November 26, 2024 • 41 mins
In this episode of Happy to Help, we dive into the transformative power of whole company support and its impact on product development and team processes!
Special guest Kristi Ernst Thompson, Senior Technical Support Specialist at Help Scout, joins us to share how involving every department in customer support—from developers to leadership—fosters innovation, strengthens cross-team collaboration, and enhances customer satisfaction.
Whether you’re part of a small startup or a large organization, this episode offers insights to help you connect with your customers and build better products!
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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Priscilla (00:00):
Welcome to Happy to Help, a podcast about customer
support from the people atBuzzsprout.
I'm your host, priscilla Brough.
Today, we're tackling the topicof whole company support.
We'll explain what wholecompany support is, how it can
impact your team and customers,and the best ways to implement
it for your company.
Thanks for joining us.
Let's get into it.
So this episode is going to bea fun one.
(00:22):
I can already feel it.
We're talking about wholecompany support today, which is
something that I really love,yeah, and we have a really fun
guest with us today to talkabout it.
Kristi Ernst-Thompson is basedin beautiful Colorado and is a
senior technical supportspecialist for Help Scout.
She has been offeringremarkable customer support to
Help Scout customers for justabout eight years now offering
(00:44):
remarkable customer support tohelp scout customers for just
about eight years now and sheheads up their whole company
support initiative, which is whyI asked her to come on today's
episode and talk with us aboutwhole company support.
How is it out there in Colorado, Kristi?
Kristi (00:55):
Sunny, as always, and a little chilly, and I'm so happy
to be here.
Thank you so much for having me.
Priscilla (00:59):
I'm a little jealous of your weather in Colorado.
I'm based in Florida and it iswarm here still in the middle of
November.
Kristi (01:06):
So yes, we just got our first big snowstorm last week,
so it is officially ski season.
Priscilla (01:12):
Oh my gosh, so much fun.
So, Kristi, we always start outour episodes asking the
question of who made your dayrecently?
So has anyone made your daybetter?
Kristi (01:22):
Yes, I'm going to say the director of my daughter's
nursery school.
She contacted me via emailbecause I was way over the
deadline for getting her annualphysical paperwork turned in for
the new school year.
And I emailed her back and Iapologized and I explained like
a bunch of life circumstanceshad gone wrong and that's why I
was running late and I told herI would get it turned in as soon
(01:43):
as possible.
And she could have respondedreally harshly because I was, I
had messed wrong and that's whyI was running late.
And I told her I would get itturned in as soon as possible.
And she could have respondedreally harshly because I was, I
had messed up and you know shecould have been a stickler about
the school policies.
But the next day when I saw herin the school hallway she just
said can I give you a hug?
And man, if that's not worldclass customer service right
there, I don't know what is.
Priscilla (02:01):
That's amazing.
That's so great.
That's the human to human.
You know you could look at itfrom the director of a school
needing to get all your thingschecked off and the frustration
when that's not happening ontime.
But she looked at it like thisis a human who's trying to
balance life and I'm trying tobalance life and, you know,
maybe they just need a hug.
I think that is a great example.
Kristi (02:20):
Yeah, Instead of looking at it as the director, she was
like as a fellow mom.
I got you, it was so sweet yeah.
Priscilla (02:26):
Oh, I love that.
That's really great.
So Kristi and I met about amonth ago, and when we first met
, I feel like we just startednoticing a lot of commonalities
between the two of us.
I mean, we have mutual friendsin Colorado, which was the first
thing we connected on, and thenthe second day, at the
conference where we met, we werewearing basically the same
(02:47):
colorful tennis shoes, which wasreally fun, and we've just kind
of had like these moments wherewe've connected on a lot of
different things.
But one thing I realizedyesterday, Kristi, is that I
think we started working incustomer support in the same
month.
What I noticed?
That you started working atHelp Scout in March of 2017.
Is that right?
That is right.
That's when I started workingfor Buzzsprout and it was my
(03:11):
first customer support role.
And was Help Scout your firstcustomer support role?
It was my second one.
Okay, so can you tell me alittle bit about your path to
customer support?
Kristi (03:22):
Yeah, I would say kind of two things drew me to
customer support.
The first is I really wanted towork remotely back before.
It was cool like pre-pandemic,like 2015.
I wanted to do the digitalnomad thing and travel and work
as I moved around.
So customer support seemed likea way I could do that without
needing to go to like a codingbootcamp to become a software
(03:43):
engineer or something.
And then the second motivationwas it felt like a natural fit
for my skills and experiencebecause I had grown up working
in my family's bakery andtalking to customers on the
phone and then I was anelementary school teacher for a
few years.
So I feel like I've had alifetime of growing my people
skills and my problem solvingskills.
So I always say in customersupport I'm still using my
(04:06):
teaching degree.
It just looks a littledifferent than when I taught
kindergarten.
So I'm not teaching kids toread, but I'm teaching grownups
how to forward an email.
And you know the stress to payratio is much improved as well
from my teaching days.
And you know no one is wettingtheir pants that I know of, and
(04:27):
if they are it's not my problem.
Priscilla (04:30):
It's not something you have to solve.
I love that.
I mean when I started workingas a 16 year old, I worked in a
bakery.
That was my first job.
There's another thing that wethat was my first job was in a
bakery and I loved it, but itwas it's what you said is the
like people to people skills andyou start building those.
And then I majored in educationfor a while, when I was in
(04:51):
college and taught for a coupleof years but didn't end up
graduating with an educationdegree.
I went into advertising butsame thing.
It was like I really love thisperson to person, human
interaction of it.
But is that where I want to endup in education or in like face
to face customer service?
And so I landed in customersupport, kind of in a similar
(05:12):
way that you did.
Jordan (05:12):
That's so fun, your career journeys are so insanely
similar it's creepy.
Kristi (05:19):
I know, are we the same person?
This is very strange.
Jordan (05:21):
I think you might be.
Kristi is like ColoradoPriscilla.
Priscilla (05:25):
Much cooler.
She snowskies.
She's very cool.
So let me ask you myperspective before I worked in
customer support and then when Iactually started working,
customer support now has changedso much.
When I first was offered thepossibility of working in
customer support, I was like, ohno, no, no, I don't want to
work in a call center, I don'twant to do tech support.
(05:46):
But I feel like now that I'mworking in it, it's way clearer
that this is actually more oflike a service.
It's less of a like call centerhelp people log in, reset
passwords and much more like ahuman to human coaching, almost
like it's so much more in depththan what I assumed it was
before I started working insupport.
How is your perspective of whatcustomer support is changed
(06:09):
from before you were working init to now?
Kristi (06:12):
I think a big thing I've learned is how much business
impact a support team can have.
We're the people who are havingthe most conversations with
customers out of anyone in thecompany and we know the product
the best.
So customers' interactions withus it can really make and break
.
Do they stick with us foranother year or not?
So we can really take ownershipof how our customers understand
(06:33):
our product, how sticky it isfor them, how much value they're
getting out of it andultimately, how much money
they're continuing to pay us.
So it's more than justanswering a ticket and closing
it.
It's really about buildingrelationships and hopefully
investing in our customers sothey stick around for a long
time.
Yeah.
Priscilla (06:49):
For anyone who's listening, who's not familiar
with Help Scout, can you tell usa little bit about what Help
Scout does and what your clientlooks like?
Kristi (06:56):
Yeah, so Help Scout is customer support software, so
that includes a help deskknowledge base and live chat, so
it's basically everything youneed to talk to your customers
and take care of them.
So I've been using it for abouta decade now and I've always
loved how user-friendly it feels.
You don't have to be like asuper technical person to use
Help Scout, yeah, and it'sreally been built to create an
(07:17):
experience for customers wherethey feel like they're having
like a personal one-on-oneconversation instead of feeling
like they're just like anumbered ticket in a giant queue
with like a facelesscorporation.
I always say using Help Scoutfeels like you're emailing with
a friend.
We work with accounts from allsizes.
Like my brother is apsychiatrist, he uses Help Scout
.
He's a one-user account, andthen we also work with much
(07:38):
bigger accounts.
You know where it could be 200coworkers all collaborating in
their shared mailbox in HelpScout, and we see people across
all different industries, frome-commerce to law firms to
property managers.
So it's really fun.
All the variety we see in ourqueue every day.
That's really awesome.
Priscilla (07:54):
Yeah, we use Help Scout at Buzzsprout and we've
been using it for, I want to say, like six years, and you're
right, it really is set up soeasily to work through.
It's very easy and intuitive.
I don't feel like I have tohave any special technical
knowledge to use it.
It's really easy and I reallylike that.
It does feel very personal.
A lot of times there's, youknow, images that come up with
(08:15):
different customers as theywrite in, so you kind of have an
idea of who you're talking toand it does foster that
environment for you to havehuman to human conversation
instead of like ticket basedconversation, which I think is
really helpful.
Jordan (08:27):
Yes, we're going to be talking about all company
support on this episode, so thisis very appropriate.
But it was my turn to hop intosupport.
I was a little nervous to begoing into like support software
because it seemed a littledaunting and I was like, oh,
this is actually like very userfriendly and clean.
So as someone who isnon-support, I can attest to the
fact that Help Scout is veryuser-friendly.
(08:48):
It's nice.
Kristi (08:49):
Oh, that's so wonderful.
Priscilla (08:50):
Yeah, that's music to my ears, that's just how we
want it to feel, and that's agreat segue, jordan, into what
we're going to talk about today,which is all company support.
So Kristi is here really totalk to us about how they do it
over at Help Scout and what kindof advice she has for us about
implementing it for our company.
So we do it at Buzzsprout aswell, and so I thought it might
be good to just start bydefining what whole company
(09:13):
support is on our end.
It's just the basic idea thatsupport shouldn't only be done
by the support team and thateveryone can find value in
dipping their toe into supportand doing some support, and so
that's kind of the idea that thewhole company comes together at
different times to offersupport and work directly with
customers.
What would you add to that,Kristi?
