3 Things I've Learned Working in Support
I've had a great time working in the Support Team at HubSpot these past few months. The job has been a lesson in how to run a software business (from all ends of the organization) and the benefits and differentiation a business can attain by having world-class support. Here are a few of my takeaways; I hope to share more soon.
1. Everybody Should Do Support
When push comes to shove, the people who talk to your customers all day every day are going to be in the best position to judge things like: the usability of the product, the pain points (what needs to be fixed and what deserves priority), the tools your customers use, their crazy “Hello Kitty” desktop backgrounds that can be seen on GoToMeetings, as well as the workflows that people get stuck on. To make sure that everybody in the company keeps the customer (and Support) in their mind, I am very glad that we are going to be having more employees shadow us in Support and start to take calls. More people from all over the company doing Support turns into more people connecting the product to a face (or in this case, a voice). David Cancel used to do this at Performable, and thankfully we’re starting to do this here as well.
2. Yes, Customers Can be Very Annoying
But it’s surprisingly rare. One of my apprehensions in taking this job was that a good amount of my calls would be from angry customers. I’ve found that most of our customers are educated, connected to their businesses, and trying to be rockstar marketers. In the few occasions where the customers were extraordinarily frustrated, sometimes they deserved to be. Sympathizing with the customer and making their problem your problem quickly turns things around. In the very rare case that the customer is borderline abusive and irrational, it gets escalated quickly and I have always been defended by whoever takes the call from me. Supporting a product for which customers pay between $250 and $1,500 a month with a long and personal sales process means that they’re interested enough in making it work.
3. Customers Create Camaraderie
On the Support Team, questions are usually asked from the perspective of the customer. We often remember specific cases, and when the customer calls back with a related issue, we work together to troubleshoot it. There’s a natural curiosity of the product - in finding its nuances, discovering bugs and workarounds, coming up with cool feature requests, and watching new ones get added. And, of course, we have a few special customers that are so near and dear to our hearts that we learn too much about them. A well functioning support team knows their customers, feels their pain, and advocates for them elsewhere in the company.