Remote Support Team Management with Erica Clayton

Text the show!

We're sitting down with Erica Clayton, CX expert and founder of Sunshine CX, to explore the strategies behind successfully managing remote customer support teams.

Whether you’re leading a global CX department or onboarding your very first remote hire, this episode is packed with practical insights on:

• Building team culture across time zones (Erica recommends The Culture Map by Erin Meyer)
• Creating effective onboarding processes
• Preventing remote burnout
• Fostering social connection without micromanaging
• Developing communication routines that actually work

Erica shares lessons from leading distributed support teams at companies like TuneCore and offers real-world advice on tools, processes, and leadership mindset shifts that help remote teams succeed.

We want to hear from you! Share your support stories and questions with us at [e-mail]!

To learn more about Buzzsprout visit Buzzsprout.com.

Thanks for listening!

Episode Transcript

Priscilla (00:00):
Welcome to Happy to Help, a podcast about customer
support from the people atBuzzsprout.
I'm your host, PriscillaBrooke.
Today is all about remote work.
Leading a remote support teamhas its own set of challenges,
so today we are going to giveyou some tips and strategies for
leading a remote support teamthat is connected and motivated
to do remarkable work.
Thanks for joining us.

(00:20):
Let's get into it.
I feel like at this point, themajority of people who work
around the world are familiarwith remote working.
Like you know, five years ago,with the pandemic hit, anyone
who could work remotely wentremote, and so I feel like even
people who weren't workingremotely before that at this

(00:42):
point have done it, done it atsome point.
But with remote working comesthis new idea of leading people
who are working remotely.
It's just a new challenge, andso today we're going to talk
about leading a remote supportteam, and luckily we have an
expert with us who is going toshare some insights that she has
from her experience leadingremote teams, and so Erica

(01:04):
Clayton is here.
She's the founder of SunshineCX.
She is a longtime CX leader anda self-proclaimed AI enthusiast
and a proud cat lady.
She has spent the last 15 yearsshaping customers' experiences,
and she's led large teams andsmall teams and has a lot of
experience leading remoteworkers, and so I'm really
excited to have her with ustoday.

(01:25):
Welcome to the show, erica.
Thank you so much.

Erica (01:29):
I am thrilled to be here, truly yes.

Priscilla (01:31):
I'm really excited about this episode.

Jordan (01:33):
Me too.

Priscilla (01:33):
Before we get into all of it, Erica, do you have a
story to share with us aboutsomeone who has made your day
recently?

Erica (01:40):
I so do.
A few weeks ago I went to visitthe coal mining exhibit at the
Chicago Museum of Science andIndustry Very cool.

Jordan (01:51):
Okay, cool.

Erica (01:52):
Which is an immersive experience where you take like a
dark, wall-less elevator and atrain ride into this fake coal
mine underneath the museum.
It's thrilling stuff, honestly,that's so cool.

Jordan (02:03):
That sounds so fun.
If you're interested in coal,let me recommend the Museum of
Science and Industry.
Yes, so you get to learn aboutcoal mining equipment, about
company towns and Scripp, whichI didn't really know that much
about, and unions my favoriteall of it and our tour guide,
who I think his name was Will itmight not be Will, I know.
I left a review and had hisname right in it, but I couldn't

(02:25):
find it before I got to thisepisode.
But Will terrific, okay so he'senthusiastic, deeply
knowledgeable and a super trueknow-it-all in all the right
ways.
He was cracking jokes, he wasdelivering fun facts, he was
warning us when equipment wasgoing to be loud and he was just
like, really sweet to kids whogot scared, because being in a

(02:46):
coal mine is scary and noquestion was too big or too
small or too weird for him.
He was just into all of it.
And after the tour he let usstick around.
He let us stick around andhandle rocks, which was just
really exciting.
We had this like giant hunk ofcoal and it sparked this
conversation about coal densityand black lung and I don't know.

(03:08):
It was just like surprisinglywholesome and it made me want to
read a book about company townsand unionize a team I don't
even have Like it just made myday.
And we left my friend and I leftthe museum that day telling
everybody about this guy, andeven the Uber driver who was my
runner up for best guy of thatday.

(03:29):
So, yeah, Will made my day andI'm never going to stop thinking
about the coal mine trip.
Wow that's so good.

Priscilla (03:36):
I love it because what it communicates to you is
that he loves what he does.
Yes, that he's willing to likebe so 100% in on it.

(03:59):
Yes, like the person who runs,you know, the bodega around the
corner, like that kind of athing.
But they are in the lives ofthe people that they're working
with and it's such an importantrole and so you think of like
tour guides at a museum, who youdon't even think twice about
necessarily as a job.
But then you're like man.
If you find the right personwith the right personality and

(04:20):
the right like love for thatrole, it might have a huge
impact on, like a child, whatthey do in the future of their
life.

Jordan (04:28):
Yes, For him to have that infectious passion and take
something that might beperceived as mundane or boring,
like coal mining, and then he'slike no wait, this is super cool
and I'm going to tell you why,and then it's going to spark all
this interest for kids and whoknows, maybe they'll become
geologists or something.

Erica (04:48):
I went to this museum when I was a kid.
When I would visit Chicago Ihad family there and so we would
go.
It was a museum that I rememberbeing super, super friendly and
interactive and amazing forkids.
So I wasn't sure if I was goingto have that same experience
coming back as an adult.
And they nailed it.
So highly recommend the coalmining experience at the Chicago

(05:09):
Museum of Science and Industry.
The museum has something foreverybody.

Priscilla (05:12):
And shout out to Will.

Erica (05:14):
Shout out to Will.
I think that's his name.
I hope that's your name.

Priscilla (05:18):
So I want people to know a little bit more about
you, Erica, and why you'repassionate about customer
experience and helping companiesexcel and offering that
remarkable experience.

Erica (05:28):
So I know it sounds really kind of cheesy or corny
and we hear it every time weinterview somebody to be on our
team, right, like what are youdoing here?
Why do you want to work incustomer support?
Guess what?
I'm here because I love to helpand I love to be known as
somebody who's helpful, and, ontop of that, when it comes to
process and policy, I love lawand order.

(05:49):
And customer experience sits atthis really interesting
intersection between helpingpeople, caring about people and
problems, problem solving andsystems thinking.
So to me, customer experienceis about solving the most
annoying problems, the ones thatkind of slow your teams down
and frustrate your customers, ina way that has a lot of

(06:09):
cross-functional impact andcross-organization impact, and
there's something super, supersatisfying about helping teams
just get under control andwatching the ripple effect of
that across an entireorganization.
So that's really what keeps mecoming back to customer support
and customer experience.
It's the opportunity to have areally big impact through a

(06:30):
series of like, often small tomedium sized changes.