Kristi (09:33):
Yeah, I totally agree.
Whole company support, or, youknow, some companies call it
like all hand support.
It's basically giving everyonein the company, regardless of
your role, whether you're afounder or on the finance team
or a designer.
We want to give youopportunities to have real
conversations with realcustomers.
And how you implement that canlook different, you know, from
company to company but that'sthe gist of it.
Priscilla (09:55):
So when did Help Scout start running whole
company support, and was there aspecific situation that kicked
that off?
Kristi (10:00):
I personally got involved in like 2018, but the
story begins long before that.
So support has always beenbaked into the DNA at Help Scout
, because we build supportsoftware.
So when the company was firststarted and it was really tiny,
there was no support team.
You know, it was just like thefounders and like the two
engineers doing support.
(10:20):
And then, as the team grew, itremained a value of ours to
continue having everybody on theteam talking to customers and
to this day, our CEO, nickFrancis, is still a huge
advocate of whole companysupport and I'm so grateful for
that.
And then there's also like apractical component to it,
because we're a fully remotecompany, so we're scattered
around the world, but once ayear we get together in person
(10:42):
for an annual retreat and ourcustomers don't care that we're
on retreat, they still want helpthat week.
So everybody pitches in to helpwith our customers.
We call them power hours.
We do a few power hoursthroughout the day where
everybody jumps into the queueand answers as many questions as
they can, because otherwise thesupport team wouldn't be able
to participate in the retreat.
(11:03):
So just practically speaking,we kind of need everybody to be
able to help during retreat week.
So when I joined Help Scout in2017, the support team lead at
the time was overseeing ourwhole company support initiative
.
But as her role evolved and shetook on more responsibilities,
she just had less bandwidth toprioritize it.
(11:23):
She's now a VP in the companyand I was looking to grow my
role on the support team.
So taking over whole companysupport and kind of revamping it
and trying to build some newenthusiasm for it in the company
so that she could step away andprioritize some other projects,
it was just sort of like anatural step for both of us.
Priscilla (11:39):
So what does it look like for you guys doing whole
company support now?
Is it only happening duringthat retreat or does it happen
throughout the year?
What does that breakdown look?
Kristi (11:48):
like.
We do try to keep it ongoingthroughout the year because you
know it's like a muscle that canatrophy and you know our
futures are always evolving, sowe try to keep it fresh in
people's minds.
You know, the more practice thebetter.
So it kind of depends on theteam lead.
Right now Some teams do it onceper month, other teams do it
(12:11):
once per quarter and then we alldo it during that annual
retreat.
The way we do it is everyonehas freedom to look through the
queue and they can pick out aquestion that they're interested
in working on and do someresearch and try to find the
answer.
And then they draft up a replyand then if they want someone on
the support team to review itbefore they hit send, to make
sure it's correct and everything, then they can just drop a link
to that conversation in a Slackchannel and then somebody on
(12:31):
the support team will check itout and give them the OK.
Priscilla (12:34):
That's great.
So the way we do it is similarto what you were just saying.
We do it like two to threetimes a year, so we're not.
Some people will do it more,like Jordan, for example, loves
being in support and workingwith our customers, and so
sometimes she'll come in likeonce a month, but some other
people will come in two to threetimes a year and so it's not
quite so frequent.
And we try to look at, like youwere saying, different teams,
(12:56):
different departments might havedifferent frequency when it
comes to being in support andspending time in support.
Do you do it for a full day?
Are your shifts shorter?
Kristi (13:09):
Are they longer?
Like, how long are peopleusually in there?
Yeah, we just do an hour, wecall them power hours and yeah,
that feels manageable to people.
You know, it's kind of like youcan't really make an excuse to
not take one hour away from yourday to day work, you know.
So we try to make it prettyapproachable in that way.
Priscilla (13:19):
Yeah, when we first started doing, we called them
support shifts at Buzzsprout,and when we started doing them
back in 2017, we started playingaround with them, seeing how it
worked and we did full days.
So it was you had a full day insupport, basically once every
six weeks is how we did it, andwe were a pretty small team at
that point there were like 12 ofus, and so it was really
(13:41):
helpful.
There's one person in supportand so, you know, in six weeks,
every now and then I'd haveanother person in there with me,
which was really fun.
But it was also really intenseto give an entire day to support
.
If you're a developer or ifyou're a designer or if you're
in marketing, to take a full dayout of your six weeks to be in
support.
And so when we kind of revampedour support shifts last year,
(14:03):
we did half days.
We went OK, maybe a half day isbetter, a four hour chunk, and
that kind of gives you thefreedom to be in the queue some,
but also to get out of thequeue and do some support
related like investigation, thatmaybe you wouldn't do when
you're in the middle ofdesigning, you know the next
amazing piece of marketing.
And so that's what we did lastyear was kind of these four hour
(14:24):
chunks, but then this year weeven cut it back a little bit
more and now do two and threehours, because we found that the
four hours felt a little long,and so it's cool to hear that
you guys do just one hour powerhours.
So when you do them, does theperson visiting the temporary
support specialist do?
They basically stay in thequeue the whole time.
Kristi (14:42):
Yep, they, they're supposed to be.
I mean, I don't know whatthey're.
You know they could be onFacebook, but they're supposed
to be in the queue for an hour.
Yeah, because you know a wholeday.
It's not just a big ask for theparticipant, that's also a lot
of mental load for the supportteam.
Who's like supporting thatlearning?
Absolutely so yeah, I think youkind of have to factor in both
sides of the coin as you'retrying to develop a program
(15:05):
that's sustainable both for yoursupport team and the
non-support people who areparticipating.
It has to feel doable foreverybody, you know.
Priscilla (15:12):
Yes, absolutely.
When we were doing the fulldays, it was just me and one
other person, and so I think itwas a little easier to balance
because there was just one of me.
But now, with a bigger team,whole days would be too
difficult, I think, to keepsustainable beyond one.
So, as you've incorporatedwhole company and support over
the years for Help Scout, whatare the biggest benefits that
(15:33):
you're seeing like for your teamand then also for your
customers?
Kristi (15:36):
I've got five reasons why we do whole company support
and these are sort of likeanchoring principles that we
always come back to over theyears.
Ok, number one it shortens thefeedback loop from our customers
.
Number two it keeps thecustomer at the center of
everything we do.
Number three it deepens everyteam's understanding of our
products.
Four, it strengthens thecompany through cross-team
(15:58):
collaboration.
And five it ultimately helps usbuild a better product.
And there's actually a secretsixth bonus reason.
We don't share this with therest of the company, but the
bonus to the support team.
It helps make our work visibleto the rest of the company.
But the bonus to the supportteam it helps make our work
visible to the rest of thecompany.
That ensures that we've alwaysgot a seat at the table and it
helps the rest of the companyvalue the work we do.
(16:19):
Love that for me.
Priscilla (16:22):
Yeah, that's great.
One thing that we've seen asjust a cool benefit of doing a
whole company support is thatpeople who come into the support
team from outside have thisfresh perspective on the way
that we work as a team.
So I don't know, when we runinto an issue in support,
sometimes we will build theselike workarounds to get around
(16:43):
it.
We don't even realize we'rebuilding and then we're doing
these workarounds and thensomeone will come in from the
development team and be like,why are you doing it this way?
We'll say, oh, because that'sjust how we've done it and
that's the workaround.
And they'll say I could fixthis really easily for you.
And then you don't have to dothis workaround.
And so having that freshperspective for us is really
cool and makes our lives simplerand makes things more efficient
(17:04):
as we develop processes andcontinue and support.
So that's one cool thing thatwe see from doing our support
shifts each year.
Kristi (17:12):
Absolutely.
Yeah, I love those moments.
I was just looking back throughthe whole company support Slack
channel today and I saw a fewweeks ago where an engineer was
like we need to fix thisimmediately, you know, because
he was feeling the pain andyou're still right, the support
team.
There's so much stuff that wejust are sort of like this
becomes our normal, we'll livewith it.
But when an engineer is inthere and he's like I could fix
this in six minutes, you know,it's just so cool to see those
(17:33):
moments happen and they wouldn'tbe happening if they weren't in
the queue talking to customers.
Priscilla (17:37):
And then they take that insight back to their daily
work.
Kristi (17:56):
No-transcript day yeah, it allows them to build a
product in a context and not ina void, and that's just so
valuable and neat to see thatplay out.
Priscilla (18:08):
A couple months ago our head of marketing came and
did a support shift and he wasworking with someone you know.
So we're in podcasting, so we'reworking with podcasters every
day, and a podcaster had writtenin about some formatting being
off in their episode descriptionand it's something that we
would have solved one way on thesupport team show them how to
(18:29):
adjust their formatting so thatit looks correct.
But our head of marketing didn'tknow that that's how we would
have answered it, and so heactually did a little more
research into why the formattingwas showing the way it was and
found that there was a differentway we could be formatting our
feeds for it to look correct onthe directories.
It's a little technical, but itwas really cool because he
(18:49):
found this, did the research,figured it out with his
additional knowledge from hisside of things, from the
marketing side, and was able towrite and pitch a new way of
formatting so that that issuewouldn't even show up in support
at all.
And it all came from did,because that one ticket caused
(19:13):
him to kind of go down a rabbittrail and try to figure out how
to fix this thing that we didn'teven know could be fixed, which
I just think is such a coolexample of why it can be so fun
to get in and do these supportshifts and how it can be so
valuable for everyone involved.
Kristi (19:29):
That's so amazing.
Yeah, just what a greatinvestment of resources that now
the support team is not goingto have to handle that question
again in the future, and alsothe customers are going to be
delighted as well.
Priscilla (19:39):
Exactly, and I think one thing we try to do when we
do our support shifts is they'rea little bit longer, so they're
two to three hours, so they'relonger than your power hours.
But we kind of say, hey, be inthe queue, we want you to start
in the queue, we want you towork through emails.
But if you find something likethat that you go oh, I actually
have special expertise in this,I can find more about this, I
(20:00):
might be able to solve this now.
