Support Ops Hangouts

As your support team grows, it can be tempting to start splitting out into different specialized groups. Team Billing handles all the billing related questions. Team Success only handles onboarding new customers. But is that something you should be doing? And even if your team is smaller, should you specialize in a specific area of your product?

We've looked before at how mentors can help a new manager. But what if you don't have one? In this episode, we'll talk about ways to be your own mentor.

It's new series time! We've looked at how to make your team better and your product better. For this series, we'll be looking at how you make yourself a better support pro.

Let's talk about setting goals.

We've talked before about ways your team can influence the product. But when it comes to building out those new features, how can the support team help?

Whenever you go to a restaurant, every staff member that you meet has an impact on the product, in this case your dining experience. From the hostess that smiles as you enter the door to the chef that checks on your food personally, the team shows the quality of the product.

Carolyn had a wonderful perspective on this a few episodes ago. She said, "Your support team is a measure of the quality of the product." On this episode, we talk about what this means and how effective it is as a reference point.

It's the long awaited part two of last week's episode! And by  long awaited, we mean a week. But that's long enough, right?

Your support team interacts with customers more than anyone else in your company. When you know exactly what the customers want, how do you present a case for that to your development team?

Getting a seat at the proverbial table is tough. Lots of companies (hopefully not your's though) see customer support as just another expense. A cost center. One more thing to minimize at all costs.

But we know you're more than that. That's why this week we're looking at growing your team's influence and convincing other teams to listen!

There's a pipeline that runs from your support team over to your product team. Through it flows ideas, pain points, and a wealth of knowledge from your customers. But how do we prioritize that versus feature work, and how can support influence that?

New series!

With this series, we're looking at ways that support can help make the product better. A big part of that is provided feedback and actionable data to the product/design team. But what's the best ways to do that?