Priscilla (06:35):
That's the thing when I'm interviewing someone that
it sends the green flag up.
You love people, you lovehelping, that gives you like,
that makes you feel good, thenthis is going to be a role that
you're going to excel in.
Now there's lots of otherthings that go into being really
good at customer support, but Ithink that's the most necessary
thing is you have to enjoyhelping people.

(06:56):
You have to enjoy it.
If you don't enjoy it, nothingelse is going to work.

Erica (07:00):
And that doesn't mean it's not hard from time to time
or that there aren't times thatare unenjoyable.
I think anybody who's everworked with customers or I don't
know just with people on earth,knows that, like your job is
going to be hard, especiallywhen you're managing other
people's feelings.
It's not going to be easy butit can still be really enjoyable

(07:21):
if that is the kind of way thatyou find gratification, if
helping other people is likeyour jam.
Customer experience whetherit's support, brand marketing is
a huge part of customerexperience, whether you're in
product operations like it's areally vast umbrella term that
covers a lot of ways to help.

Priscilla (07:52):
Mm, hmm, let's transition.
And then into leading a remoteteam and what that looks like,
because that, you know, reallyis not necessarily new, because
we've always had remote workers,even before the pandemic.
Like, I know we were somewhatremote before covid, so there's
always been kind of like thatremote job, but I think it's
become way more prevalent nowand more expected.
More prevalent now and moreexpected.
I was looking up some stats theother day and there are three
times more remote jobs now thanthere were in 2020.
Wow, awesome, I think it mustbe pre-pandemic.

(08:14):
But, like, still, that has justgone so much more in the last
five years.
And you think about the peoplewho went remote overnight, who
had never worked remotely, hadnever, you know, had to lead a
team in a remote setting beforeand then overnight, who had
never worked remotely, hadnever, you know, had to lead a
team in a remote setting beforeand then overnight.
Everyone's remote and you'retrying to figure out what that
looks like and there'schallenges that come with that,
and so I kind of wanted to talka little bit, erica, first, just

(08:35):
about your experience leadingteams and what kind of teams
have you led in the past.

Erica (08:41):
So I've been leading remote support teams or
dispersed support teams for overa decade now.
In one way or another, most ofthe teams that I've led have
been globally distributed, sonot only domestic, which is a
challenge all on its own.
That's not to pretend therearen't cultural differences
between New York City and, likeIdaho, everywhere else yeah,

(09:02):
everywhere else that you have toaccount for Right.
So they've primarily beenglobally distributed and
partially fully remote andpartially hybrid, partially
fully in the office.
It really depends on the marketand on the department, right.
But I've managed everythingfrom small teams at startups to
big international organizationssupporting millions of users.
I've seen how remote work canreally make and break a team

(09:24):
dynamic, depending on how it'sbeen handled At.
Tunecore is, I think, where Igot most of my real my learning
experiences from.
I stood up teams in Nashville,mexico City, paris, mumbai and
Moscow over three years only.
It happened really fast.
Talk about time zones.

Priscilla (09:44):
Yeah, yeah.

Erica (09:46):
And I had to actually turn the lights back off in
Moscow almost right away,because we opened our office
there like three weeks beforethe war in Ukraine started and
we couldn't do business thereanymore.
So it came with a lot of reallyinteresting cultural challenges.
That opened me up to a lot ofexperiences that I wouldn't have
considered, let alone hadmyself, before.

(10:09):
I've led organizations throughhyper growth and layoffs,
through tool transitions, a lotof ambiguity and change
management.
Doing that remotely really addsanother layer of complexity to
managing team morale andcommunication and
accountability.
But it's also made me a reallydeliberate decision maker about

(10:30):
how I build culture, how Idetermine what systems are best
and how I try to communicateclarity to my teams.

Priscilla (10:38):
Yeah, you're talking about like such a dispersed
team, and I think my team ispretty small and most of us are
in Jacksonville, florida.
We have one person in Denver,but that's my like leading a
remote team experience.
Right, we are technically allremote, we have an office that
we can use, but for the mostpart we all work remotely and I

(10:59):
have one person in a differenttime zone and that is the extent
of it.
And so I find challenges injust that, which is like such a
small scale of remoteleadership, to think about
leading people in vastlydifferent cultures and vastly
different time zones, or inrunning into on a day-to-day
with a remote but local team.

(11:26):
And so you know what are?
Some of you kind of justtouched on a couple of them, but
what are some of the biggestchallenges that you've seen and
just the differences you've seenwhen it comes to leading remote
teams or dispersed teams andin-office support teams?

Erica (11:41):
So the first is making sure that people feel seen and
supported, without turning intoa surveillance creep.
Yes, right, I trust my team, Iwant to trust my team.
But remote work removes a lotof passive signals.
So if you don't have clearexpectations and you don't have
feedback loops, things canreally unravel fast and people

(12:05):
can start to feel monitored,micromanaged, even if that's not
what you're trying to do.
You're just trying to stay intouch.
But it can be overbearing.
Cultural drift is very real.
If you're not reinforcingvalues like your team's values
and what your expectations andnorms are.
Very intentionally they tend tokind of fade away and what

(12:26):
takes their place amongst thosethings are maybe not going to be
the types of values that youwant coming out of your team.
And that doesn't mean likeshove your values down your
team's throats.
These have to be collaborativeefforts.
You decide amongst your teamwhat matters to you and then you
make sure you hold each otherto those standards.
There's a lot of accountabilityin that.
I've also seen people burn outreally quietly.

(12:48):
I think that's something all ofus can relate to.

Priscilla (12:51):
Yeah.

Erica (12:51):
These last few years, in an office, if somebody is
skipping lunch or eating it attheir desk, right, that's
visible.
If somebody is coming inearlier, staying late to get
their work done, that's visible.
You can see that somebody needshelp.
Yeah, when you're remote, it'shidden and support teams are
really vulnerable to that inparticular, because the work is
always on.
Even the slow season is notslow and it is always emotional.

Jordan (13:16):
Yeah, so I'm a remote worker and I really struggle
with the divide between workingtime and personal time because I
work from my home, so myworkspace is always in my home
space, and there are times whereI will be cooking an egg in my
kitchen for lunch and I'll justgrab my laptop and I'll start

(13:37):
like working on something whileI'm waiting for it to cook, and
it's so hard for me to stopthat.