Then we kind of give you freereign to do that, to look into
that, to spend your time in thesupport world, but maybe you're
not in tickets for the rest ofyour support shift, and so it's
cool to like see people navigatethat on their own and how some
people will send, you know, 40emails over the course of a
couple hours and some peoplewill send two emails and spend a
(20:22):
ton of time digging into aspecific issue they found or
something internal that we couldfix.
That would make things moreefficient for the support team,
which is also really cool.
Kristi (20:30):
Yeah, that's why I always tell people we don't have
a quota.
You know, it's not about thenumbers, it's about are you
learning something, and that'sthe point.
As long as you're in there andyou're learning something, even
if you're just reading oldconversations, I'm cool with
that.
I just want you engaging withreal customer conversations in
some way, in hopes that that'llimpact your work and, ultimately
, the product and the business.
Priscilla (20:50):
I think what you just said was really important.
Even just reading closed emailsand seeing the conversations
and seeing what customers arerunning into, yeah, I think
that's a really good strategy,especially for people who are
new, who don't have muchexperience in support or at the
company at all.
It might be daunting to getinto a support shift or to do a
power hour when you're like Ireally am new here.
(21:11):
But being able to read throughthe emails and see that is still
going to be super valuablebecause you're getting access to
that information even thoughyou're not the one actually
responding to an email.
I think that's a really coolstrategy for people who are new.
And one thing you mentionedabout your retreats.
This is another cool thing thatwe just experienced.
I was thinking this too.
(21:31):
Retreats this is another coolthing that we just experienced.
I was thinking this too.
Yeah, we also do yearly we callthem meetups, but yearly meetups
for our whole team and so werecently went to Nashville and
it's the same thing you weretalking about.
You know, it's a couple of days, we're spending time together
as a team, but the supportdoesn't stop, and so the support
team still feels kind of on thehook for being in the inbox and
clearing the inbox and talkingwith customers and helping them
(21:53):
out.
And so in the past we havebroken it down and tried
different strategies and thistime in Nashville, we did like
team support shifts and we woulddo just 15 minute support
shifts where everyone would geton in the same room silence.
You know everyone's workingtogether for 15 minutes, and
then we would stop it at the endof 15 minutes.
We like set a timer and then wewould go on and do the next
(22:15):
event together and then doanother support shift for 15
minutes and I like that.
You did full hours.
It makes me think to next year,like, oh, maybe we'll do full
power hours.
I like that.
Yeah, 15 minutes felt reallyfast, but it was cool because
you know we had like 20 peoplethere and so, with 20 people
jumping in and for support,everyone's volume is going to be
different depending on yourcompany and your customers, but
(22:37):
for us, having 20 people in theinbox at one time for 15 minutes
really allowed us to get prettyclose, if not fully clear the
inbox before starting our nextgroup activity, and so it was a
really cool way, like you said,to value the support team, to
say, hey, we care enough aboutour support team to want to all
jump in together and to get thisclear so that they can be just
(22:58):
as present as the rest of theteam, and so that was just
another cool way that thesupport shifts, or whole company
support, can really show itselfand be a huge benefit to your
team?
Kristi (23:08):
Absolutely yeah.
You mentioning that you wereall working in silence for 15
minutes reminds me of this pastMay.
At our most recent retreat, abunch of us got together for a
power hour in like a ballroom inthe hotel.
But, it also happened to be theroom that we were going to be
doing karaoke later that night,so the DJ had arrived to do his
soundcheck.
It was the silliest, mostunhinged power hour.
(23:29):
I mean he was just blasting theSpice Girls while we're like
trying to answer emails.
It was so funny, what a vibe.
Priscilla (23:37):
It probably wasn't the most focused power hour that
you could have had.
Jordan (23:40):
It was the best one.
Yes, exactly.
Priscilla (23:43):
So how does whole company support help with
training new employees?
Do you guys bring new employeesinto support for any period of
time before they go into theirroles?
Kristi (23:53):
Yes, so every single person who's hired at Help Scout
, regardless of their role, goesthrough a version of support
training.
Of course it's less intensethan what the actual support
team hires go through, but it'stwo parts.
So the first portion isasynchronous.
So basically they're workingthrough a series of assignments
that get them like diggingthrough our knowledge base and
reading through our savedreplies and internal
(24:14):
documentation and playing aroundand experimenting with our
features and like starting toactually use help scout.
And then the second part issynchronous, so they get
assigned a buddy on the supportteam and they work up drafting
replies to well, pretendcustomers, but they're based on
real questions that we've gottenin the past and then their
support buddy will, uh, reviewthem and give them feedback both
(24:36):
on their like writing style andtone, because we want that to
feel unified across the company.
But then, also the content tomake sure that we're answering
questions accurately and, uh,help, scout um has just recently
released a new feature calledai drafts, which has been really
incredible for whole companysupport, because it learns from
the replies you've sent and alsofrom your knowledge base, and
it does its best to draft up areply to a customer question.
(25:00):
It doesn't send automaticallyor anything like that.
You still need a human to reviewit and make sure it's accurate,
because you know we always gotto kind of double check what AI
is doing.
But it's been so helpful formaking the queue feel less
daunting to people becausethey're starting with something.
They're not just starting witha blank page.
They're at least starting withthe draft that the AI tried to
come up with and then they canresearch and just fact check to
(25:21):
make sure it's accurate.
So that has felt like a gamechanger over the last few months
.
Jordan (25:25):
Yeah, it's way easier to edit than to write something
from scratch, especially whenyou're unsure of your knowledge
base in that area.
So that's amazing.
Priscilla (25:35):
That is really cool and I really like that.
You bring everyone into supportwhen they first come on the
team.
That's something that I thinkis just so valuable for everyone
who is working on your productto have that be the intro to the
product this is how customersuse it, this is what they're
saying about it and then onceyou kind of get through that,
then you go on to your own role,whatever that is, and you have
(25:57):
that foundation, which I thinkcan be really super valuable.
Kristi (26:00):
Yeah, I mean, how well can you work on a product if
you've never used the product?
Priscilla (26:03):
Yeah, Do you see any drawbacks, Kristi, with doing
whole company support?
Have you seen any places whereit's added friction or been
difficult?
Kristi (26:13):
seen any places where it's added friction or been
difficult.
Dude, I'm gonna just be realLike it requires ongoing
maintenance and adaptation toevolve as the company evolves
and the product evolves.
And it's ongoing work trainingpeople and supporting them to
participate and it's ongoingwork continuing to like be a
cheerleader and an advocate forit so people understand why we
do it and remain enthusiasticabout it.
(26:34):
I have no power at Help Scout,so I'm over here trying to get
VPs you know to do something andI have no authority to be like
you have to do this.
So that takes work.
You know it's like there's likea propaganda component to it of
like convincing people this isvaluable.
So you know we don't do thisbecause the support team needs
help in the queue.
(26:54):
You know we're doing it.
It would be easier to not do.
It is what I always say, butit's that we still believe the
investment of time and energyand resources is worth it.
Priscilla (27:05):
Yeah.
So what would you say tosomeone who's on your team Maybe
they're a developer, designer,someone outside of the support
team, not someone necessarily inthe leadership, but someone
who's, you know, working on thetool every day, who is kind of
hesitant about it?
They don't really want to be insupport, they don't see the
value in it.
What would you say to them toshow them that, hey, this is
(27:25):
valuable?
Kristi (27:26):
Well, first I would say you know that's totally
understandable and in theirshoes I think I would be prone
to say like, oh, that's not myjob.
But yeah, my response is caringabout your customers and how
they feel about your business ispart of everyone's job, because
if you don't have customers,you don't have a job.
And I also encourage people toframe it this way, like it's
(27:49):
like going to the gym.
It might feel hard and youmight not feel motivated to do
it or look forward to it, but itis valuable, it is a good
investment and it will pay off.
And, I would say, realistically,the vast majority of people, I
would say, do find joy in it andfind moments of delight.
But I totally get that there'snever going to be 100% of people
(28:11):
on the team who lovetroubleshooting and crafting
emails.
So I've never aimed for 100%happiness, nor have I actually
ever aimed for 100%participation, because it's just
not possible.
I don't think so.
I think having realisticexpectations of like.
Hopefully I can get as manypeople to do this and benefit
from it as possible, because Iam not their boss and I can't
(28:31):
make them do it.
That's always been the way I'veapproached it, and then I can't
be disappointed.
Priscilla (28:35):
Yeah, Well, and I think the fact that you're doing
one hour power hours alsoshould be an encouragement to
anyone on the team, because onehour does not feel like a huge
commitment.
No, and having the ability toget in the support inbox as a
designer should be fun andexciting, and I think sometimes
(28:56):
people can get a little bitnervous about oh my gosh, I'm
gonna have to like write emailsto people.
What if I get it wrong?
What if people see that I don'tactually know every little
facet of the product that I amworking on?
Because a lot of times yoursupport team has the most
knowledge of the product becausethey are working on it and
working people through it andgiving advice all day, every day
(29:16):
, and so I often find thatsometimes the people on the
support team feel the mostcomfortable because they have
such a well-rounded view of theproduct and the people who are
coming from, like the marketingteam, they have a lot of
information on the product, theyknow it, but they don't know
all the little tiny intricaciesof you know how to log in or how
(29:37):
to reset a password, all thoselittle things they might not
have, and so there's a littlebit of like worry there and I
think setting up a situationwhere they have someone, like
you were talking about, that canreview their emails before they
send them out, and making surethey know they have a safety net
when they're working in theinbox, I think can be really
valuable for people who are kindof held back a little bit
because of the nerves ofactually writing to a customer,
(29:58):
because for some people that'sgoing to be really hard,
especially if you're moreintroverted and you're really
not comfortable, you know,working with people directly.
I mean, if you think about now,this is a general thing.
