Customer Support Leaders

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Ever wondered how a support desk manager transforms the reputation of their team from the "black sheep" to a pivotal player in brand development and customer interaction? Join me, Charlotte Ward, as I sit down with Steve Tondé from PayShepherd, a Canadian fintech company, who shares his transformative leadership journey and the evolving role of support teams in today's tech-driven landscape. With the rise of SaaS, support teams are stepping into the spotlight, and Steve shares how engaging with critical departments like finance and product development can prioritize customer feedback and drive impactful change. Through his personal experiences, Steve offers valuable insights into the power of transparency and communication across teams, providing a treasure trove of advice for new leaders eager to understand their company and its stakeholders from the start.

Explore the intricate web of interdepartmental dynamics as Steve and I discuss the importance of understanding key performance indicators (KPIs) across different functions to foster successful collaboration. I recount a personal experience where misalignment with another department's KPIs led to a roadblock, highlighting the necessity of building honest relationships to bridge these gaps. We'll delve into the art of finding parallel goals for shared success and the value of stepping out of comfort zones to engage with colleagues across the organization. This episode is a humbling reminder that sometimes our priorities need reevaluation to align with broader organizational needs, underscoring the essential role of relationship-building in nurturing growth and improvement.

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What if handling awkward workplace conversations could be less daunting and more compassionate? Join us as we sit down with Hilary Dudek from Gluco, who shares her expert strategies for navigating these challenging discussions with grace and empathy. With five years of tech support experience under her belt, Hilary emphasizes the importance of putting yourself in the other person's shoes and maintaining a balance between professionalism and warmth. She explains how intentional language and face-to-face communication, even via Zoom, can transform a difficult conversation into a constructive dialogue. 

Listen to Hilary's heartfelt recounts of empathy, from shedding sympathy tears to offering team members the space they need to process difficult news. She candidly discusses her own struggles with maintaining a poker face and the emotional complexities of delivering tough feedback. Learn practical advice on allowing employees to revisit conversations after some time, providing a thoughtful approach to difficult workplace interactions. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to master the art of compassionate communication in the workplace.

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What makes a Customer Liaison Officer indispensable during incident management? Join us as we tap into the expertise of Kat Gaines, who shares her invaluable experience and detailed examples to illuminate the crucial responsibilities of this role. Discover how effectively bridging the communication gap between incident response teams and customer-facing staff can transform your incident response strategy. Kat delves into the art of aggregating customer-reported issues and managing internal expectations, revealing why sticking to standard processes just won't cut it during high-stress incidents.

Beyond the basics, we explore the nuanced tasks of real-time decision documentation and post-incident action auditing, essential for thorough reviews and continuous improvement. Kat also brings to light the often-overlooked mental health challenges in customer support roles, the pitfalls of heroism culture, and the necessity of setting clear boundaries to prevent burnout. Tune in for leadership strategies that foster a supportive and effective environment, catering to diverse work styles and ensuring your team remains resilient in the face of stress. Whether you're a seasoned professional or new to incident management, this episode promises to enhance your understanding and capability in handling high-pressure situations.

I'd love your thoughts on this episode! Comment below, and like/love/share/support if you found this inspiring, thought-provoking, or useful!

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Mastering Leadership Communication in Startup Support; with Andrew Rios

How do you transform data into compelling business narratives? Join us in Episode 270 of the Customer Support Leaders Podcast, where Andrew Rios returns to share his invaluable insights on building a robust communications plan for new roles. Andrew explains the power of a "support report" and how starting with basic data points can evolve into a comprehensive tool that enhances decision-making and staffing forecasts. Discover why placeholders and "coming soon" metrics can be your best allies in gradually painting a complete picture for your organization.

Ensuring that your reports are not just created but also read and understood is a different challenge altogether. Listen as we discuss strategies to make these reports engaging and accessible. From brief summaries to personalized content, we delve into techniques to capture your audience's attention and build a culture where these reports are anticipated and valued. Andrew shares how finding allies and leveraging social proof can significantly boost the engagement and impact of your communications.