Priscilla (13:42):
Yeah, I mean, what you were just talking about is
such a good thing to keep inmind that I see it in my day to
day.
But in prepping for this Ididn't even think through that
idea of people burning out whenyou can't even tell because they
are not in front of you.
And the working through lunchis something on my team.
I tell everyone on my team donot work through lunch.
Take a lunch Even if you don'twant to eat.

(14:03):
Take a lunch and go outside.
Like you have to take a breakin the middle of the day,
especially with support, and soyou pointing that out, I think,
is a really good point, that youhave to be hyper aware of that
as a remote leader.
Yeah, absolutely so.
What other challenges have youseen and encountered?

Erica (14:39):
Onboarding.
Oh my gosh to me on day two andbeen like I quit and I'm like
no what's wrong and they're justoverwhelmed because there's so
much information to know andmaybe we don't have a good
onboarding program, but, like,if you don't have that process
in place for managing knowledgeretention for your new people,
they are going to fail andthey're going to just stop

(15:00):
coming to work.
They're going to no call, noshow, their way out of a job and
that's going to be that.

Priscilla (15:05):
OK, so let's talk about onboarding in 2020.
So five years ago, we had avery small support team here at
Buzzsprout.
It was me and one other person,and we had just hired our third
person to come on the team.
And she had been hired.
Her start date was April 1st2020.
And we were all working in theoffice at that time most of the

(15:25):
time.
I mean, we all get along witheach other really well.
Most of us are local at thetime, and so we all came into
the office more days than wedidn't.
And then COVID happened, andabout midway through March there
was no more coming into theoffice and she was set to
onboard, starting on April 1st.
And I remember and she wasjoining my team and I remember
thinking, oh my gosh, how are wegoing to onboard someone when I

(15:50):
can't, we're not going to be inthe same room with them at all
during any point of theonboarding process, and it was
very new to me because I hadnever led or onboarded anyone in
a remote situation before, andso I learned a lot through that,
like first three months of heronboarding, and there were a lot
of challenges and a lot ofdifferences.
So what strategies have youthen learned as you've onboarded
people, especially in likedifferent countries?

(16:13):
Yeah, and kind of whatresources do you use as far as
like tools?
Do you have any technology,anything like that, that you use
to help onboard?

Erica (16:20):
Yes, I have onboarded hundreds of remote team members
over the year and I have gottenso much feedback from all of
them.
So here's what I've learnedmatters the most.
First, having a strong buddysystem in place.
Yeah, your new hire is going tobe overwhelmed, no matter how
much you have prepared for them,and they are going to have a

(16:41):
lot of questions, so please donot make them guess who they're
supposed to ask.
Assign them a buddy, or like acrew of buddies, like a bunch of
like homies, right, and makesure that those people have
opted into this as well, right?
You want their firstexperiences with the team to be
enthusiastic and helpful, withpeople who want to support them,
want to support them.

Priscilla (17:01):
Yeah, and it shouldn't be you, no, no.
I think sometimes the thoughtis, well, they can come to me
and ask me any questions theyhave.
But there's so much benefit tobuddying people with other
people on your team.
One, because it just gets themto get to know other people that
they're working with, yes, butalso because they need to know
that they can rely on their teamand not just you Absolutely as

(17:21):
the leader of the team.
So sometimes I know that I havefelt like, oh, maybe I'll be
the buddy for this person and Ihave to push against that and be
like, no, no, no, no.
I love buddying new people thatcome on and helping them out,
but that is not my job anymore,and so I think it is really
important that when you give abuddy to a new person coming on,
that it's someone that is kindof at a peer level, that can
come alongside them and they cango.

(17:42):
I want to ask this questionthat I wouldn't feel comfortable
asking to my leader, but maybeI can ask this other person
who's kind of at my same level.

Erica (17:50):
In addition to your buddy system, you're going to need
real training tools.
You need a real learningmanagement system.
You need strong knowledgemanagement, even translations in
local languages, if you canswing it, even if everyone
speaks English.
I don't know if anyone herespeaks a second or third
language, but I find it mucheasier to consume content in

(18:12):
English, even though my Spanishis pretty good, you know.
Yeah.
So if you can translate yourtrading materials and your LMS,
do it.

Jordan (18:19):
Yeah.

Erica (18:20):
Especially with AI translations available.
It's very cheap, if not free,to do that these days, yeah, but
I know that these things costmoney.
Right, I know you probablydon't have money.
I ran an organization of over150 people across five
countries, seven departments,under a $5 million all-in
budget.
Like I get it.
But the cost of a good LMS isnegligible compared to the

(18:41):
long-term impact.
It's going to add legitimacy toyour onboarding process.
It helps remote learnersengage.
It improves retention.
It makes knowledge gaps easierto spot.
If you really can't afford aproper knowledge base, it's
fine, right, use Google Docs,use what you have available, but
make sure that what you have ismeticulously organized.
If you can't have a learningmanagement system in place, have

(19:03):
a learning management person inplace.
And I would be remiss if I didnot shout out my man, leftary
Kotsulidakis, who I worked withat Shapeways, who built one of
the most comprehensive SOPmanuals I have ever seen in my
life.
It's the gold standard.
I keep three copies of itacross multiple storage devices

(19:28):
because I reference it as what Iwant my manuals to look like
all the time.
Yeah, if you don't have time tobuild something like that, you
can outsource that to a thirdparty, whether it's me right
through Sunshine CX or throughLeftary.
You could hire him to be yourknowledge manager.
Yeah, like you need somebodywho's in charge of these
documents and this experiencefor it to be really successful.

(19:51):
If you try and wing it everytime, it's going to feel that
way.

Priscilla (19:55):
Yeah, yeah, when you're trying to decide, is this
something I'm going to putmoney toward or put time toward
for my team?
Do you expect to be onboardinga lot of people over the next
couple years?
If you do, it is worth puttingthe time and effort in now to
get something in place.
Yes, so that when those peoplecome on, it makes those
processes so much simpler.
And like it could be somethingas simple as Google Docs, like

(20:17):
what you were saying.
I mean, I remember I had liketwo weeks of notice before Megan
started in a remote situationand I was like, ok, I got to
start writing things down, I gotto start preparing like and we
and meetings I had to makeasynchronous, and so even if
it's just something as simple asgetting all of that in place in
a written way, one, it helpsyou like sure up your processes

(20:50):
and why you do things the wayyou do them, because a lot of
that stuff sits in your head asa leader that you might not
communicate all the time to yourteam, and so when you sit down
and write it down, you go wait.
Why do we do this this way?
We do it this way because we'vealways done it like this Maybe
we can find another way to do itand so it kind of like helps
you shore up your processes andso, even if you don't have the
budget for something built out abig system, it's something you

(21:13):
can start working on with yournext onboarding right now, even
if it's something simple.