That's not for everyone, butfor people who are developers, a
lot of times they're going tobe a little bit more introverted
and maybe not wanting to talkdirectly with customers so much,
and so I think there can be alittle bit of that like anxiety
(30:19):
that comes up when you're saying, hey, I want you to get in the
inbox and talk to our customersfor an hour and so letting
people know that, hey, whenyou're in the inbox, you don't
have to send emails.
You can read closed emails oryou can type out emails and
leave them as drafts and we willreview them and tell you when
they're good to go.
So there's no fear that has tobe involved at all it's
extraordinary to me to thinkabout.
Kristi (30:40):
Our team is spread around the globe, so English
isn't the first language foreveryone, so I could see how you
know, daunting to write atechnical troubleshooting email
in English if that's not yourfirst, first language.
So yeah, there's a lot ofthings about it that do make it
intimidating.
Priscilla (30:55):
Yeah, intimidating is a good word.
I think that that's exactlyright.
It can be intimidating, but Ithink you're right, there's so
much value in that.
So, for anyone who might belistening to this, who wants to
start the process of creatingthis for their company, what
would you advise them to thinkthrough?
Kristi (31:11):
I'm a big process person .
I really like having processeswritten out and documented and
clear so that if I'm hit by abus, things carry on.
Priscilla (31:20):
People know what to do.
Kristi (31:21):
And then I think also having a mindset of this is
fluid and we have to beadaptable and evolve over time.
You know, for example, when itwas the height of the pandemic
and everyone was just like insurvival mode and so stressed,
we pulled back some expectationsaround whole company support to
give people just a little extramental bandwidth.
Or there's been points in thecompany history where everyone
(31:43):
in the whole company was doingit monthly and right now some
teams are doing it quarterly.
There's been times where we'veexperimented with different
things, like the support buddybeing on a video call, almost
like office hours, so thatinstead of just communicating
via Slack you could talk withyour support buddy on a video
call.
So I think being willing toadapt over time based on what
(32:04):
the company's current needs areis really important.
Yeah, and then also just beingrealistic about it taking
ongoing effort and maintenance.
For example, it takes me sometime to like schedule all of
these power hours and revieweverybody's time zone and make
sure that it works with whereverthey're located.
You know, just sort of likelogistical things that take
ongoing work, but then also likethe propaganda piece for lack
(32:25):
of a better word of continuallyreminding people like why are we
doing this?
So that they can remaininvested in it.
I think that that takes ongoingenergy and effort and
creativity as well.
So I think all of those areimportant to keep in mind that
this isn't just something youset up one day and then you
forget about it.
It really takes ongoing work,and so there's got to be
(32:45):
somebody on your team who hasbandwidth to kind of care for it
over time.
Priscilla (32:50):
Yeah, I think that's really important.
I also think you know, asyou're setting this up, as
you're looking at your companyand figuring out how this is
going to work with your company,look at the people on your team
.
Are they going to benefit fromhaving it be monthly?
Are they going to benefit fromit being quarterly?
You know your product and soyou should be able to look at
your team and the people thatare going to be coming into
(33:11):
support and doing this and howis it going to benefit them.
The frequency or the length ofthe shifts Like, for us, we find
that two to three hours workspretty well, but for you, you
might go.
One hour is better.
For us, or actually a full dayis really what we want, because
we want you to get in there andreally be in it, and so a lot of
that is going to change,depending on the company that
you have and the product thatyou have and the service you're
(33:32):
giving your customers.
And so I think that whileyou're building I think it's
something that a lot ofcompanies don't do as well as
(33:52):
they should letting thingschange as you find better ways
to work.
And so you know, this yearmight look like one thing, but
next year it might lookdifferent because, like you said
, the pandemic, or becauseyou're remote now and you
weren't remote before, or maybethere's company shifts that
change the way you want to dothings.
And so being able to changethat and keeping in mind that
(34:14):
the most important thing here isthat your team is getting
access to your customers andyour customers are getting
access to your team and that'shappening I think that's the
biggest thing, and so if you'rekeeping that as kind of your
guiding light when you're makingthese changes, that's going to
help this be a successful thingfor you to do for your company.
What advice would you give tosomeone who is trying to get
(34:36):
their leadership to buy intowhole company support?
Kristi (34:38):
This is my number one piece of advice.
When I speak with support teamswho are trying to get whole
company support up and runningat their company, I think
leadership buy-in is soessential that I don't think you
can actually do whole companysupport without it, because the
trickle down effect is so huge.
Are our team leads seeing thisas something that's taking away
(34:59):
time from felt?
Like gosh?
I can't take the time to dothis, whereas but depending on
who your manager is, it's likeno, there's a priority.
Of course I'm not going toschedule a call during my power
(35:20):
hour, you know.
So I would say you know, startsmall.
If you're trying to pitch thisto your team leads or you know
the founders, you know you can'tjust dive in headfirst with
weekly power hours or somethingyou know, brainstorm with your
team leads what feels like anice little way we can dip our
toes into this and then grow itover time.
Priscilla (35:41):
Yeah, getting the leadership to buy in first.
Be like, hey, before you decideif we should do this as whole
company support, let's just nextweek will you give me two hours
of your time and will you comein and do a power hour and see
it firsthand?
Because once they're in thereworking on it, they will see
that there's value there.
Yeah, they'll be hooked,they'll see that they're
learning things and they'll belike you know, actually Kevin
(36:03):
over in design him doing thiswould be great too.
Exactly so you don't have tonecessarily get buy in for the
entire company right off the bat.
Get one or two people who don'tusually work in the support to
come in and if you look forthose leaders who are
extroverted, who already kind oflike that, get those people in
first.
They will find the value in it,they'll see it and then you
(36:24):
know word of mouth it'll tricklearound and then hopefully that
will help get buy-in for thewhole company.
But I think what you said isreally important.
It has to be top down, it hasto be the whole company, because
once you get to a place whereit's optional and it feels like
it's not part of your job tospend an hour in support once a
month or whatever the frequencyis then it's going to feel like
(36:46):
you're stepping out of your joband you're putting on a
different hat and you're doingsupport for the support team.
It's not what the point of it is, and the point is for you to
keep your designer hat on and togo into support and let that
influence the support that ourcustomers are getting, and so
there's so much value in that,and so I think you have to have
the whole company kind of buy infrom the top down so that
(37:07):
everyone knows, like you said,this is not something that
you're leaving your job to go do.
This is part of your job.
This is part of your role, as adesigner is being able to
communicate with our customersoccasionally.
Kristi (37:17):
Absolutely Such a good perspective and strategy.
Priscilla (37:21):
All company support, like we've said so many times,
is such a valuable tool that canbring your team closer to your
customers, but it also has theadded benefit, like you said, of
your support team feelingvalued and giving the team
access to your support team andinsight into what we do every
day in support and what we'rewalking hand in hand with our
(37:42):
customers through, and I thinkthere's just a ton of value in
that.
And so thank you for coming on,Kristi, and sharing with us how
you do it over at Help Scoutand the importance of whole
company support.
Before we wrap up, how canpeople find you online?
Kristi (37:56):
Yeah, feel free to look up Kristi Ernst Thompson on
LinkedIn or shoot me an email atKristi at HelpScoutcom.
Awesome, thank you so much forbeing here.
It was my pleasure, so fun, totalk about this stuff and I
really appreciate you having me.
Priscilla (38:11):
It's time for Support in Real Life, our segment where
we discuss real life supportexperiences and, jordan, I think
you have something for us today.
Jordan (38:19):
So this happened back in September, but it's making like
the rounds on social mediaagain, which is how I found it
Okay.
We talked about airlines in thelast episode and we're talking
about it again this one as well,because I really couldn't pass
up the story.
So a United Airlines flightfrom San Francisco to Houston
had to make an emergency landingin Albuquerque, new Mexico, but
(38:40):
the delay, like, caused theflight crew to exceed their
shift hours, and so thepassengers had to wait for a new
crew at the airport, and itwent like well into the night.
But you know, the worst thingabout airports is when the
restaurants close, yes, and youcan't get food Right.
And so this very thing happenedto the passengers.
(39:00):
They were at the airport andthere were no restaurants open,
and so, of course, they'rehungry, they're grumpy.
It's a bad situation.
So the pilot ordered 30 pizzasfor 153 passengers, and he made
sure that everyone was servedbefore eating himself, yes, and
so this absurdly kind gesturefrom the pilot made all the
(39:23):
passengers feel so well, takencare of that.
Even though it was a really badsituation, they actually left
with a positive experience,amazing.
Kristi (39:30):
I know that is such a cool story.
I a positive experience.
Jordan (39:31):
Amazing, I know.
Priscilla (39:31):
That is such a cool story I had not heard that
before Me, neither and one.
It's a good example of customerservice, right, because the
pilot, who is not, it is not hisjob to make sure that the
passengers are happy, really.
I mean, it's his job to getthem safely from point A to
point B.
Yes, but he's going out of hisway to provide this great
service for his passengers.
But really, it's also like avery cool leadership thing too,
(39:58):
because he's making sureeveryone's eating before he is,
and he's I mean, I'm sure theflight crew is included in that
the people that are there andworking are getting some pizza
too, and everyone is in thisshared experience of frustration
, really.
Yeah, and he's taking it uponhimself to try to fix that.
I think that's such a coolstory.
Kristi (40:11):
Yes, I love that, just above and beyond the call of
duty.
And he, he flipped it from asituation where those people
would have said I'm never flyingthis airline again to I am
loyal to this airline for therest of my life.
That's amazing.
Priscilla (40:22):
Yeah, and now the story that everyone's telling
from it is not oh my gosh, wegot grounded and then we had to
wait in the airport forever.
And now the story is the pilotbought us pizza when we were all
hungry, in the middle of thenight and frustrated, like
that's the story that's going tobe told.
I think that's just such a coolway for him to take ownership
of that and to make everyone'sday better with pizza, which is
(40:45):
wonderful, because pizza is thebest.
Everyone loves pizza.
Well, if you have a question ora support situation that you'd
like us to discuss, you canemail us at happy to help at
buzzsproutcom or text the showusing the link in our episode
description and we may discussyour situation or talk about
your question on a futureepisode.