Wrapping up, we explore the art of effective leadership communication, especially in the fast-paced world of startups. Transparency, tactful feedback, and regular reporting are just some of the strategies we discuss for building trust within your team. Andrew and I also touch on the importance of quickly understanding historical decisions and spotting potential frictions between teams early on. This episode is packed with practical advice and actionable insights for support leaders looking to make a real impact in their new roles. Join us for a conversation that promises to leave you inspired and equipped to handle your next big step.

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Ever wondered what it takes to build a high-performing contact center from scratch? Join us as we uncover the secrets with Joe DiNatale. Joe is a contact center executive with extensive experience across operations, strategy, customer experience, and vendor management. Over his career he has held most leadership positions within the contact center space including building call centers from the ground floor.  Spending the past 10 years working in the telecommunications industry for some of the largest cable operators where Joe has led transformational change in the contact center. 

In this episode, learn the significance of location, university access, and mass transit for efficient hiring, as well as the benefits of leveraging local economic environments and tax incentives. Joe shares his firsthand experiences, challenges, and the immense satisfaction of creating sustainable contact centers that continue to thrive years later.

But the journey doesn’t stop at mere infrastructure. Discover the essential strategies for building a strong team culture and managing call center growth. We delve into the qualities that make up a stellar team, such as coachability and strong work ethic, and the importance of a phased approach to onboarding and training. Joe highlights the value of a comprehensive resource repository and recognition initiatives like "employee spotlight" to foster engagement and motivation. Tune in for practical insights that will guide you in setting up and nurturing a successful contact center.

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Nurturing Empathy in Customer Support with Natalie Ruhl

How can you genuinely connect with your customers and create a more harmonious workplace? Join me in this enlightening episode from the archives of the Customer Support Leaders podcast, first broadcast in January 2020, where I sit down with Natalie Ruhl, Director of Community Operations at SoundCloud. Natalie delves into the core of empathy, revealing how it serves as a fundamental pillar not just in customer interactions but also in effective teamwork. Whether you believe empathy can only be inherent or think it can be coached, this conversation will challenge and expand your understanding. Natalie shares the innovative methods her team employs, from role-playing scenarios to reading emails aloud, to nurture and enhance empathetic skills.

Discover the delicate balance between empathizing with customers and maintaining objective judgment, a skill crucial in avoiding potential pitfalls. Natalie emphasizes the importance of empathy in career progression within customer support and beyond, offering practical tips to integrate empathy into daily practices. This episode is a goldmine for anyone eager to refine their empathetic approach and improve their professional relationships. Don’t miss out on these transformative insights that promise to elevate both your personal and professional growth.

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Mastering Incident Management - Part 2 of 6; with Kat Gaines

Embark on an insightful expedition into the nerve center of incident management with Kat Gaines and myself, as we unravel the essentials of tailoring an effective process for your organization. We're not just bystanders in the realm of crisis resolution; we're the architects designing the blueprint. This episode promises to hand you the reins of your own incident management strategy, urging you to define incidents and their severities in a way that resonates with your business's unique pulse. As Kat shares her wisdom on building from the ground up, I draw from both our experiences and the well-oiled machine that is PagerDuty, ensuring you leave with a toolkit brimming with proactive solutions.

Commanding the spotlight, the role of the Incident Commander is dissected to reveal the mastery behind maintaining clarity amidst chaos. Supported by an ensemble cast of deputies, scribes, and liaisons, we discuss the art of orchestrating an efficient resolution process. Discover how integrating tools like Slack's canvas feature can transform your documentation and communication strategies, enabling your team to make swift decisions and remain in control. It's about more than just the technicalities—it's about empowering your support leaders to assert their expertise without the looming shadow of repercussions.

Finally, we emphasize the symphony of soft skills that harmonize with technical know-how to form the crescendo of incident resolution. Personal anecdotes underscore the delicate dance between listening and projecting confidence, especially when the stakes are high. We challenge the preconceived notions about non-technical roles, advocating for their technical savvy and pivotal role in customer communications. Tune in for a paradigm shift that will equip you to conduct a well-orchestrated incident process where clear roles and effective communication are the keystones to success.