Erica (21:26):
And it's so much easier to audit your processes once
they're centralized, like thattoo.
Like, yeah, ok, you have atraining manual that's like one
hundred and fifty pages, yeah,ok, but you have it all.
You know it's cumbersome, butyou have it, and that's a lot
better than trying to look for asingle document somewhere
hidden in a Google Drive thatsomeone who doesn't work at the
company shared with somebodyelse who doesn't work at the
company anymore 10 years ago.

Jordan (21:44):
Well, and I imagine that putting that much time and
effort into creating acomprehensive manual and having
everything really easy to accesswould actually reduce the churn
rate for your employees too,which we all know the most
expensive thing you can do islike hire a new employee.
It is so expensive to do that,and so it's worth the time and

(22:06):
effort in that sense, right.

Priscilla (22:08):
Yeah, and you think about, like what is so natural
and easy when you're in anoffice next to someone who's new
and you're like, oh, they havea quick question, I can quickly
answer that, no problem, we'resitting next to each other in an
office or whatever it is.
What I realized was OK, nowwe're completely separated, and
I've got to figure out how to beavailable for this person when

(22:28):
they have questions, in a waythat is very intentional,
because otherwise there's thisbig roadblock in between us
where it's going to be so muchharder for this new hire, who's
been with us for however long aweek, to reach out and interrupt
me, because they're like gosh,I don't want to interrupt.
And so I think there's like alot of intentionality that comes
along with it, and so I knowthat when we were onboarding

(22:50):
Megan, we did a lot of like Zoomco-working.
We would just be together onZoom, but we were working
independently, and so then whenshe had a question, she could
just ask it and I'd be rightthere, but we weren't
necessarily in a meeting.

Erica (23:03):
It was more like co-working.

Priscilla (23:05):
And that really worked well for us and was kind
of this I was like gosh, how doI get her in the room with me
without being able to have herin the room with me?

Erica (23:13):
Yeah, and it totally does work and it's just, it's almost
just as good, right?
Yeah, Just to have somebody todo like swivel chair stuff with,
just like.
Hey, I need your help please,Just removing that barrier
Exactly Of the step in betweenyou and asking your question.
It's a little thing but it'shuge.

Jordan (23:29):
It actually helps people with ADD as well, like the
workplace mirroring.
Yeah, there's a lot of peoplethat go on like websites where
you actually just work with likeother strangers and you're just
all on this video and it'salmost like this psychological
thing where you feel like you'rein a workplace.
You could stay more focused.

Priscilla (23:46):
Yeah, yeah, well, and I think of like early days at
other jobs that I've been inwhere I've felt, you know,
apprehensive to ask a questionthat I feel like I should know
the answer to, and I'm in thesame room with them and it still
feels like a hurdle to jump.
I can't imagine onboardingcompletely remotely from someone
and not having a way to askthat question and feeling like,

(24:07):
okay, well, now I just I can't,I can't make myself ask it.
I'm just going to either figureit out on my own, which can be
more time consuming, or not askit, not clarify the information,
and then kind of be stuck.
And then that can lead to theburnout that you were talking,
because people can't learn aswell as they should when they
don't have quick access to theanswers they need.
So when you're hiring thensomeone who's going to work

(24:29):
remotely, erica, what qualitiesdo you look for for?
Like really good, like yourstellar remote workers?

Erica (24:36):
So when I'm hiring someone remote, regardless of
what level they're going to bein, they all have to be able to
work well independently.
And that does not mean somebodywho just sits down quietly and
knocks out their work anddoesn't bother anybody.
That's not what that means.
That means somebody who takesinitiative, somebody who asks

(24:57):
questions, who gets curious andwho really learns the ins and
outs of their area until theirpeers and other people around
them start seeing them as thego-to person.
Right, I need people who arenot afraid to speak up.
What we were just talking aboutis a great example of that.
I know it is scary to not knowthe answer, but I need you to be
brave.
I'm not being sarcastic, yeah,like you have to be brave and

(25:21):
you have to ask, even if youthink you might look like a fool
on the other side.
I've been there.
I try to set that example,especially for things I should
definitely know.

Priscilla (25:29):
Especially when you're working in support.
Yeah, because you're helpingother people.
So if you don't know theanswer, how are you going to
help someone else?
Yeah, and depending on yourindustry, you tell someone the
wrong thing because you're not100 percent sure about it.
It could be a real big problem.
It could be a really bigproblem.

Erica (25:45):
One of the teams I was overseeing was a copyright
administration team, sooverseeing intellectual property
rights and licensing andclearing samples.
You say the wrong thing inwriting and that's a fine of
$125,000.
That's a big mistake.
Yeah, it's costly and othersmall mistakes could be very

(26:06):
costly in the same way as in ahighly regulated industry.
So, yeah, you got to ask thosequestions.
You have to be brave.
It's going to be okay.
Yeah, and without a doubt,maybe most importantly is that I
need maturity, and this istricky to screen for, especially
in high volume support roles,where people are often either

(26:28):
earlier in their careers ormaybe making a career switch.
But it's really, reallycrucial.
You have to be both sensitiveand thick skinned at the same
time.
You have to be empathetic andfirm.
That balance is what makessomeone successful long-term in
a remote role.
In addition to those otheritems, you really need to be
independent.
Don't be afraid to speak up andask questions, and you have to

(26:50):
be mature.

Priscilla (26:51):
You have to yeah, I like the.
You have to be empathetic andfirm.
Yes, swinging too far on eitherone of those is really
dangerous in support, if you'retoo empathetic that you're not
following your processes becauseyou're feeling too much with
every single person that writesin, that can be a problem.
And then if you're so firm thatyou're not giving any empathy

(27:12):
to anyone, that can be reallydetrimental as well.
So I think finding someone inthat middle ground who has the
maturity to, like you weresaying, be thick-skinned but
also be able to connect withpeople on an emotional level, I
think that's a really good,important one to point out.
We always refer to kind of theindependent worker as a manager
of one.
That's the way that we talkabout it over here at

(27:33):
Buzzsprout.
But it's that idea that you arein charge of your work and you
are in charge of doing it well.
And that comes into play somuch when you're working
remotely, because the hope isthat no one is going to sit
there and micromanage your day.
And if you're working fromhome, that's even more obvious
that you're not going to havesomeone telling you what to do
and when to do it and so beingable to be in control of your

(27:54):
time and use it well and havehigh standards for yourself.
And hold yourself to that kindof a standard is something that
we look for a lot when we'rebringing on people, whether
you're going to be remote ornot, honestly, but it's so
important if you're workingremotely.
Yeah, so you mentioned this alittle bit before and it made me
think of this.
A couple of days ago, I was onReddit, classic my favorite

(28:15):
website.
I came upon a post that waspretty in line with what we're
talking about today and it wassomeone asking about how to keep
their team like connected in aremote setting.
There was like a question.
I was reading some of theanswers and kind of seeing what
people were saying, and oneperson wrote and said I assume
you have projects and timelinesand expectations.