If you like this episode,please rate and review it on
(41:05):
Apple podcasts.
Thank you again, Kristi, forbeing here with us and thank you
to everyone for listening.
Now go and make someone's day.
Welcome to Happy to Help, a podcast about customer
support from the people atBuzzsprout.
I'm your host, priscilla Brough.
Today, we're tackling the topicof whole company support.
We'll explain what wholecompany support is, how it can
impact your team and customers,and the best ways to implement
it for your company.
Thanks for joining us.
Let's get into it.
So this episode is going to bea fun one.
(00:22):
I can already feel it.
We're talking about wholecompany support today, which is
something that I really love,yeah, and we have a really fun
guest with us today to talkabout it.
Kristi Ernst-Thompson is basedin beautiful Colorado and is a
senior technical supportspecialist for Help Scout.
She has been offeringremarkable customer support to
Help Scout customers for justabout eight years now offering
(00:44):
remarkable customer support tohelp scout customers for just
about eight years now and sheheads up their whole company
support initiative, which is whyI asked her to come on today's
episode and talk with us aboutwhole company support.
How is it out there in Colorado, Kristi?
Kristi (00:55):
Sunny, as always, and a little chilly, and I'm so happy
to be here.
Thank you so much for having me.
Priscilla (00:59):
I'm a little jealous of your weather in Colorado.
I'm based in Florida and it iswarm here still in the middle of
November.
Kristi (01:06):
So yes, we just got our first big snowstorm last week,
so it is officially ski season.
Priscilla (01:12):
Oh my gosh, so much fun.
So, Kristi, we always start outour episodes asking the
question of who made your dayrecently?
So has anyone made your daybetter?
Kristi (01:22):
Yes, I'm going to say the director of my daughter's
nursery school.
She contacted me via emailbecause I was way over the
deadline for getting her annualphysical paperwork turned in for
the new school year.
And I emailed her back and Iapologized and I explained like
a bunch of life circumstanceshad gone wrong and that's why I
was running late and I told herI would get it turned in as soon
(01:43):
as possible.
And she could have respondedreally harshly because I was, I
had messed wrong and that's whyI was running late.
And I told her I would get itturned in as soon as possible.
And she could have respondedreally harshly because I was, I
had messed up and you know shecould have been a stickler about
the school policies.
But the next day when I saw herin the school hallway she just
said can I give you a hug?
And man, if that's not worldclass customer service right
there, I don't know what is.
Priscilla (02:01):
That's amazing.
That's so great.
That's the human to human.
You know you could look at itfrom the director of a school
needing to get all your thingschecked off and the frustration
when that's not happening ontime.
But she looked at it like thisis a human who's trying to
balance life and I'm trying tobalance life and, you know,
maybe they just need a hug.
I think that is a great example.
Kristi (02:20):
Yeah, Instead of looking at it as the director, she was
like as a fellow mom.
I got you, it was so sweet yeah.
Priscilla (02:26):
Oh, I love that.
That's really great.
So Kristi and I met about amonth ago, and when we first met
, I feel like we just startednoticing a lot of commonalities
between the two of us.
I mean, we have mutual friendsin Colorado, which was the first
thing we connected on, and thenthe second day, at the
conference where we met, we werewearing basically the same
(02:47):
colorful tennis shoes, which wasreally fun, and we've just kind
of had like these moments wherewe've connected on a lot of
different things.
But one thing I realizedyesterday, Kristi, is that I
think we started working incustomer support in the same
month.
What I noticed?
That you started working atHelp Scout in March of 2017.
Is that right?
That is right.
That's when I started workingfor Buzzsprout and it was my
(03:11):
first customer support role.
And was Help Scout your firstcustomer support role?
It was my second one.
Okay, so can you tell me alittle bit about your path to
customer support?
Kristi (03:22):
Yeah, I would say kind of two things drew me to
customer support.
The first is I really wanted towork remotely back before.
It was cool like pre-pandemic,like 2015.
I wanted to do the digitalnomad thing and travel and work
as I moved around.
So customer support seemed likea way I could do that without
needing to go to like a codingbootcamp to become a software
(03:43):
engineer or something.
And then the second motivationwas it felt like a natural fit
for my skills and experiencebecause I had grown up working
in my family's bakery andtalking to customers on the
phone and then I was anelementary school teacher for a
few years.
So I feel like I've had alifetime of growing my people
skills and my problem solvingskills.
So I always say in customersupport I'm still using my
(04:06):
teaching degree.
It just looks a littledifferent than when I taught
kindergarten.
So I'm not teaching kids toread, but I'm teaching grownups
how to forward an email.
And you know the stress to payratio is much improved as well
from my teaching days.
And you know no one is wettingtheir pants that I know of, and
(04:27):
if they are it's not my problem.
Priscilla (04:30):
It's not something you have to solve.
I love that.
I mean when I started workingas a 16 year old, I worked in a
bakery.
That was my first job.
There's another thing that wethat was my first job was in a
bakery and I loved it, but itwas it's what you said is the
like people to people skills andyou start building those.
And then I majored in educationfor a while, when I was in
(04:51):
college and taught for a coupleof years but didn't end up
graduating with an educationdegree.
I went into advertising butsame thing.
It was like I really love thisperson to person, human
interaction of it.
But is that where I want to endup in education or in like face
to face customer service?
And so I landed in customersupport, kind of in a similar
(05:12):
way that you did.
Jordan (05:12):
That's so fun, your career journeys are so insanely
similar it's creepy.
Kristi (05:19):
I know, are we the same person?
This is very strange.
Jordan (05:21):
I think you might be.
Kristi is like ColoradoPriscilla.
Priscilla (05:25):
Much cooler.
She snowskies.
She's very cool.
So let me ask you myperspective before I worked in
customer support and then when Iactually started working,
customer support now has changedso much.
When I first was offered thepossibility of working in
customer support, I was like, ohno, no, no, I don't want to
work in a call center, I don'twant to do tech support.
(05:46):
But I feel like now that I'mworking in it, it's way clearer
that this is actually more oflike a service.
It's less of a like call centerhelp people log in, reset
passwords and much more like ahuman to human coaching, almost
like it's so much more in depththan what I assumed it was
before I started working insupport.
How is your perspective of whatcustomer support is changed
(06:09):
from before you were working init to now?
Kristi (06:12):
I think a big thing I've learned is how much business
impact a support team can have.
We're the people who are havingthe most conversations with
customers out of anyone in thecompany and we know the product
the best.
So customers' interactions withus it can really make and break
.
Do they stick with us foranother year or not?
So we can really take ownershipof how our customers understand
(06:33):
our product, how sticky it isfor them, how much value they're
getting out of it andultimately, how much money
they're continuing to pay us.
So it's more than justanswering a ticket and closing
it.
It's really about buildingrelationships and hopefully
investing in our customers sothey stick around for a long
time.
Yeah.
Priscilla (06:49):
For anyone who's listening, who's not familiar
with Help Scout, can you tell usa little bit about what Help
Scout does and what your clientlooks like?
Kristi (06:56):
Yeah, so Help Scout is customer support software, so
that includes a help deskknowledge base and live chat, so
it's basically everything youneed to talk to your customers
and take care of them.
So I've been using it for abouta decade now and I've always
loved how user-friendly it feels.
You don't have to be like asuper technical person to use
Help Scout, yeah, and it'sreally been built to create an
(07:17):
experience for customers wherethey feel like they're having
like a personal one-on-oneconversation instead of feeling
like they're just like anumbered ticket in a giant queue
with like a facelesscorporation.
I always say using Help Scoutfeels like you're emailing with
a friend.
We work with accounts from allsizes.
Like my brother is apsychiatrist, he uses Help Scout
.
He's a one-user account, andthen we also work with much
(07:38):
bigger accounts.
You know where it could be 200coworkers all collaborating in
their shared mailbox in HelpScout, and we see people across
all different industries, frome-commerce to law firms to
property managers.
So it's really fun.
All the variety we see in ourqueue every day.
That's really awesome.
Priscilla (07:54):
Yeah, we use Help Scout at Buzzsprout and we've
been using it for, I want to say, like six years, and you're
right, it really is set up soeasily to work through.
It's very easy and intuitive.
I don't feel like I have tohave any special technical
knowledge to use it.
It's really easy and I reallylike that.
It does feel very personal.
A lot of times there's, youknow, images that come up with
(08:15):
different customers as theywrite in, so you kind of have an
idea of who you're talking toand it does foster that
environment for you to havehuman to human conversation
instead of like ticket basedconversation, which I think is
really helpful.
Jordan (08:27):
Yes, we're going to be talking about all company
support on this episode, so thisis very appropriate.
But it was my turn to hop intosupport.
I was a little nervous to begoing into like support software
because it seemed a littledaunting and I was like, oh,
this is actually like very userfriendly and clean.
So as someone who isnon-support, I can attest to the
fact that Help Scout is veryuser-friendly.
(08:48):
It's nice.
Kristi (08:49):
Oh, that's so wonderful.
Priscilla (08:50):
Yeah, that's music to my ears, that's just how we
want it to feel, and that's agreat segue, jordan, into what
we're going to talk about today,which is all company support.
So Kristi is here really totalk to us about how they do it
over at Help Scout and what kindof advice she has for us about
implementing it for our company.
So we do it at Buzzsprout aswell, and so I thought it might
be good to just start bydefining what whole company
(09:13):
support is on our end.
It's just the basic idea thatsupport shouldn't only be done
by the support team and thateveryone can find value in
dipping their toe into supportand doing some support, and so
that's kind of the idea that thewhole company comes together at
different times to offersupport and work directly with
customers.
What would you add to that,Kristi?
Kristi (09:33):
Yeah, I totally agree.
Whole company support, or, youknow, some companies call it
like all hand support.
It's basically giving everyonein the company, regardless of
your role, whether you're afounder or on the finance team
or a designer.
We want to give youopportunities to have real
conversations with realcustomers.
