After 700+ live Help Scout classes, Alison Groves has figured out what makes customer education work — mistakes. Well, not exactly, but that's part of it.

In this episode of The Supportive, Mat talks to Help Scout's Customer Education Lead, Alison, about what she's learned, how to get started, and why imperfection builds trust.

WHAT WE COVER:

- Why 90%+ of Alison's attendees stay for the full session

- The three types of people who show up (and what each of them needs)

- Why making mistakes live is a feature, not a bug

- How to start even if you have zero experience

- What happens when only 3 people show up vs. 120

- Whether AI will make live human teaching more or

less valuable

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Introduction

0:32 Meet Alison — 700+ classes and counting

4:11 What makes a great teacher (and a terrible one)

5:41 Getting over the fear of being wrong

8:09 Why people sign up for live classes

11:30 Live teaching vs. recorded demos

14:07 The value of imperfection

17:59 Advice for getting started

20:06 Your first step: just record yourself

22:14 Big class vs. small class — does it matter?

25:25 How to know if it's working

For notes and links: https://helpscout.com/blog/teach-your-customers/