(28:36):
Just relay those to your remoteteam and let them do the work.
Don't bother them during theday, just to be a manager.
Remote work is one of the fewgood things that we workers have
going and we don't need someonemicromanaging us.
And I read it and I was like,ok, I agree with some of that,
but there's some of that that Ithink I don't agree with.
And it was interesting becauseyou said it earlier, erica.

(28:57):
You said something like it'snot micromanaging, it's
connection, and so finding thebalance of like connecting with
your team without it comingacross as micromanagement is
really important, and so Ithought that that's just such a
great segue into this nextsection.
I want to talk about theconnection aspect of things.
I feel like it's really easy tolose that when you get into

(29:19):
remote work, especiallydepending on the types of people
you have on your teamintroverts versus extroverted
people.
You know you can lose thoseintroverts really easily if
you're not really intentionalabout staying connected with
them.
So, with that said, I feel likethere's this ongoing debate
about like how much socialconnection should there be in

(29:39):
your work, and so, in youropinion, like what is that role
for the social connection shouldthere be in your work?
And so, in your opinion, likewhat is that role for the social
connection?
How does that play into leadinga remote team?

Erica (29:47):
well, Social connection is part of your team's
infrastructure.
Without it, they will start tofeel like every interaction is
transactional and that'll showup in morale, in engagement is
transactional, and that'll showup in morale, in engagement
survey results, in the qualityof the work your teams are
outputting and in retention.
I think is going to be theeasiest way to see whether your

(30:10):
team's social connections areworking the way that are
intended right.
When people feel like they knoweach other, they collaborate
better, yes, and they show upmore honestly and they're more
likely to speak up whensomething feels a little bit
off, especially in support,where the work is emotional and
often thankless.
That sense of connectionamongst your peers who know the

(30:31):
work that you're doing reallywell is really important and I
found that making space forsilliness, yeah, and venting and
non-work related banter isactually a huge productivity
booster in addition to just likegetting to know the people you
work with better and then youcan advocate better for them
because you know them better asa boss Right.

(30:51):
It just gives people room tobreathe.
It gives everyone anopportunity to remember that
you're on the same team.
You're not just a bunch offaceless names on a Zoom call.
It's important.
Same team.
You're not just a bunch offaceless names on a Zoom call.
It's important and that's notto discount being left alone by
your boss, which is my favoriteway to be managed personally.
You know there has to be somebalance there.
Don't be forcing people intothings like virtual happy hours

(31:16):
if they don't want to do it.
You have to have people optinginto social connection.
It's okay if you have peoplewho just want to show up to work
and do work and sign off or gohome and not be friends with
their coworkers.
They're still a valuable partof your team and you still have
to treat them with respect.
It's a balance between whatpeople want and what people
need.
But social connection isextremely important and it's
going to differ acrossdepartments.

(31:38):
If you have multiculturalteams, it's going to differ
across locations depending onwhat's normal in that location
or in that office or in thatregion.
You really just got to bewilling to kind of go with it
and see what works.

Priscilla (31:50):
Yeah, and it's about knowing the people that are on
your team.
It's not necessarily aboutbeing besties with them and
being in every facet of theirlife, but it's about knowing
them and then when those hiccupsarise, you know like something
is a little rough or you have tohave a hard conversation.
You have more grace for eachother because you have a
foundation of knowing each otherand it's a lot easier to give

(32:13):
people the benefit of the doubtin either direction.
Yes, To give someone thebenefit of the doubt if you know
their character already.
And if you're working remotelyand you don't really know the
person you're working for andthey do something that maybe is
out of character, you might notknow that it's out of character
because you don't really knowthem that well, and then you
don't have the space to givethem the benefit of the doubt.

Erica (32:33):
The way that you're describing it.
I think that support teams alsohave to think about benefit of
the doubt, not just amongsttheir teammates, but the other
teams they work with to thisproduct and engineering teams
that are working on your toolsthat just don't know them.

(32:53):
They don't know you and you'redoing online interaction with
them and so it comes off asreally kind of cold and curt and
straightforward.
When you meet this person inperson, they're like so warm and
it's like bubbly and fun totalk to.
It just contextualizes thepeople that you work with.

(33:14):
It makes a big difference.

Priscilla (33:15):
Yeah, which is why it is so important to also have
those cross departmentrelationships as well.
I mean, we're talking aboutthis within kind of your support
team, but there is a lot ofvalue in knowing the people that
are on other teams.
Oh, yeah.
And at Buzzsprout it's kind oflike building the trust.
Battery is kind of how we talkabout it.
But getting to know each otherin a real way.
Who are you as a person, so I'mnot needing to get in every

(33:36):
facet of your life, but who areyou as a person?
So I'm not needing to get inevery facet of your life, but
who are you, what's your makeup,and then that way, two months
down the line, when somethingcomes up, I can see where you're
at and, like you said, havethat context for who you are and
how you act and things likethat.
I think it's a really importantpart of remote work.
So that kind of leads into thenthis idea that I feel like I

(33:59):
see a lot, especially in tech,of like meetups, meeting with
the whole team, so bringingeveryone together into one
location for you know, a week orwhatever, and getting together.
What's your opinion on likehaving those meetups, especially
someone who's worked with ateam that is so dispersed?

Erica (34:15):
So before anybody comes for me to say anything, let me
just preface this.
You can build a successfulremote team without ever meeting
up 100% possible.
However, if you have the budgetand you can get everyone there,
do it.
You're not going to regret it.
And if you can't get everyonethere, then make sure your

(34:37):
budget goes towards localprogramming and make it
equitable.
A question that I would getoften around my budgeting for
team events is like well, what'sour budget?
How much can we spend?
I'd be like well, I can't justgive the whole team the same
number, because the cost ofgoing out to dinner for 25
people in Mumbai is going to bea lot different than the cost of

(34:58):
going out to do a team buildingevent in New York City for six
people.
You know, it's really going tobe dependent on your locale.
Yeah, I was really lucky to beable to travel to see my teams
in their home offices often, andthose visits created a level of
connection and pride that wasreally irreplaceable.