And how you implement that canlook different, you know, from
company to company but that'sthe gist of it.
Priscilla (09:55):
So when did Help Scout start running whole
company support, and was there aspecific situation that kicked
that off?
Kristi (10:00):
I personally got involved in like 2018, but the
story begins long before that.
So support has always beenbaked into the DNA at Help Scout
, because we build supportsoftware.
So when the company was firststarted and it was really tiny,
there was no support team.
You know, it was just like thefounders and like the two
engineers doing support.
(10:20):
And then, as the team grew, itremained a value of ours to
continue having everybody on theteam talking to customers and
to this day, our CEO, nickFrancis, is still a huge
advocate of whole companysupport and I'm so grateful for
that.
And then there's also like apractical component to it,
because we're a fully remotecompany, so we're scattered
around the world, but once ayear we get together in person
(10:42):
for an annual retreat and ourcustomers don't care that we're
on retreat, they still want helpthat week.
So everybody pitches in to helpwith our customers.
We call them power hours.
We do a few power hoursthroughout the day where
everybody jumps into the queueand answers as many questions as
they can, because otherwise thesupport team wouldn't be able
to participate in the retreat.
(11:03):
So just practically speaking,we kind of need everybody to be
able to help during retreat week.
So when I joined Help Scout in2017, the support team lead at
the time was overseeing ourwhole company support initiative
.
But as her role evolved and shetook on more responsibilities,
she just had less bandwidth toprioritize it.
(11:23):
She's now a VP in the companyand I was looking to grow my
role on the support team.
So taking over whole companysupport and kind of revamping it
and trying to build some newenthusiasm for it in the company
so that she could step away andprioritize some other projects,
it was just sort of like anatural step for both of us.
Priscilla (11:39):
So what does it look like for you guys doing whole
company support now?
Is it only happening duringthat retreat or does it happen
throughout the year?
What does that breakdown look?
Kristi (11:48):
like.
We do try to keep it ongoingthroughout the year because you
know it's like a muscle that canatrophy and you know our
futures are always evolving, sowe try to keep it fresh in
people's minds.
You know, the more practice thebetter.
So it kind of depends on theteam lead.
Right now Some teams do it onceper month, other teams do it
(12:11):
once per quarter and then we alldo it during that annual
retreat.
The way we do it is everyonehas freedom to look through the
queue and they can pick out aquestion that they're interested
in working on and do someresearch and try to find the
answer.
And then they draft up a replyand then if they want someone on
the support team to review itbefore they hit send, to make
sure it's correct and everything, then they can just drop a link
to that conversation in a Slackchannel and then somebody on
(12:31):
the support team will check itout and give them the OK.
Priscilla (12:34):
That's great.
So the way we do it is similarto what you were just saying.
We do it like two to threetimes a year, so we're not.
Some people will do it more,like Jordan, for example, loves
being in support and workingwith our customers, and so
sometimes she'll come in likeonce a month, but some other
people will come in two to threetimes a year and so it's not
quite so frequent.
And we try to look at, like youwere saying, different teams,
(12:56):
different departments might havedifferent frequency when it
comes to being in support andspending time in support.
Do you do it for a full day?
Are your shifts shorter?
Kristi (13:09):
Are they longer?
Like, how long are peopleusually in there?
Yeah, we just do an hour, wecall them power hours and yeah,
that feels manageable to people.
You know, it's kind of like youcan't really make an excuse to
not take one hour away from yourday to day work, you know.
So we try to make it prettyapproachable in that way.
Priscilla (13:19):
Yeah, when we first started doing, we called them
support shifts at Buzzsprout,and when we started doing them
back in 2017, we started playingaround with them, seeing how it
worked and we did full days.
So it was you had a full day insupport, basically once every
six weeks is how we did it, andwe were a pretty small team at
that point there were like 12 ofus, and so it was really
(13:41):
helpful.
There's one person in supportand so, you know, in six weeks,
every now and then I'd haveanother person in there with me,
which was really fun.
But it was also really intenseto give an entire day to support
.
If you're a developer or ifyou're a designer or if you're
in marketing, to take a full dayout of your six weeks to be in
support.
And so when we kind of revampedour support shifts last year,
(14:03):
we did half days.
We went OK, maybe a half day isbetter, a four hour chunk, and
that kind of gives you thefreedom to be in the queue some,
but also to get out of thequeue and do some support
related like investigation, thatmaybe you wouldn't do when
you're in the middle ofdesigning, you know the next
amazing piece of marketing.
And so that's what we did lastyear was kind of these four hour
(14:24):
chunks, but then this year weeven cut it back a little bit
more and now do two and threehours, because we found that the
four hours felt a little long,and so it's cool to hear that
you guys do just one hour powerhours.
So when you do them, does theperson visiting the temporary
support specialist do?
They basically stay in thequeue the whole time.
Kristi (14:42):
Yep, they, they're supposed to be.
I mean, I don't know whatthey're.
You know they could be onFacebook, but they're supposed
to be in the queue for an hour.
Yeah, because you know a wholeday.
It's not just a big ask for theparticipant, that's also a lot
of mental load for the supportteam.
Who's like supporting thatlearning?
Absolutely so yeah, I think youkind of have to factor in both
sides of the coin as you'retrying to develop a program
(15:05):
that's sustainable both for yoursupport team and the
non-support people who areparticipating.
It has to feel doable foreverybody, you know.
Priscilla (15:12):
Yes, absolutely.
When we were doing the fulldays, it was just me and one
other person, and so I think itwas a little easier to balance
because there was just one of me.
But now, with a bigger team,whole days would be too
difficult, I think, to keepsustainable beyond one.
So, as you've incorporatedwhole company and support over
the years for Help Scout, whatare the biggest benefits that
(15:33):
you're seeing like for your teamand then also for your
customers?
Kristi (15:36):
I've got five reasons why we do whole company support
and these are sort of likeanchoring principles that we
always come back to over theyears.
Ok, number one it shortens thefeedback loop from our customers
.
Number two it keeps thecustomer at the center of
everything we do.
Number three it deepens everyteam's understanding of our
products.
Four, it strengthens thecompany through cross-team
(15:58):
collaboration.
And five it ultimately helps usbuild a better product.
And there's actually a secretsixth bonus reason.
We don't share this with therest of the company, but the
bonus to the support team.
It helps make our work visibleto the rest of the company.
But the bonus to the supportteam it helps make our work
visible to the rest of thecompany.
That ensures that we've alwaysgot a seat at the table and it
helps the rest of the companyvalue the work we do.
(16:19):
Love that for me.
Priscilla (16:22):
Yeah, that's great.
One thing that we've seen asjust a cool benefit of doing a
whole company support is thatpeople who come into the support
team from outside have thisfresh perspective on the way
that we work as a team.
So I don't know, when we runinto an issue in support,
sometimes we will build theselike workarounds to get around
(16:43):
it.
We don't even realize we'rebuilding and then we're doing
these workarounds and thensomeone will come in from the
development team and be like,why are you doing it this way?
We'll say, oh, because that'sjust how we've done it and
that's the workaround.
And they'll say I could fixthis really easily for you.
And then you don't have to dothis workaround.
And so having that freshperspective for us is really
cool and makes our lives simplerand makes things more efficient
(17:04):
as we develop processes andcontinue and support.
So that's one cool thing thatwe see from doing our support
shifts each year.
Kristi (17:12):
Absolutely.
Yeah, I love those moments.
I was just looking back throughthe whole company support Slack
channel today and I saw a fewweeks ago where an engineer was
like we need to fix thisimmediately, you know, because
he was feeling the pain andyou're still right, the support
team.
There's so much stuff that wejust are sort of like this
becomes our normal, we'll livewith it.
But when an engineer is inthere and he's like I could fix
this in six minutes, you know,it's just so cool to see those
(17:33):
moments happen and they wouldn'tbe happening if they weren't in
the queue talking to customers.
Priscilla (17:37):
And then they take that insight back to their daily
work.
Kristi (17:56):
No-transcript day yeah, it allows them to build a
product in a context and not ina void, and that's just so
valuable and neat to see thatplay out.
Priscilla (18:08):
A couple months ago our head of marketing came and
did a support shift and he wasworking with someone you know.
So we're in podcasting, so we'reworking with podcasters every
day, and a podcaster had writtenin about some formatting being
off in their episode descriptionand it's something that we
would have solved one way on thesupport team show them how to
(18:29):
adjust their formatting so thatit looks correct.
But our head of marketing didn'tknow that that's how we would
have answered it, and so heactually did a little more
research into why the formattingwas showing the way it was and
found that there was a differentway we could be formatting our
feeds for it to look correct onthe directories.
It's a little technical, but itwas really cool because he
(18:49):
found this, did the research,figured it out with his
additional knowledge from hisside of things, from the
marketing side, and was able towrite and pitch a new way of
formatting so that that issuewouldn't even show up in support
at all.
And it all came from did,because that one ticket caused
(19:13):
him to kind of go down a rabbittrail and try to figure out how
to fix this thing that we didn'teven know could be fixed, which
I just think is such a coolexample of why it can be so fun
to get in and do these supportshifts and how it can be so
valuable for everyone involved.
Kristi (19:29):
That's so amazing.
Yeah, just what a greatinvestment of resources that now
the support team is not goingto have to handle that question
again in the future, and alsothe customers are going to be
delighted as well.
Priscilla (19:39):
Exactly, and I think one thing we try to do when we
do our support shifts is they'rea little bit longer, so they're
two to three hours, so they'relonger than your power hours.
But we kind of say, hey, be inthe queue, we want you to start
in the queue, we want you towork through emails.
But if you find something likethat that you go oh, I actually
have special expertise in this,I can find more about this, I
(20:00):
might be able to solve this now.
Then we kind of give you freereign to do that, to look into
that, to spend your time in thesupport world, but maybe you're
not in tickets for the rest ofyour support shift, and so it's
cool to like see people navigatethat on their own and how some
people will send, you know, 40emails over the course of a
couple hours and some peoplewill send two emails and spend a
(20:22):
ton of time digging into aspecific issue they found or
something internal that we couldfix.
