more than helping people.
Every day, I my goal for theday is to, regardless of this
job, my goal is to help peopleand make their lives easier.
Kate (34:34):
I love um helping our customers understand something
and helping meet them wherethey're at.
And I love that moment whereit's like things click for them
and they understand.
And I think that's just such acool moment to get to be a part
of.
Lindsey (34:49):
At the end of the day, if I feel like I've helped 15
customers, 30 customers,sometimes it's 70 customers,
right?
It just fills me with joy.
I think it's something that isimportant in this role and that
you can just really make adifference on either a grand
scale or on a small scale.
Priscilla (35:06):
I think that's the key to all of this, to this
entire episode.
When you're looking for someoneto join your support team, look
at their experience, look attheir skills, but most
importantly, look at who theyare.
Because your best supportspecialists will be the people
who love helping people.
They're gonna feel genuinelygood at the end of the day
(35:29):
because they've helped people.
And if you hire people who areexperts in your product and
they're experts in support, theycould do a really good job.
Oh yeah.
But if you hire people who lovehelping people, that is going
to come through in every singleinteraction.
Whether they're tired orwhether they're frustrated, they
(35:52):
are going to see the value inhelping people.
And at the end of the day,they're gonna feel good about
that.
I think there is nothing moreimportant than that, honestly.
It kind of makes me emotional.
Like it is a value that is sonot celebrated.
This idea that helping peopleand being a support for people
(36:13):
can be super rewarding.
Yeah.
And if you find people for yourteam that have these skills,
but have this love and thispassion for helping people.
And it fills their bucket.
Yeah, you're gonna set yourselfup for having incredible
experiences.
And you know who's gonnabenefit from that?
Your customers.
Yeah.
Because they're talking tosomeone who genuinely cares
(36:35):
about them, that is genuinelyhappy to help.
Yeah.
Right.
Because they want to do it.
And I think that when you lookat resumes, it can be really
difficult to look and seesomeone with 30 years of
experience in a customer supportrole and not go, oh, that's
great.
They've got so much experience,they're number one.
Yeah.
You've got to sit down and talkwith them and you've got to ask
(36:57):
them about these things.
Like what drives you?
What is it that you love aboutcustomer support?
Is it the fact that you canclock in and clock off and you
can work remotely?
If it is, that's not a badthing to love, but that might
not be the strongest supportspecialist.
It's not the main thing.
Right.
But if it's someone who says, Ilove helping people, I love
knowing at the end of the daythat I got the ability to
(37:19):
positively impact 50 people.
That's the person you want tohold on to because you can train
them.
You can train them on yourproduct and you can train them
on the necessary things to know.
But what you can't train peopleon is getting fulfillment from
helping people.
That's not gonna be foreveryone.
And so you've got to find thosepeople who love that already in
(37:40):
their soul.
Those are the people that youwant on your team.
Jordan (37:42):
Absolutely.
This whole conversation andhearing the backgrounds of
everyone like on our team andhow diverse it is.
I would actually really becurious to see what our
listeners' backgrounds are.
So, like if any of thesequestions inspire them or they
go, oh yeah, actually, you knowwhat?
I actually learned somethingreally weird from my background.
I would love if they would tapthe Texas Show link in the show
(38:04):
notes to like ride in and let usknow what weird skill that they
learned from their previousthat they didn't expect to help
them in customer support, ormaybe they had like an
unexpected past career that likeled them into customer support
in a weird way.
Like that would just be sofascinating.
Priscilla (38:20):
Yeah, I think that would be great.
I will also say this was areally fun experience for me as
the head of this team to sitdown with each individual person
on the team and talk to themabout their strengths and talk
to them about the things thatthey are really good at.
And I recommend it to anyonewho is leading a team.
Sometimes we get so caught upin like the day-to-day and the
(38:42):
task list and the inbox queueand all of these things, which
are all things that need yourattention.
Yeah.
But take 20 minutes and sitdown and just say, let's find
those through lines that theskills that you have today that
you do really well and support,let's find where they came from.
Yeah.
What spawned that?
You know, where did that skillcome from?
Where did you develop thatskill?
It's a really fun exercise andit was really encouraging for
(39:06):
me.
And also I think it wasencouraging for the people on my
team.
So I highly recommend that.
And, you know, like I said uptop, if you are in a hiring
position and you are looking atresumes and you're trying to
make sense of hundreds andthousands of resumes.
And who do you hire?
I hope this episode is helpfulwhen you're looking at those
skills.
And I really hope if you'resomeone who's looking to get
(39:29):
into a support role or totransition from a support role
to another, I hope that this caninspire you to see the skills
that you have that you may nothave put under the support
umbrella and to see how thosecan really brand you as a rock
star support specialist.
Yes.
So that you can walk into yournext interview equipped to be
(39:50):
like, here's what I did in thisother role that has nothing to
do with support.
And here's how it's gonnabenefit your customers when I
get to do it in the supportteam.
Yep.
those are the kind of skillsthat are going to level up your
service and set you apart fromyour competition.
Love it.
So if you have a supportquestion or a support story or a
(40:11):
situation that you would likeus to discuss in a future
episode, or if there's somethingthat you really want to dive
deep into and you want us to dothat, send us a text and let us
know because we would love to doan episode specifically about
that topic for you.
So you can send us a text byclicking the send a text link in
the show notes.
(40:31):
And then it like opens yourtext messages right on your
phone and you can just send us aquick text.
It's super easy.
So I would love it if anyonelistening to that who has kind
of a suggestion for a topicepisode or a question, go ahead
and send that into us.
We would love to see that.
As always, if you liked thisepisode, I would love it if you
would share it with someone whoworks in customer support or you
(40:53):
leave a review on ApplePodcasts.
It really can help the show alot and it just makes us feel
good to get good reviews.
So I would love it if you'd dothat.
Thank you, Jordan, for beingwith me on this episode.
And thank you to the entireBuzzsprout Podcaster success
team for taking the time to talkabout their experiences and
their skills.
It was really fun to do thiswith all of them and I really
appreciate them taking the timeto do that.
(41:14):
They're the MVPs.
They are the true MVPs.
You are absolutely right.
So thank you all for listening.
Now go and make someone's day.
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