Episode Transcript
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Priscilla (00:00):
Welcome to Happy to
Help, a podcast about customer
support from the people atBuzzsprout.
I'm your host, priscilla Brooke.
Today we're wrapping up seasonone and looking forward to
season two and the future ofHappy to Help.
Thanks for joining us.
Let's get into it All right,jordan?
Well, we've completed 20episodes of Happy to Help.
(00:20):
Can you even believe it?
Honestly, I can't.
When we first talked aboutdoing this podcast, I remember
thinking that 10 episodes wasgoing to be such a hurdle, like,
how are we going to do 10episodes?
That was our original plan, wasa 10 episode arc, and then we
will reassess.
And here we are, 20 episodes inand we're wrapping up season
(00:42):
one.
Jordan (00:43):
I can't even believe it.
Yeah, and it's one of thosethings like that's so funny
because it did start as justlike such a small, bite-sized
project and then it justblossomed into this amazing
thing that we did, and now I'mlike so pumped for the next
season.
I know I just can't wait andit's just wild that we'd even
like picture this happening.
Priscilla (01:03):
You know, the other
day we had just finished
recording episode 20 and I wasthinking about the season and we
did five episodes with just youand I, so five, you know kind
of just the two of us and thenwe did 10 episodes with people
from the Buzzsprout team joiningus, which was really fun.
We did 10 with the Buzzsproutteam 10 episodes, yeah, with the
(01:25):
Buzzsprout team, and then wedid five interviews with people
outside of the Buzzsprout team,which is also really awesome
Just all of the information thatis now captured and available
for people who are in thisindustry, who are trying to
level up their customer support,or people who have a small team
and are trying to figure outhow to offer remarkable customer
(01:45):
support.
I feel like I'm just very proudof all of the episodes that
we've published and put outthere.
And you know, one of my goalswhen we started this podcast was
that I wanted it to be apodcast where people had
actionable tips and strategiesand things that they could take
and turn around and implement.
Yeah, I don't know about you, Ilisten to a lot of podcasts.
(02:08):
I'm sure you do too, jordan.
Yes, I feel like a lot of timeswhen you listen to these, like
big leadership podcasts or thesebig how to do your work well
podcasts.
A lot of times they're very bigideas in there and they're kind
of talking in these vague termsand it's all very inspiring and
good and can be reallybeneficial, but sometimes it
(02:30):
leaves you at the end of itgoing OK, but what do I do?
How do I do that, and so, withthis podcast, I really wanted it
to be very actionable.
I wanted it to be things thatpeople could start implementing
that would make their workbetter, or at least ways to
think about things that mightchallenge what they're used to
thinking about, especially inthe world of customer support.
And I feel like we did that andhopefully, especially for
(02:52):
people who are just starting inthis industry or people who are
trying to build a team ofcustomer support specialists, my
hope is that these episodes aregiving them the right
foundational tools to build thatwell, to be remarkable
ultimately.
Jordan (03:07):
Yeah Well, and
reflecting on this last season,
what would you say are probablylike the top takeaways that you
really hope people walk awaywith.
Priscilla (03:16):
Man, it's hard to
boil 20 episodes that are all
different down to like fourtakeaways, and all completely
packed in with information.
Jordan (03:26):
I know I know, right,
right.
Priscilla (03:28):
There were three
things that stood out to me as
kind of threads throughoutdifferent episodes, that kind of
tied episodes together, and sothe first one is just about the
intentionality behind planningahead and thinking through
things before you're dealingwith them in the moment.
And so you know, when you thinkabout those early episodes where
we talked about setting yourcommunication goals or defining
(03:50):
your support tone or hiring theright people and how to train
them, All of those episodes talkabout the importance of
preparation, the importance ofthinking ahead or laying a
foundation for your support teamto be successful.
Exactly and like I want to thinkthrough my communication goals
before I'm in a situation whereI have to figure out what I'm
(04:12):
trying to communicate.
Like putting that foundationtogether, like you said, I think
that's really good and beingintentional about that is going
to set you up for success.
And being intentional about thekind of people you're hiring
and the soft skills that theyhave and the way you train them
and the importance of that stepbeing done correctly so that you
are set up to offer really goodcustomer support and, you know,
(04:33):
a remarkable service beyondthat person getting hired or
getting trained.
Yeah, so I feel like that wasone of the kind of through lines
I think we even talked about itin one of our recent episodes
about, like crisis management,the importance of putting
together a plan before you're inthe middle of it.
Yeah, so I think that was kindof that preparation piece or
that thinking ahead and beingintentional about preparation I
(04:55):
think was one of the takeawaysfrom the season.