That would make things moreefficient for the support team,
which is also really cool.
Kristi (20:30):
Yeah, that's why I always tell people we don't have
a quota.
You know, it's not about thenumbers, it's about are you
learning something, and that'sthe point.
As long as you're in there andyou're learning something, even
if you're just reading oldconversations, I'm cool with
that.
I just want you engaging withreal customer conversations in
some way, in hopes that that'llimpact your work and, ultimately
, the product and the business.
Priscilla (20:50):
I think what you just said was really important.
Even just reading closed emailsand seeing the conversations
and seeing what customers arerunning into, yeah, I think
that's a really good strategy,especially for people who are
new, who don't have muchexperience in support or at the
company at all.
It might be daunting to getinto a support shift or to do a
power hour when you're like Ireally am new here.
(21:11):
But being able to read throughthe emails and see that is still
going to be super valuablebecause you're getting access to
that information even thoughyou're not the one actually
responding to an email.
I think that's a really coolstrategy for people who are new.
And one thing you mentionedabout your retreats.
This is another cool thing thatwe just experienced.
I was thinking this too.
(21:31):
Retreats this is another coolthing that we just experienced.
I was thinking this too.
Yeah, we also do yearly we callthem meetups, but yearly meetups
for our whole team and so werecently went to Nashville and
it's the same thing you weretalking about.
You know, it's a couple of days, we're spending time together
as a team, but the supportdoesn't stop, and so the support
team still feels kind of on thehook for being in the inbox and
clearing the inbox and talkingwith customers and helping them
(21:53):
out.
And so in the past we havebroken it down and tried
different strategies and thistime in Nashville, we did like
team support shifts and we woulddo just 15 minute support
shifts where everyone would geton in the same room silence.
You know everyone's workingtogether for 15 minutes, and
then we would stop it at the endof 15 minutes.
We like set a timer and then wewould go on and do the next
(22:15):
event together and then doanother support shift for 15
minutes and I like that.
You did full hours.
It makes me think to next year,like, oh, maybe we'll do full
power hours.
I like that.
Yeah, 15 minutes felt reallyfast, but it was cool because
you know we had like 20 peoplethere and so, with 20 people
jumping in and for support,everyone's volume is going to be
different depending on yourcompany and your customers, but
(22:37):
for us, having 20 people in theinbox at one time for 15 minutes
really allowed us to get prettyclose, if not fully clear the
inbox before starting our nextgroup activity, and so it was a
really cool way, like you said,to value the support team, to
say, hey, we care enough aboutour support team to want to all
jump in together and to get thisclear so that they can be just
(22:58):
as present as the rest of theteam, and so that was just
another cool way that thesupport shifts, or whole company
support, can really show itselfand be a huge benefit to your
team?
Kristi (23:08):
Absolutely yeah.
You mentioning that you wereall working in silence for 15
minutes reminds me of this pastMay.
At our most recent retreat, abunch of us got together for a
power hour in like a ballroom inthe hotel.
But, it also happened to be theroom that we were going to be
doing karaoke later that night,so the DJ had arrived to do his
soundcheck.
It was the silliest, mostunhinged power hour.
(23:29):
I mean he was just blasting theSpice Girls while we're like
trying to answer emails.
It was so funny, what a vibe.
Priscilla (23:37):
It probably wasn't the most focused power hour that
you could have had.
Jordan (23:40):
It was the best one.
Yes, exactly.
Priscilla (23:43):
So how does whole company support help with
training new employees?
Do you guys bring new employeesinto support for any period of
time before they go into theirroles?
Kristi (23:53):
Yes, so every single person who's hired at Help Scout
, regardless of their role, goesthrough a version of support
training.
Of course it's less intensethan what the actual support
team hires go through, but it'stwo parts.
So the first portion isasynchronous.
So basically they're workingthrough a series of assignments
that get them like diggingthrough our knowledge base and
reading through our savedreplies and internal
(24:14):
documentation and playing aroundand experimenting with our
features and like starting toactually use help scout.
And then the second part issynchronous, so they get
assigned a buddy on the supportteam and they work up drafting
replies to well, pretendcustomers, but they're based on
real questions that we've gottenin the past and then their
support buddy will, uh, reviewthem and give them feedback both
(24:36):
on their like writing style andtone, because we want that to
feel unified across the company.
But then, also the content tomake sure that we're answering
questions accurately and, uh,help, scout um has just recently
released a new feature calledai drafts, which has been really
incredible for whole companysupport, because it learns from
the replies you've sent and alsofrom your knowledge base, and
it does its best to draft up areply to a customer question.
(25:00):
It doesn't send automaticallyor anything like that.
You still need a human to reviewit and make sure it's accurate,
because you know we always gotto kind of double check what AI
is doing.
But it's been so helpful formaking the queue feel less
daunting to people becausethey're starting with something.
They're not just starting witha blank page.
They're at least starting withthe draft that the AI tried to
come up with and then they canresearch and just fact check to
(25:21):
make sure it's accurate.
So that has felt like a gamechanger over the last few months
.
Jordan (25:25):
Yeah, it's way easier to edit than to write something
from scratch, especially whenyou're unsure of your knowledge
base in that area.
So that's amazing.
Priscilla (25:35):
That is really cool and I really like that.
You bring everyone into supportwhen they first come on the
team.
That's something that I thinkis just so valuable for everyone
who is working on your productto have that be the intro to the
product this is how customersuse it, this is what they're
saying about it and then onceyou kind of get through that,
then you go on to your own role,whatever that is, and you have
(25:57):
that foundation, which I thinkcan be really super valuable.
Kristi (26:00):
Yeah, I mean, how well can you work on a product if
you've never used the product?
Priscilla (26:03):
Yeah, Do you see any drawbacks, Kristi, with doing
whole company support?
Have you seen any places whereit's added friction or been
difficult?
Kristi (26:13):
seen any places where it's added friction or been
difficult.
Dude, I'm gonna just be realLike it requires ongoing
maintenance and adaptation toevolve as the company evolves
and the product evolves.
And it's ongoing work trainingpeople and supporting them to
participate and it's ongoingwork continuing to like be a
cheerleader and an advocate forit so people understand why we
do it and remain enthusiasticabout it.
(26:34):
I have no power at Help Scout,so I'm over here trying to get
VPs you know to do something andI have no authority to be like
you have to do this.
So that takes work.
You know it's like there's likea propaganda component to it of
like convincing people this isvaluable.
So you know we don't do thisbecause the support team needs
help in the queue.
(26:54):
You know we're doing it.
It would be easier to not do.
It is what I always say, butit's that we still believe the
investment of time and energyand resources is worth it.
Priscilla (27:05):
Yeah.
So what would you say tosomeone who's on your team Maybe
they're a developer, designer,someone outside of the support
team, not someone necessarily inthe leadership, but someone
who's, you know, working on thetool every day, who is kind of
hesitant about it?
They don't really want to be insupport, they don't see the
value in it.
What would you say to them toshow them that, hey, this is
(27:25):
valuable?
Kristi (27:26):
Well, first I would say you know that's totally
understandable and in theirshoes I think I would be prone
to say like, oh, that's not myjob.
But yeah, my response is caringabout your customers and how
they feel about your business ispart of everyone's job, because
if you don't have customers,you don't have a job.
And I also encourage people toframe it this way, like it's
(27:49):
like going to the gym.
It might feel hard and youmight not feel motivated to do
it or look forward to it, but itis valuable, it is a good
investment and it will pay off.
And, I would say, realistically,the vast majority of people, I
would say, do find joy in it andfind moments of delight.
But I totally get that there'snever going to be 100% of people
(28:11):
on the team who lovetroubleshooting and crafting
emails.
So I've never aimed for 100%happiness, nor have I actually
ever aimed for 100%participation, because it's just
not possible.
I don't think so.
I think having realisticexpectations of like.
Hopefully I can get as manypeople to do this and benefit
from it as possible, because Iam not their boss and I can't
(28:31):
make them do it.
That's always been the way I'veapproached it, and then I can't
be disappointed.
Priscilla (28:35):
Yeah, Well, and I think the fact that you're doing
one hour power hours alsoshould be an encouragement to
anyone on the team, because onehour does not feel like a huge
commitment.
No, and having the ability toget in the support inbox as a
designer should be fun andexciting, and I think sometimes
(28:56):
people can get a little bitnervous about oh my gosh, I'm
gonna have to like write emailsto people.
What if I get it wrong?
What if people see that I don'tactually know every little
facet of the product that I amworking on?
Because a lot of times yoursupport team has the most
knowledge of the product becausethey are working on it and
working people through it andgiving advice all day, every day
(29:16):
, and so I often find thatsometimes the people on the
support team feel the mostcomfortable because they have
such a well-rounded view of theproduct and the people who are
coming from, like the marketingteam, they have a lot of
information on the product, theyknow it, but they don't know
all the little tiny intricaciesof you know how to log in or how
(29:37):
to reset a password, all thoselittle things they might not
have, and so there's a littlebit of like worry there and I
think setting up a situationwhere they have someone, like
you were talking about, that canreview their emails before they
send them out, and making surethey know they have a safety net
when they're working in theinbox, I think can be really
valuable for people who are kindof held back a little bit
because of the nerves ofactually writing to a customer,
(29:58):
because for some people that'sgoing to be really hard,
especially if you're moreintroverted and you're really
not comfortable, you know,working with people directly.
I mean, if you think about now,this is a general thing.
That's not for everyone, butfor people who are developers, a
lot of times they're going tobe a little bit more introverted
and maybe not wanting to talkdirectly with customers so much,
and so I think there can be alittle bit of that like anxiety
(30:19):
that comes up when you're saying, hey, I want you to get in the
inbox and talk to our customersfor an hour and so letting
people know that, hey, whenyou're in the inbox, you don't
have to send emails.
