Podcast | Support Driven

Our final episode of the season delves into the world of support engineering. What the heck is it, exactly? How can you make your first steps into support engineering? How can you sharpen your troubleshooting skills? All this and more, including highlights from Support Driven and a bubbly chat about seltzer. Hosts: Abby Armada (Slack: […]

This episode answers the question, “How the heck does support work with product?” You’ll get insight from our guest, Andrea Saez from ProdPad. As always, we start with some highlights from the Support Driven Slack, and then end with a discussion about our favorite summer desserts. Hosts: Abby Armada (Slack: @abby, Twitter: @mygiantrobot) Diana Potter […]

Our hosts are joined by Ethan Walfish from Salsify to talk the ins-and-outs of customer onboarding: where to begin, some major pit-falls and lessons learned. You’ll also hear some great highlights from the Support Driven Slack, as well as passionate discussions about a divisive Fall staple: pumpkin spice. Hosts: Abby Armada (Slack: @abby, Twitter: @mygiantrobot) […]

Listener Feedback Survey: https://supportdriven.typeform.com/to/nsoXqO Our hosts are joined by Kelly O’Brien and Stephen Zappia to talk about knowledge management and documentation. You’ll learn some best practices for building user documentation as well as maintaining internal documentation for your own team. Hosts: Abby Armada (Slack: @abby) Diana Potter (Slack: @dpotter) Guests: Kelly O’Brien (Slack: @kellyo) Stephen Zappia […]

Listener Feedback Survey: https://supportdriven.typeform.com/to/nsoXqO Our hosts are joined by Diego Ventura to discuss machine learning and automation. You’ll learn if robots will take your job, if you’re ready to dive into machine learning and some practical steps for getting started. Hosts: Abby Armada (Slack: @abby) Diana Potter (Slack: @dpotter) Guests: Diego Ventura (Slack: @Diego Ventura) For […]

Listener Feedback Survey: https://supportdriven.typeform.com/to/nsoXqO After covering some highlights from the last week on the Support Driven Slack, our hosts are joined by James Baldwin from Change.org and Shervin Talieh from PartnerHero to discuss outsourcing: why and when should you consider it? What does a healthy relationship with a vendor look like? How do keep your outsourced […]

Listener Feedback Survey: https://supportdriven.typeform.com/to/nsoXqO After covering some highlights from the last week on the Support Driven Slack, our hosts are joined by Cathy Childs from Rinse to discuss Ticket QA. They give some practical advice on how to begin a process for assuring quality with tickets in your organization as well as how to start that […]

After covering some highlights from the last week on the Support Driven Slack, our hosts are joined by Alison Groves and Sarah Betts to talk about self-care. They give some practical advice on how to avoid overworking and also some tips on choosing a company that values its employees’ well-being. Hosts: Abby Armada (Slack: @abby) […]

In this episode we’re discussing metrics and data with Nicholas Tang from MongoDB. And, of course, food. Links: https://www.kayako.com/blog/hiring-customer-service-representatives/ Hosts: Abby Armada (Slack: @abby) Diana Potter (Slack: @dpotter) Guests: Nicholas Tang (@Nicholas Tang) For more information on Support Driven and our Slack community, click here. Intro/Outro Music: Katsuhiko – Big Bang Jump This episode of […]

In this episode, we discuss providing B2C (business to consumer) support and how that can differ from B2B (business to business) support contexts. Also, we have a lively discussion on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and how to make one the correct way. We also debate whether In-N-Out has the best burgers of any chain. Hosts: […]

In this episode, we discuss hiring, culture fit, personality tests, and of course, food. Links: https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/the-science-of-chicken-soup/ Hosts: Abby Armada (Slack: @abby) Diana Potter (Slack: @dpotter) Guest: Chris McCraw (Slack: @fool) For more information on Support Driven and our Slack community, click here. Intro/Outro Music: Katsuhiko – Big Bang Jump This episode of Recap is brought […]

In this episode, we discuss transitions as they relate to your career in customer support. Hosts: Abby Armada (Slack: @abby) Diana Potter (Slack: @dpotter) Andrew Spittle (Slack: @andrewspittle) Guests: Denise Twum (Slack: @awurama) Keisha Washington (Slack: @Keisha) For more information on Support Driven and our Slack community, click here. Intro/Outro Music: Katsuhiko – Big Bang […]

With 30 years in customer service, Mikael Blaisdell shares his insights into the past and on the future of the industry. Highlights: The forces driving the evolution of customer service The future of customer service Why SaaS changes everything The importance of data Show Notes: mblaisdell.com Customer Success Forum Customer Success Association