(35:19):
I feel like I learned so muchabout my teammates that I never
would have gotten over Slack orover Zoom.
If you can be there in person,it means a lot to your teammates
to show up.
It'll mean even more if you canget everybody there together
and if you can't spending sometime and energy on figuring out
some other kind of way forpeople to get connected in a way

(35:41):
that's not just based on thejob that they do.
Every single day is going to goa long way for building
connections.

Priscilla (35:48):
I know the budget is a big deal when it comes to
that, because it can be reallyexpensive to bring everyone to
one place.
Scheduling is also really hardto find a time when everyone can
do it at the same time.
And then, once you're there,how do you get it so that
everyone can be together?
When you're a support team thatis working in an inbox that is
constantly full of emails, youcan't all take the day off to do

(36:11):
an offsite together.

Erica (36:13):
It's just not realistic for most teams.

Priscilla (36:16):
Yeah.
So it's really hard and youhave to be really, really
intentional about saying hey,when you're here, be here, be
focused.
Let that be either someoneelse's problem, another team for
the day, or let it sit.
Let your customers sit for ahalf a day and focus on the
team.
Yeah, I do think it's reallyimportant in building that trust
battery, like I was saying, andlike it gives you the ability

(36:37):
to work better as a team whenyou're back separated from each
other.
So I agree, if you have theability to do it and you have
the budget to make it happen,even if it's on a small scale
and it's just individual teams,it's so worth it.
It's really going to help yourteam be connected in a way.
That's, yeah, really necessary.

Jordan (36:54):
Oh yeah, it's something that I look forward to every
year when we do the meetup, andI always feel so much more
secure in my job.
I feel so much more secure withmy coworkers after I come back
and it's just like this amazingthing when I get to get in a
room and you can feel thepeople's energies and you can
like bounce ideas off each otherand there's something about

(37:17):
that that just makes you feel somuch more productive and
re-energized and, plus, you'reout of the house that you've
been living and working in 24,seven, right?
Yes, we have a conferencecoming up and something that
we're doing like.
If you have a team that goes toconferences, it's so easy to
just show up like a day or twoearly and take that time to be

(37:39):
together.
So if you're already, you know,footing the cost of going to a
conference and attending andgetting hotels and flights for
everybody, like maybe just youknow, add an extra day, add a
day.
And then you can get some ofthat in-person work done
together and, you know, dosomething together, yeah.

Priscilla (37:56):
It just goes toward that, like building up the
connection which adds thecontext, like you were talking
about Erica.
Ok, let's talk about likestrategy for keeping a team
connected when you're remote.
Do you have any kind ofcommunication strategies or
routines that you have used?

(38:18):
Erica, like I know a lot ofcompanies really live by the one
on one meeting.
I have some hot takes on one onones, but what have you put
into place?
Routines, strategies forkeeping that team connected and
functioning well as a team?

Erica (38:33):
So I think this will come as no surprise to anyone.
I love Slack.
I'm in 100 different Slackchannels.
I think Slack and the thingslike it, the things that came
before it, the campfires, thepropanes of the world allowed
Slack to run right yeah, soSlack.
Slack to run right yeah, soSlack, love it.
Microsoft Teams cannot recommendit.
I'm sorry, microsoft, it'spersonal.

(39:01):
I suffered for too long underyour thumb at a company that
used both Slack and MicrosoftTeams.
Yikes, I can't recommend it.
I've used them bothextensively.
I don't find Teams to be aparticularly effective tool.
Ditch it, don't use it.
But that said, the tools arereally only part of the
equation.
Right, routines are reallyeverything, and consistency in
those routines is key.
I like to start the week with aquick stand up just to set the

(39:21):
tone with the whole team.
We're talking something verylightweight to check in on the
priorities and the blockers forthe week.
If you can swing it, hold afull all team meeting later in
the week.
That's hard to do when you'vegot Latin America and Asia on
the same team.
Yeah, but do your best to makeit work and make sure you thank
everyone for their flexibility,although this is one of those

(39:43):
times where, if you, as theboss, have an opportunity to be
inconvenienced so that nobodyelse is inconvenienced, yeah,
this is what you get paid thebig bucks for Sign on early,
stay on late.
Sorry, you're the boss, that'syour job.
Every meeting needs to havedetailed agendas and published
notes that live in accessibleplaces.
Meeting hygiene matters a lotmore in remote environments

(40:04):
because you don't get theambient alignment just from
overhearing things from peoplein the office.
Yep, during busy seasons orperiods of change, I like to
send daily kind of end of dayreports to my entire
organization just to wrap up theday, clarify what happened when
it happened and keep everybodyon the same page, especially
because by the time my lastteam's time zone is signing off,

(40:27):
only a couple hours later thenext team is signing on for the
beginning of their next businessday.
So I don't want them to waitfor me to find out what happened
the day before so that they canget started.

Priscilla (40:36):
Yeah.

Erica (40:37):
We also like to set clear expectations around workloads
and outcomes and revisit themoften to keep everybody on the
same page.
And I think, last but notleast, I'm a really firm
believer in feedback.
I prefer to not receive itanonymously, but a lot of people
are understandably scared ofthings like retaliation, and so
I will collect anonymousfeedback.

(40:58):
Remote teams can get weirdlyquiet, especially if morale
starts to dip.
You need to give people a safeway for them to speak up and be
honest, and that feedback loopis what keeps your
communications from becoming onedirectional.
Make sure that your strategyfor keeping people in the loop
is working and don't just assumethat it is.
And that's where those feedbackloops come into play.