Another one that you know isjust a through line with all of
customer support.
Every time I'm talking aboutcustomer support but just being
human with your customers, yeah,and remembering that you're
human.
You don't have to be perfect.
You know we had that episodewith Tom early on about
(05:20):
perfection and how you don'thave to be perfect.
Then we had the episode aboutempathy with Brian and we talked
about how to work with angrycustomers with Megan.
And all of those come back tothis very simple idea that we
are humans and the people we areworking with are humans.
And if you keep that human sideof support and you keep that
relationship and that connectionat the top of your list when it
comes to communication, thatthat's going to lead to a better
(05:42):
outcome than if you try to keepthings super, super
professional or robotic or kindof keep the personality out of
it.
And so that was another onejust like being human with your
customers.
Jordan (05:52):
Yeah, I think, as
someone who was, you know,
basically along for the rideduring the season, that would be
my number one.
You know, humanity and empathy,yeah.
Priscilla (06:02):
And I think, spoiler
alert, it's probably going to be
the number one thing throughseason two, because I think it
is such an important part ofremarkable service, is that
humanity, that human aspect, therelationship building piece,
like we talked about in ourepisode about writing, the
importance of writing how youspeak, oh yeah.
(06:22):
And keeping thingsconversational, because it
allows you to connect withpeople so much better than if
you try to keep things superprofessional or worry so much
about the grammar or should thiscomma be here?
Should it not Like keepingthose things out of your main
focus can allow you to have thiscommunication, this
relationship built in such a waythat's just really, really cool
(06:44):
.
And then the other thing that Ifeel like we touched on several
times in several episodes wasthe idea that you shouldn't be
afraid to try something and itnot work out and then try
something new, and that justbecause you've done something
one way up until now doesn'tmean that that's the way that
it's always going to be, or thebest way, or the best way
(07:04):
Exactly.
And you know we talked aboutadding after hours support and
how we went through phases ofdoes this work?
No, that's not working, let'stry a different way.
Does that work?
Okay, that works a little bitbetter, but maybe not where we
want it to be or holidaycoverage.
You know we had that episodeabout holiday coverage, where we
talked about trying out a lotof different things and a lot of
them not working and eventuallyfinding something that for
(07:27):
right now works but next year itmight not be the way that we do
holiday coverage, and so kindof the idea that you can try
things and they might not workout and there's growth in that,
and then you try something newand that might not work out or
it might go great for two yearsand then you realize that it's
no longer the best thing, and soI think that was kind of the
third main takeaway is that it'sOK.
(07:54):
Main takeaway is that it's okayand this really applies outside
of support too just in your lifethat it is good to try things
and to have them fail and tolearn from them and to try
another thing and to see howthat goes and to be adaptable,
yeah, and be able to roll withthat.
And it can be scary too,especially if you're like new to
the workforce.
I know this is something thatwhen I first started working, I
felt like I was always trying toget to a place where I was
comfortable and that I knew whatI was doing, and at some point
(08:17):
I realized that once you get toa comfortable spot, you should
push yourself more, you shouldfind ways to become
uncomfortable again, and I thinkthat that idea and that
thinking is sometimes scary topeople, but I think it can be
really.
At least it was scary to me.
I don't know if other peopleare like that, but for me I
remember thinking, oh gosh, Idon't really want to push myself
past my comfort.
Now I've just gotten this down,like this podcast, for example.
(08:40):
You know a year ago when we werethinking about it, I thought,
man, you were so stressed.
I don't want to do this.
This is scary, but there'ssomething so powerful about
pushing yourself to try thesethings, and it's the same thing
with customer support.
You know, if you getcomfortable in the service
you're providing your customers,that means that now you have
the ability to push that serviceeven farther.
(09:02):
Yeah, what else can you do?
How else can you serve yourcustomers better so that they
are even more loyal to yourservice or your brand?
And so I think that's anotherbig takeaway from this season.
I love it.
Yeah, okay, so season one is awrap.
Yes, we really had the bestguests, some wonderful guests.
We had Sarah Caminiti, whotalked about leading with
(09:22):
kindness and just how importantthat is.
If you need an encouraginglisten, go listen to that
episode, because it's really soencouraging to hear her talk
about that.
We had Chase Clemons come onfrom 37 Signals and he talked
about customer feedback.
That was such a good episode.
I feel like I have implementedchanges since that episode in
(09:42):
how we do customer support andhow we handle feedback now,
because of the things I learnedfrom Chase in that episode.
Sarah Hatter came on and talkedabout the importance of finding
your community which.