Ben shares how he got started conducting user interviews and sharing those insights with his team. Highlights: Getting started with user interviews Learning insights from talking with users Sharing results with the team Learning to do user research Show Notes: Trello @bmccormack

It’s not often we get to hear about how an online community gets started. Mercer Smith-Looper, Customer Champion and Community Moderator at Wistia, gives us the inside scoop on how the Wistia Community came to be and what it’s like to do both support and community management at the same time. Highlights: Going from idea […]

Mat Patterson, Head of Customer Support at Campaign Monitor, talks about the challenges that come with growing his team around the world and in the office. Highlights: Deciding to go remote Recruiting, interview and hiring remotely Working with remote peers Managing remotely Show Notes: Campaign Monitor Tracky Dacks @mrpatto

Mike Grafham, head of Customer Success at Yammer, shares his experiences growing his team and talking about the evolving nature of Customer Success. Highlights include: The origin of Customer Success at Yammer Deciding which customers to talk to Measuring Customer Success Building a network of customers and partners Moving from account based to activity based […]

Christa Collins, VP of Customer Care at Squarespace, shares her experiences with the challenges of growing the team from 1 to over 180 people. Highlights include: Going from Christa’s kitchen to New York City Is this a job or a career? Facing the challenges of scheduling 24/7 support Hiring and building a team in Dublin […]

Shervin Talieh, CEO of PartnerHero and formerly CEO of Drumbi, explains the problem with using post service surveys and what to do about it. Highlights include: What post service surveys are What’s the problem with them What could be done differently Getting feedback and improving the team Getting feedback from customers Show Notes: The problem […]

Heidi Craun shares how her small team supports millions of users on the mobile Expedia apps through usability testing. Highlights include: How the support team got started with usability testing Learning usability testing The different types of usability they conduct How the results of the tests influence product and support Tips on getting started with […]

Kathleen Rouse shares how she uses stories to help her customers reach success at Yammer and Findly. We cover how to use stories and how to get better at it. We talk about training a team on the Anecdote Storytelling Framework and the value of a common framework. Show Notes: Storytelling at Yammer Elements of […]

“What if you could use customer support proactively to create wow experiences.” Nick Francis shares stories from the early days of Help Scout. Stories about doing support, talking with early customers to guide the product and bending over backwards to create wow moments. Nick talks about reaching out to customers with proactive support to help […]

“I don’t think that you can call yourself a thoughtful, design focused company if there are huge chunks of the experience that you don’t put thought into.” As the designer for Q Branch, Dave talks about the product experience being more than how it looks and how it works, it also includes all of a […]

Evan shares how he sees community and how to find it. We talk about his tips for engaging the community, getting support from your bosses and hiring a community manager. We explore the overlap between community and customer support and where things are heading. Show Notes: Being part of your community as a strategic benefit […]

Getting hacked is bad news. Making all of your users reconnect to Twitter when you’re a social media company is the stuff nightmares are made of. Carolyn Kopprasch tells the story behind how Buffer learned about the hack and how transparency defined Buffer’s response to it. Where a lot of companies pay lip service to […]

With a fully distributed support team at Automattic, Andrew Spittle shares how they deliver happiness to users by focusing on personal happiness. We talk about the culture of trying lots of things, small failures and how it all works for a team of more than 60 support people. Show Notes: Automattic WordPress.com 24/7/365: How Distributed […]

Roland shares the origin story behind Olark and why they started doing all hands support and why they keep doing it today with more than 20 people. We talk about how all hands support contributes to the product at Olark and tips on how to get started with all hands support. Show Notes: Olark All […]

Chase shares stories about how he got started doing support at Basecamp, the company formerly known as 37signals, how he got better at writing and empathizing with people and what happens when all of the apps go down. We also talk about tips for everyone on support, running online classes and tips for remote working. […]

From the Wastes of Apathy to the Mountains of Chat Skeptics, Aaron Wheeler of Moz shares the stories behind his quests in building empathy within the company for the customer to quantifying the value of live chat and more. Using the power of metrics, wit and hard work, his stories will give you inspiration for […]

Micah shares his story about changing careers and joining Zapier as the first support person. We talk about working remotely and putting a personal touch on a very technical product. Show Notes: Zapier @micahbennett

Jeff shares how Wistia scaled support. We talk about how they used help sites, webinars, in app help and screencasts and what worked and didn’t work for them.. Show Notes: Lifting The Heavy Ass Weights of Support Wistia @jeffvincent

Joe talks about why Bombing Brain Interactive, an independent app developer, cares about customer support, what they did to improve the support experience and he offers tips on how to start improving support in your apps. Show Notes: Transcribed and edited version of this interview 360iDev – Customer Support – Building Apps for the Long […]