Priscilla (41:17):
Yeah, I think you were talking about like have
everything written down.
I like the sending the dailycheck in.
You know, at the end of theday, to say here's what happened
today.
Especially when you have peoplein different time zones, like
you were saying, that are goingto come in, they need to know
what happened the two hoursbefore they came in.
They need to know if there wassomething going on, if there was
a bug, that maybe it gotresolved and it's not going to

(41:38):
affect them, but they need thatcontext when they're working on
tickets that are residual fromthat time, and so it is really
important to write everythingdown and give everyone access to
that information that if youwere in a room together, they
would know about, but becauseyou're not, it's so easy to lose
that information, and so Ithink that's a really important
one.
Also, I would just say makesure you have a space in your

(42:00):
day to day for like chat.
I mean, you said make space forlike silliness, I think.
You know you lose the watercooler of it all when you're not
in an office.
You know that like what did youwatch last night?
How was your weekend?
You lose that when you're fullyremote, unless there is an
avenue for it.
So in Basecamp we have a chatand it is not required to be a

(42:22):
part of, but it's where we saygood morning, it's where we let
people know, you know, if we'regoing to take a long lunch or if
we're going to be off a fewminutes early.
It's where we ask people abouttheir weekends or celebrate
birthdays.
And it's nice because it's notrequired.
You don't have to be in thereand you don't have to go and you
know if you take some days ofPTO, you don't have to go back
and read through all the chat.
But it's a nice avenue for justkind of that social interaction

(42:47):
alongside.
You know all the other chatsthat you have that are about
work related.
Yes, you know process things.

Erica (42:55):
We had a few really fun routines at TuneCore around
fostering connection like thisyeah, so every day around like 4
pm ish, eastern in Slack,somebody would post an
icebreaker and it became athing.
People would announce earlierin the day if they thought of
something that they wanted toask.
I got an idea for the 4 pmquestion.
they would post in slack, sonobody else would post something

(43:15):
and there'd be this likebuild-up of anticipation super
silly, very low pressure, superfun.
Uh, we're talking like wouldyou rather fight a chicken the
size of 10 dogs, or know that onearth there is a slug that if
it comes in contact with you,you will die Like?
Which of those scenarios wouldyou rather have?

(43:36):
Like campfire?

Jordan (43:36):
games.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Erica (43:39):
Super, super fun stuff.
Another one we really liked waswhen we would have new hires
starting at their first all teammeeting.
They would introduce themselvesand they would do two truths
and a lie, which very culturallyAmerican yeah, we learned.
Yeah, ok, and there was a lotof really fast trauma sharing
going on.
A lot of people are willing tojust put their traumas out and

(44:02):
two truths and a lie to a bunchof strangers, and I got to say
I'm here for it, yeah, I washere.
Yeah, I loved it.
And then we also had one of myteams did icebreakers in their
weekly meeting too.
It was just like is a hot dog asandwich?
Like that kind of thing.
Right yeah, what's the bestGirl Scout cookie?
That one caused a, I think, acompany meltdown at Paperless

(44:26):
Post in like 2017.

Jordan (44:29):
Someone in my team.
Their favorite question to askis what is the craziest
conspiracy theory that youbelieve in?
And that will reveal a lotabout people.
I have bonded very quickly withpeople like, wow, you believe
that one too.
That's good.

Priscilla (44:44):
That's a good one.
That is really good.
I like what you said abouthaving defined agendas and
keeping your meetings reallydefined when you're doing those.
I hesitate to be a big fan ofone-on-ones, yeah, because a lot
of times I feel likeone-on-ones just become this
routine.
They're not that beneficial andthey happen just for the sake

(45:05):
of happening, and I don't lovemeetings that just happen for
the sake of happening, I agree.
So I think if you're going tohave those meetings, which I
think can be really valuable,the thing that makes them
valuable is having that agendabeing really, you know, focused
when you're in that meeting onwhat are you doing here and how
long are we going to spend doingthis, and that way that meeting
doesn't end up being, you know,three hours of conversation

(45:28):
that circles around some topicswe wanted to talk about, but has
a really good focus and a timelimit, and I think that can be a
really good way to have thatconnection and to keep things on
track.
But once you find that yourmeetings are just meetings for
the sake of meetings, you shouldstep back and figure out how to
change that, because that iswhere you get into this
dangerous like time-, routinesthat are no good for anyone,

(45:51):
totally agree, okay, so, as wewrap up, we always like to give
advice to leaders, both in smallteams or new leaders or leaders
of really big teams, for kindof how they can take this and
put it into action.
So what advice would you havefor leaders?
First, let's talk about, likenew leaders, people who don't
have a big support team.

(46:11):
Maybe they're like I was fiveyears ago when all of a sudden,
you're leading someone in asupport situation, you don't
know what you're doing.
What advice would you give tothem?

Erica (46:19):
So the first thing I would recommend and I always
recommend this to my teams whenI have people come on board,
especially if they're gettingpromoted into like a team lead
or anything where you'reresponsible for managing people
on board, especially if they'regetting promoted into like a
team lead or anything whereyou're responsible for managing
people Do yourself a favor andgrab this book called the
Culture Map.
It is a terrific and veryaccessible starting point for

(46:39):
understanding how cultural normsshape communication and
feedback and expectations atwork.
The Culture Map is specific tomanaging global teams, but there
are a lot of lessons to belearned about just managing
different personalities too, andit's an easy read.
I would never recommendsomething to you that felt like
a textbook.
Oh my goodness.

(46:59):
But, you will not regret that,beyond grabbing the culture map,
commit to consistency,transparency and communications
to your teams.
Do not ghost your team.
Do not be mysterious, do notdrop policies from the sky on
top of them without context.
You have to make sure that youare somebody who they know and

(47:20):
they trust.
You have to be visible, for asmuch as you want to see your
teams and what they're up to,they need to see you, to know
that you're still there for themand I think making space for
fun, it really matters.
Honestly, we've talked about ita lot.
Try and learn something fromeach of your teammates.

(47:41):
Everybody brings something tothe table and your culture as a
team is going to be strongerwhen you treat your team as more
than just a workflow for thecompany.

Priscilla (47:46):
Yeah, it is so true.
You can be so productive,especially, you know, working
from home.
You can really find a lot ofproductivity there, but make
sure that you are making spacefor your team to have fun.
It will help with burnout, itwill help with communication.
It'll help in so many ways.
So I think that's a great kindof place to leave it is.
Don't lose fun just becauseyou're working from home.
Thanks so much for coming,erica.

(48:08):
This was really fun.
I feel like I know I learned alot, especially about global
teams that I just have had noexperience with.
But before you go, I want tomake sure that everyone knows
how to get in touch with you.
So can you tell us a little bitabout Sunshine CX and how
listeners can get in touch withyou?

Erica (48:24):
Sunshine CX is my consulting practice where I help
companies build customerexperience strategies that don't
suck.
So that means building bettersystems, smarter support and
usable processes that are goingto scale with you.
So I offer consulting andproject-based work.
I also offer fractionalleadership VOC research.

(48:47):
I love doing voice of customerprojects.
I love them.
So you can find most of mybrand shenanigans on Instagram,
which is sunshinecxbklynBrooklyn.
Okay, I was like hold on.
And I also run a pet carebusiness on the side called Tofu
and Friendos.