I feel like with this podcastI'm finding my community and the
Elevate CX team and just thepeople that you meet through
community and for us it was withElevate CX.
(10:04):
But if you're listening andyou're not in customer service
like the importance of findingyour community in general is
just so important.
Yes, then we had Christy ErnstThompson talk to us about how
they do all company support atHelp Scout.
Yeah, and that was a reallycool conversation to learn.
Jordan (10:20):
That was so interesting.
That was like so different fromhow we did it too.
Priscilla (10:24):
I know exactly.
It's so cool that thefoundation is the same, the
reasoning behind why we do it isthe same, but that we took such
a different approach to it,which I thought was very cool.
And then, you know, our lastepisode with Sunit Bhat was just
a great way to round out theseason and talk about the
importance of supporting theteam that's supporting your
customers and that might be you,that might be your support team
(10:46):
but just the importance oftaking care of yourself, and I
just thought that was such agreat way to end the season.
So, anyway, I'm very proud.
Thank you so much, jordan, forbeing so encouraging throughout
this whole process and for beingthe best producer that there is
and making me sound smart.
It's really been a lot of funto do this with you.
Jordan (11:05):
Well, you make it very
easy to make you sound smart, so
I think that you deserve somecredit as well.
Priscilla (11:11):
Okay, jordan, season
two.
We're moving into thinkingabout season two.
So when this is released, it'sjust before Christmas, and so
there's going to be about amonth of downtime before season
two comes back.
Season two will start inFebruary of 2025.
So we're going to take Januaryoff and use that as kind of a
planning month to get prepared.
So, yes, if you're listening tothis and you have an idea or an
(11:36):
episode that you want to hearus talk about, or if you know
someone who you're like thisperson does remarkable support
they should talk to you.
Oh my gosh, that'd be great,yeah, email us at happy to help
at buzzsproutcom and share withus a topic you want us to
discuss or a person that youwant us to have on the show.
The whole point of this podcastis to provide a resource to
(11:58):
people working in customersupport to level up their
support for their customers, andso if you know of someone who's
doing that really well, havethem reach out to us or pitch
them to us and we will reach outto them and have them on the
show, because we really want toelevate those voices of people
who care a lot about RemarkableService.
So, like I said, you can emailus at happytohelpatbuzzsproutcom
(12:19):
.
You can send us fan mailthrough the link in our show
notes and recommend people thatway.
If you want to leave us areview on Apple Podcasts, we of
course, would love that.
Jordan (12:29):
We will never shy away
from plugging our ratings and
reviews, please do that, and wedefinitely appreciate the people
who have left us a review onApple Podcasts.
Priscilla (12:43):
That has just been
wonderful, so thank you.
Yes, it's very fun to hear thatpeople actually listen to this
podcast.
Jordan (12:45):
Oh yeah, because
podcasting you're just speaking
into the void.
Priscilla (12:47):
Exactly.
It's really fun to hear frompeople who listen to the podcast
.
Even if it's just anacknowledgement, you know it
doesn't have to be anythingintense but I love to hear from
people hey, listen to the show.
Jordan (12:57):
Yeah, listen, thumbs up,
that'd be great.
Priscilla (13:00):
You know, I can see
the numbers, but you don't know
who those people are.
And so it's really fun to hearfrom people who listen to the
show.
Yeah.
Jordan (13:08):
All right.
Do we have any final partingwisdom to carry people into our
second season, into 2025?
Priscilla (13:14):
Yeah, you know.
Ok, here's my parting wisdomfor going into the holiday
season, because right now it ismid-December and my guess is
most people listening to thisare stressed on some level and
they're probably trying tofinish up their Christmas
shopping or start theirChristmas shopping and they're
dealing with lots of crowds andmaybe they're emailing support
(13:37):
teams about shipping nothappening in time.
And my wisdom that I will passon is just have extra patience
for people as you go throughyour holiday season, because I
mean, especially if you'reworking in support, you know
what it's like to be on bothsides of that to be the person
who is desperately trying toclear the inbox queue before
(13:57):
going on holiday break andyou're also the person who is
desperately trying to clear theinbox queue before going on
holiday break, and you're alsothe person who's desperately
trying to get their giftsdelivered in time.
And so just remember that weare all humans.
We're all trying our best.
That's my big wisdom going intothe holidays.
Jordan (14:10):
I think that's a great
reminder actually, because it's
easy to forget that.
Priscilla (14:13):
So it really is.
Thank you, jordan, again, forbeing the best producer, thanks
for being the best host andthanks everyone for being the
best listeners.
Now go and make someone's day.