As part of this episode, Kat shares some awesome PagerDuty resources showing the structure of an Major Incident Response Team and the roles we discuss over this and the coming episodes:

Different Roles - PagerDuty Incident Response Documentation
and
Complex Incidents - PagerDuty Incident Response Documentation

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Finding the Balance Between Product and Functional Expertise; with Colin Flanigan

Unlock the secrets of superior product support with Charlotte Ward and special guest Colin Flanigan, Director of Customer Experience at Sage, in a conversation that promises to elevate your understanding of customer experience leadership. If you've ever pondered the perfect balance of product and role knowledge for leaders, our discussion serves as a treasure map to the middle ground where understanding meets practical leadership. We confront the challenges head-on as we scale the heights of team expansion, navigate the technical complexities, and traverse the industry specificities. With sage insights, Colin and I dissect the evolution of responsibilities and the bedrock of product know-how that supports teams from scrappy startups to towering corporate entities.

Embark on a journey through the crucial first 90 days of a customer's path, where the art of crafting and refining journey maps becomes a compass for navigating potential pitfalls and streamlining experiences. Learn from our strategies how to weave the frontline team's invaluable narratives into these maps, crafting a tapestry that captures the true spirit of customer interactions. As we wade through the shared waters of employee and customer experiences, we reveal how an in-depth understanding can act as a catalyst for organizational growth. By uniting customer-centric insights with a broad business perspective, leaders can cast ripples across diverse business segments, charting a course for professional development and operational excellence. Join us for this enlightening exploration and discover how to steer your team toward uncharted waters of success.

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Prepare to be enlightened as we sit down with the incomparable Nick Zeisler, or Zee as we fondly call him, for a riveting discussion on the essential role of Voice of the Customer (VOC) programs. This episode promises to transform your approach to customer feedback, from mere data points to actionable insights that can prevent your company from breaking its brand promise. Zee passionately dissects the futility of feedback collection without intent, emphasizing the profound power of VOC when it's used to cultivate genuine customer relationships and improve response rates to surveys.

Together, we unravel the intricacies of leveraging customer insights to elevate your offerings, steering clear of the notorious 'faster horse' pitfalls. We'll reflect on how visionaries like Steve Jobs and Henry Ford navigated customer needs, exploring the delicate art of crafting survey questions that resonate with your brand's core values. The conversation doesn't stop there—we also examine cultural nuances in satisfaction scoring and the strategic use of targeted questions. Join me, Charlotte Ward, and Zee for an episode that will not only challenge your perceptions but equip you with the expertise to refine your brand through the eyes of those who matter most—your customers.

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Nurturing Your Professional Network: Authentic Strategies for Support Folk; with Jason Yun

Have you ever felt like a solitary island in the vast ocean of your professional life? This sensation is all too familiar for support professionals, like me, Charlotte Ward, and my esteemed guest Jason Yun.

Jason has been in the support leadership space for a decade+. Focusing on hypergrowth early stage startups such as Lyft and Instacart, he has been figuring out how to build consumer trust in a diverse array of industries - on-demand services, self-driving cars, telemedicine, and more. He's currently a CX consultant for healthtech companies looking to bridge the gap in healthcare. 

Together, Jason and I tackle the imperative yet often overlooked art of networking within our niche. It's not merely a tool for job seekers or the entrepreneurial spirited; it's the lifeblood of personal and community advancement. Throughout our conversation, we debunk the notion that networking is equivalent to self-promotion, and instead, we celebrate it as a celebration of camaraderie and mutual support.

This episode unfolds the subtleties of fostering long-lasting professional connections, and I share an intimate narrative that sheds light on the far-reaching impact of maintaining your network through warm introductions. We offer insights on how to keep your contacts apprised of your evolving career journey, ensuring they remain relevant and beneficial. The dialogue further delves into the strategies for broadening your professional circle, starting with those you trust on platforms like LinkedIn. By the end of our chat, you'll be equipped with the inspiration and tactics to not just grow your network, but to nourish it with authenticity, reciprocity, and a forward-thinking mindset.

I'd love your thoughts on this episode! Comment below, and like/love/share/support if you found this inspiring, thought-provoking, or useful!

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