(49:08):
Tofu is my wobbly cat and thepast six months I have been
picking up pet sitting gigs andwe just filed for a DBA so we
could pay our taxes.

Jordan (49:18):
And it's so cute.

Erica (49:19):
It's so cute.

Jordan (49:21):
Oh my gosh, it's the best.

Erica (49:23):
So that is Sunshine CX and how you can stay in touch.

Priscilla (49:26):
I love it and everyone should go check out
Erica.
In addition to being a wealthof knowledge around customer
experience, she's also justreally fun and entertaining, and
she has so many facets to her.
She's also a musician, so Iwould definitely highly
recommend that you go check outErica.
Especially if you're strugglingto give your customers a
remarkable service.
She can come alongside you andhelp you do that really, really

(49:48):
well.

Erica (49:51):
Please let me help you, I would love to.

Priscilla (49:55):
It's time for Support in Real Life, our segment where
we discuss real life supportexperiences.
Jordan, what do you have for ustoday?

Jordan (50:02):
All right, so this is from Reddit.
Someone asked is there a betterway to ask for feedback without
annoying customers?
They say I've been working onimproving our onboarding
experience for new users,especially those coming in
through email outreach.
I started adding a quickfeedback question at the end of
every onboarding email,something like was this helpful
or is there anything missing?

(50:22):
And it worked okay.
I got some insights, but I alsonoticed unsubscribes creeping
up right after those emails wentout.
So now I'm wondering how do youask for feedback without making
it feel like another task?
Do you just wait until a userhits a certain point in their
journey or just ask early on?

Priscilla (50:39):
I mean, that's a good question.
I feel like feedback is soimportant to get and it is hard
because you don't have completecontrol over it.
Whether you are getting honestfeedback, whether you're getting
consistent feedback, it's notup to you.
Sometimes you have to do yourbest to ask for it, but
sometimes you're not going toget it the way you want to.
Erica, do you have anystrategies or recommendations
for that?

Erica (50:58):
I think when it comes to collecting feedback, you really
have to go far out of your wayto get everybody's feedback.
A lot of BOC programs start ashow do I translate customer
satisfaction scores toexecutives?
But that only tells the storyof the people who needed to talk
to you.
It doesn't tell you the storyof everybody else.
I found not possible with everyproduct, or reasonable with

(51:24):
every product.
But if you can get out in frontof your customers face-to-face
in person, if you have a brandthat does meetups for your
customers, for example, orevents, which we had a lot of at
TuneCore, that was a ton ofopportunity to get in front of
people and ask them like, hey,what are we doing?
That makes it harder for you toget what you need to get done,
or what are we doing well, whatdo you like about our brand?

(51:46):
What do you like about ourproduct?
Don't think we get enoughpositive feedback into our
product feedback loops and, as aresult, we're always focused on
what's broken but not what'sworking.
So I don't know, that's not aperfect answer, but finding
creative ways to get yourcustomers who are happy to tell
you that they're happy, inaddition to getting your

(52:06):
customers who are unhappy totell you why is going to be your
first step forward?

Priscilla (52:11):
Yeah, I think one thing you said you know getting
in front of people face to face.
I think the more personal thebetter.
When it comes to askingfeedback, yes, I mean I know
that when I get an email that'sso clearly a follow-up email,
it's like how did this go?
I'm not going to do that.
But if I got a call fromsomeone, or if I got an email
from Sarah on the support teamasking me to give her some

(52:33):
feedback on the last supportexperience, then I might
actually do it.
I'm talking to a real person,or I'm talking to could be a
real person, but it could alsojust be an email that's written
in a way that feels real.
You know, if you don't have theability to actually put a
person on it, you could writeemails in a way that feel really
natural and really personal.
I think it's going to solicitbetter feedback and more honest

(52:53):
feedback.

Erica (52:54):
I think we're going to really want to disconnect a lot
of feedback loops from specificactions.
So we send customersatisfaction surveys to find out
how people liked the supportthey received.
There are in-app feedbacksurveys all the time throughout
the customer journey.
But we need to do a better jobof soliciting feedback
separately from something elsethat's going on.

(53:14):
If you have swaths of customerswho don't reach out, who are
renewing.
If you have a renewable productor repeat customers, just send
them an email out of nowherekind of.
I know that sounds like a kindof ridiculous practice, but,
like when I get a random emailfrom a company I don't hear from
often that says we would likeyour feedback, I'm like great

(53:35):
news, I have time.
You're going to get less biasin your feedback if you're
reaching out at regular,nonspecific intervals, even
though it sounds like it isn'tgoing to give you better
results, because people won't bethinking about only just that
one experience that they had.
They'll be thinking aboutholistically, their experience
with your product.

Priscilla (53:54):
Yeah, and you can send those out without them
being like directly after anexperience and still make them
specific.
You can still ask for specificfeedback.
I think you know we did asurvey for our podcasters at the
end of last year and we kept itto like two questions, easy
yeah, at the end of last year,and we kept it to like two
questions, easy yeah.
No one wants to answer a 30question, three page survey that

(54:14):
you get 10 questions into andgo oh my gosh, this is going to
take me 30 minutes.

Erica (54:18):
It's only 10 percent done.
No.

Priscilla (54:20):
Yeah, exactly.
So pick two questions or onequestion and make it really
simple, and one of thosequestions can be what else do
you want to tell us, or what arewe doing well, or leave it
open-ended like that.
But think about the feedbackthat you want to be getting,
like what is it that you'retrying to learn more about?
And be specific on yourquestions.
And then, when you send outthose emails, make them as

(54:42):
personal as you can make them,because I think people are going
to feel more open to sharingthat information if they feel
like they're talking to a realperson.
More open to sharing thatinformation if they feel like
they're talking to a realperson.
If it's so clearly a bot that'ssending them an email, that's
going to go immediately to thetrash, at least in my personal
experience.
Yeah, if you have a question ora support story or situation
that you would like us todiscuss or shout out, you can

(55:03):
email us at happy to help atbuzzsproutcom or text the show
using the link in the episodedescription.
You may hear a question or astory that you submit discussed
on a future episode.
As always, if you liked thisepisode, please share it with
someone who works in support whowould benefit from some of
these tips and strategies.
Thank you again, erica, forcoming.

(55:24):
This was a lot of fun.
I really appreciate you joiningus for this conversation.
Thank you for having me.
I had a blast, and thank you toeveryone for listening.
Now go and make someone's day.