Support Ops Hangouts

We're at our final episode, the ultimate episode if you will. Over the past few weeks, we've been collecting your questions for this rapid fire episode. So grab a coffee and listen as we dive into very important questions like "Is it better to be a dragon or have a pet dragon?".  

We're down to our final two episodes! With our penultimate episode, we're chatting about supporting your team both at work and in life. As a manager, it can be tough supporting a teammate going through something big outside of work, especially if you're a newer manager. From happy moments like a new baby or a more sorrowful moment like a death in their family, it's your job to support the team member as well as the rest of the team.

With only three episodes left, we wanted to take a look into the future of customer support. Are the bots coming for our jobs? Will you be doing the same job in ten years? Let's take a look into that crystal ball and talk through what we expect to happen.

This week, we’re talking about customer support career paths. We all agree that a career in customer support is worthwhile. But what does that look like?

We’ve seen more and more companies set up support as a reactive, first line of defence. Meanwhile, success teams don’t handle cases like that and focus instead on helping the customer achieve their goals by using your product. Is that a smart way to split up your team when it comes to onboarding new customers?

When it comes to customer onboarding, we've seen a growing trend of the white glove approach. Dedicated account managers, personalized training, and anything else that you can tailor to that one customer in hopes of convincing them to buy.  On this episode, we'll look at how successful the white glove approach really is. 

Customers love online classes and demos that help get them up-to-speed on a new product. From the team side, it's often easier to host weekly trainings like this rather than individual ones for everyone. With today's episode, we'll take a look at how effective those classes are and if your team should be offering them.

Up to this point in the series, we've talked about how onboarding works when it's a single person signing up to try your product. If you're in the B2B business though, it's often a group of people that need to both try your product and decide if they're going to buy. How does that shift from a person to a group change your onboarding process?

Remember Clippy - the fun yet kinda irritating assistant from Microsoft? Onboarding tools have come a long way since then. There are all sorts of guided setups, wizards, tours, and more that companies use to make sure new customers are set up for success. But how effective are those guided setup tools? 

We touched on a few manual options for contacting customers in the earlier episodes of this series. That made us wonder - if you notice a certain company signs up for your product, does that prompt you to reach out to them?

Most new customer onboarding flows tend to be one size fits all. Everyone who signs up goes through the same steps, receives the same emails, and gets the same advice. But is that the right approach to take?

It's a new series from your favorite support crew! When a customer signs up for your product, you want to give them the best onboarding experience possible. With this series, we'll take a look at best practices and ideas for helping every customer learn your product and convert to a paying customer. For this episode, we'll take a look at personalized messages to new customers. While this often takes the form of some welcome email, there's other things you can do too.

On the last episode, we looked at how to actively seek out feedback from your team for yourself. But what happens when it's you and your boss? With this episode, we tackle how you can give feedback to your own manager and C-suite team.  On this episode, we'll fill in the blank with “Regardless of seniority, every good manager gives feedback upward.”

With support teams, our empathy often creates a culture of nice where it can be tough to have candid discussions. We hold our opinions back rather than risk being confrontational. But a good manager will create a culture that encourages candor and open discussions.  On this episode, we'll fill in the blank with “Regardless of seniority, every good manager actively seeks out feedback from their team.”

It's rarely a good idea to bottle up all the knowledge you have that makes you a great manager. But how do we make sure others on our team are ready to step into our shoes? On this episode, we’ll talk about the idea that “Regardless of seniority, every good manager trains their replacement.”

Everyone makes mistakes, even super managers and team leads. It's how we handle those mistakes that set good managers apart from the not-so-good ones.  On this episode, we’ll look at the idea that “Regardless of seniority, every good manager will admit mistakes and not hide them.”

One of the things we've been talking about at Basecamp is the idea that 40 hours is plenty of time for work. Is that enough time for your team though? And how do you make sure they stick to 40 hours, especially when you're a remote team and can work any time you'd like? On this episode, we’ll fill in that good manager sentence with – “Regardless of seniority, every good manager helps balance the team's work/life schedule.”

Jeff started a great conversation on the last episode around the idea of growth paths and grow-outs. We'll continue that conversation this week and look at the idea - "Regardless of seniority, every good manager creates growth paths for their team."

Leading a team is all about knowing the strengths and weaknesses of others on the team. It helps you to put the right people in the right roles for the project. But how do you find out the strengths/weaknesses of individual team members? And what happens if if someone has outgrown their role on the team? On this episode, we'll fill in that good manager sentence with - "Regardless of seniority, every good manager knows their team's strengths."

Everyone talks about the power with regular 1:1s between you and your team. But are they really worth it? And how important is it go have them regularly scheduled? On this episode, we'll talk about the idea that “Regardless of seniority, every good manager will keep regular 1:1s.”

"It's not personal, it's just business". You've heard this phrase before and maybe even said it. But is it true? On this episode, fill in the good manager question with this belief - “Regardless of seniority, every good manager will care personally.”

Next up in our "Every Good Manager Will..." series is an important one that often gets overlooked. Managers tend to focus on action - do this, don't do that, etc. On this episode, we talk about the idea that “Regardless of seniority, every good manager will listen.”

It's new series time here around the show. There was a great Tweet that caught my eye, both because it's a great prompt and had a great conversation thread alongside it. "Regardless of seniority, every good manager will" and you get to fill in the blank. With this series, we're filling in that blank. And on this episode, we're talking about encouraging and developing each team member. "Regardless of seniority, every good manager will encourage and develop each of their team members."

Camille E. Acey joins the show this week as our special guest. You might remember her from SupConf NYC back in November. We look at how burnout happens and more importantly, how you can help your team both prevent and manage it.

With special guest Emily Triplett Lentz on the show, we take a look at one of her recent articles over on the Help Scout site. In The ROI of Thanking Your Customers, she makes a case that something as simple as a thank you card can have a big impact on customers as well as the business's bottom line.

It's the last in our boundary series so we're focusing entirely on your customer borders. When you have customers that have been with your company forever, it's tempting to set them up with perks and special treatment. Where's the line for these types of VIP customers?

This week we're talking about one of the most important boundaries to set - your time. We look at ways to control how much time you spend on your work and how much of your time people grab for themselves. Best of all, you'll hear how each of us says "no" to protect our own time.

If you don't have clear boundaries on when to share one's work, a person can get wrapped up in it and let it become part of them. If/when the work doesn't pan out, that person can get discouraged and frustrated. All that brings us to this week's question - how much work should you let your team put into a project before sharing?

This week, we kick off a new series focused on boundaries. We have boundaries all around. With customers. With team members. With work itself. This series it going to look at those boundaries and help you rough in where the lines actually are. First up - social media.

It's our live show from SUPCONF NYC! With it's AMA style, we tackle everything from "Do you have any advice for someone who wants to get into support with no experience?" to "What you rather be a dragon or have a pet dragon?".