You can read closed emails oryou can type out emails and
leave them as drafts and we willreview them and tell you when
they're good to go.
So there's no fear that has tobe involved at all it's
extraordinary to me to thinkabout.
Kristi (30:40):
Our team is spread around the globe, so English
isn't the first language foreveryone, so I could see how you
know, daunting to write atechnical troubleshooting email
in English if that's not yourfirst, first language.
So yeah, there's a lot ofthings about it that do make it
intimidating.
Priscilla (30:55):
Yeah, intimidating is a good word.
I think that that's exactlyright.
It can be intimidating, but Ithink you're right, there's so
much value in that.
So, for anyone who might belistening to this, who wants to
start the process of creatingthis for their company, what
would you advise them to thinkthrough?
Kristi (31:11):
I'm a big process person .
I really like having processeswritten out and documented and
clear so that if I'm hit by abus, things carry on.
Priscilla (31:20):
People know what to do.
Kristi (31:21):
And then I think also having a mindset of this is
fluid and we have to beadaptable and evolve over time.
You know, for example, when itwas the height of the pandemic
and everyone was just like insurvival mode and so stressed,
we pulled back some expectationsaround whole company support to
give people just a little extramental bandwidth.
Or there's been points in thecompany history where everyone
(31:43):
in the whole company was doingit monthly and right now some
teams are doing it quarterly.
There's been times where we'veexperimented with different
things, like the support buddybeing on a video call, almost
like office hours, so thatinstead of just communicating
via Slack you could talk withyour support buddy on a video
call.
So I think being willing toadapt over time based on what
(32:04):
the company's current needs areis really important.
Yeah, and then also just beingrealistic about it taking
ongoing effort and maintenance.
For example, it takes me sometime to like schedule all of
these power hours and revieweverybody's time zone and make
sure that it works with whereverthey're located.
You know, just sort of likelogistical things that take
ongoing work, but then also likethe propaganda piece for lack
(32:25):
of a better word of continuallyreminding people like why are we
doing this?
So that they can remaininvested in it.
I think that that takes ongoingenergy and effort and
creativity as well.
So I think all of those areimportant to keep in mind that
this isn't just something youset up one day and then you
forget about it.
It really takes ongoing work,and so there's got to be
(32:45):
somebody on your team who hasbandwidth to kind of care for it
over time.
Priscilla (32:50):
Yeah, I think that's really important.
I also think you know, asyou're setting this up, as
you're looking at your companyand figuring out how this is
going to work with your company,look at the people on your team
.
Are they going to benefit fromhaving it be monthly?
Are they going to benefit fromit being quarterly?
You know your product and soyou should be able to look at
your team and the people thatare going to be coming into
(33:11):
support and doing this and howis it going to benefit them.
The frequency or the length ofthe shifts Like, for us, we find
that two to three hours workspretty well, but for you, you
might go.
One hour is better.
For us, or actually a full dayis really what we want, because
we want you to get in there andreally be in it, and so a lot of
that is going to change,depending on the company that
you have and the product thatyou have and the service you're
(33:32):
giving your customers.
And so I think that whileyou're building I think it's
something that a lot ofcompanies don't do as well as
(33:52):
they should letting thingschange as you find better ways
to work.
And so you know, this yearmight look like one thing, but
next year it might lookdifferent because, like you said
, the pandemic, or becauseyou're remote now and you
weren't remote before, or maybethere's company shifts that
change the way you want to dothings.
And so being able to changethat and keeping in mind that
(34:14):
the most important thing here isthat your team is getting
access to your customers andyour customers are getting
access to your team and that'shappening I think that's the
biggest thing, and so if you'rekeeping that as kind of your
guiding light when you're makingthese changes, that's going to
help this be a successful thingfor you to do for your company.
What advice would you give tosomeone who is trying to get
(34:36):
their leadership to buy intowhole company support?
Kristi (34:38):
This is my number one piece of advice.
When I speak with support teamswho are trying to get whole
company support up and runningat their company, I think
leadership buy-in is soessential that I don't think you
can actually do whole companysupport without it, because the
trickle down effect is so huge.
Are our team leads seeing thisas something that's taking away
(34:59):
time from felt?
Like gosh?
I can't take the time to dothis, whereas but depending on
who your manager is, it's likeno, there's a priority.
Of course I'm not going toschedule a call during my power
(35:20):
hour, you know.
So I would say you know, startsmall.
If you're trying to pitch thisto your team leads or you know
the founders, you know you can'tjust dive in headfirst with
weekly power hours or somethingyou know, brainstorm with your
team leads what feels like anice little way we can dip our
toes into this and then grow itover time.
Priscilla (35:41):
Yeah, getting the leadership to buy in first.
Be like, hey, before you decideif we should do this as whole
company support, let's just nextweek will you give me two hours
of your time and will you comein and do a power hour and see
it firsthand?
Because once they're in thereworking on it, they will see
that there's value there.
Yeah, they'll be hooked,they'll see that they're
learning things and they'll belike you know, actually Kevin
(36:03):
over in design him doing thiswould be great too.
Exactly so you don't have tonecessarily get buy in for the
entire company right off the bat.
Get one or two people who don'tusually work in the support to
come in and if you look forthose leaders who are
extroverted, who already kind oflike that, get those people in
first.
They will find the value in it,they'll see it and then you
(36:24):
know word of mouth it'll tricklearound and then hopefully that
will help get buy-in for thewhole company.
But I think what you said isreally important.
It has to be top down, it hasto be the whole company, because
once you get to a place whereit's optional and it feels like
it's not part of your job tospend an hour in support once a
month or whatever the frequencyis then it's going to feel like
(36:46):
you're stepping out of your joband you're putting on a
different hat and you're doingsupport for the support team.
It's not what the point of it is, and the point is for you to
keep your designer hat on and togo into support and let that
influence the support that ourcustomers are getting, and so
there's so much value in that,and so I think you have to have
the whole company kind of buy infrom the top down so that
(37:07):
everyone knows, like you said,this is not something that
you're leaving your job to go do.
This is part of your job.
This is part of your role, as adesigner is being able to
communicate with our customersoccasionally.
Kristi (37:17):
Absolutely Such a good perspective and strategy.
Priscilla (37:21):
All company support, like we've said so many times,
is such a valuable tool that canbring your team closer to your
customers, but it also has theadded benefit, like you said, of
your support team feelingvalued and giving the team
access to your support team andinsight into what we do every
day in support and what we'rewalking hand in hand with our
(37:42):
customers through, and I thinkthere's just a ton of value in
that.
And so thank you for coming on,Kristi, and sharing with us how
you do it over at Help Scoutand the importance of whole
company support.
Before we wrap up, how canpeople find you online?
Kristi (37:56):
Yeah, feel free to look up Kristi Ernst Thompson on
LinkedIn or shoot me an email atKristi at HelpScoutcom.
Awesome, thank you so much forbeing here.
It was my pleasure, so fun, totalk about this stuff and I
really appreciate you having me.
Priscilla (38:11):
It's time for Support in Real Life, our segment where
we discuss real life supportexperiences and, jordan, I think
you have something for us today.
Jordan (38:19):
So this happened back in September, but it's making like
the rounds on social mediaagain, which is how I found it
Okay.
We talked about airlines in thelast episode and we're talking
about it again this one as well,because I really couldn't pass
up the story.
So a United Airlines flightfrom San Francisco to Houston
had to make an emergency landingin Albuquerque, new Mexico, but
(38:40):
the delay, like, caused theflight crew to exceed their
shift hours, and so thepassengers had to wait for a new
crew at the airport, and itwent like well into the night.
But you know, the worst thingabout airports is when the
restaurants close, yes, and youcan't get food Right.
And so this very thing happenedto the passengers.
(39:00):
They were at the airport andthere were no restaurants open,
and so, of course, they'rehungry, they're grumpy.
It's a bad situation.
So the pilot ordered 30 pizzasfor 153 passengers, and he made
sure that everyone was servedbefore eating himself, yes, and
so this absurdly kind gesturefrom the pilot made all the
(39:23):
passengers feel so well, takencare of that.
Even though it was a really badsituation, they actually left
with a positive experience,amazing.
Kristi (39:30):
I know that is such a cool story.
I a positive experience.
Jordan (39:31):
Amazing, I know.
Priscilla (39:31):
That is such a cool story I had not heard that
before Me, neither and one.
It's a good example of customerservice, right, because the
pilot, who is not, it is not hisjob to make sure that the
passengers are happy, really.
I mean, it's his job to getthem safely from point A to
point B.
Yes, but he's going out of hisway to provide this great
service for his passengers.
But really, it's also like avery cool leadership thing too,
(39:58):
because he's making sureeveryone's eating before he is,
and he's I mean, I'm sure theflight crew is included in that
the people that are there andworking are getting some pizza
too, and everyone is in thisshared experience of frustration
, really.
Yeah, and he's taking it uponhimself to try to fix that.
I think that's such a coolstory.
Kristi (40:11):
Yes, I love that, just above and beyond the call of
duty.
And he, he flipped it from asituation where those people
would have said I'm never flyingthis airline again to I am
loyal to this airline for therest of my life.
That's amazing.
Priscilla (40:22):
Yeah, and now the story that everyone's telling
from it is not oh my gosh, wegot grounded and then we had to
wait in the airport forever.
And now the story is the pilotbought us pizza when we were all
hungry, in the middle of thenight and frustrated, like
that's the story that's going tobe told.
I think that's just such a coolway for him to take ownership
of that and to make everyone'sday better with pizza, which is
(40:45):
wonderful, because pizza is thebest.
Everyone loves pizza.
Well, if you have a question ora support situation that you'd
like us to discuss, you canemail us at happy to help at
buzzsproutcom or text the showusing the link in our episode
description and we may discussyour situation or talk about
your question on a futureepisode.
If you like this episode,please rate and review it on
(41:05):
Apple podcasts.
Thank you again, Kristi, forbeing here with us and thank you
to everyone for listening.
Now go and make someone's day.
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