Josh Magsam: Let's Stay in Touch -- A Low-Key Approach to Maintaining Your Pr...Support Driven
?
Maintaining professional connections takes effort but doesn't need to be stressful. The author recommends a low-key approach of sending occasional messages to update contacts on your current work and life, and asking how they are doing in return. Keeping in touch in this casual way helps strengthen your network over time with minimal effort on your part.
Grace Antonio: Why You Shouldn't Always Hire For Culture FitSupport Driven
?
Hiring for only "culture fit" can limit diversity and innovation. While company culture is important, focusing solely on how well a candidate's personality matches your current team can exclude qualified candidates from various backgrounds. Hiring managers should evaluate both a candidate's qualifications and potential cultural fit, and recognize that different types of people can strengthen culture in different ways.
Petya Sotirova: Customer-Centric or Product Culture -- Can You Have Both?Support Driven
?
Many companies focus either on customers or products, but not both. However, it is possible for companies to have a customer-centric culture while also prioritizing product development. With the right leadership and processes, companies can gather deep customer insights to drive product innovation and deliver exceptional customer experiences through their products.
Yvette Johns: Leading Through Change: What Mattered Most When We Asked a Team...Support Driven
?
A team at MailChimp was asked to change their work hours from a traditional 9-5 schedule to flexible hours. When surveyed about the change, employees reported that clear communication from leadership and maintaining a good company culture were most important. Having leadership set a good example by being flexible themselves and prioritizing outcomes over face time also helped the team adapt to the new schedule successfully.
Nykki Yeager: Motivate Your Team With Individual Performance MetricsSupport Driven
?
Motivate Your Team with Individual Performance Metrics discusses how to motivate employees by tracking individual performance metrics. Tracking metrics like tasks completed, projects delivered on time, or customer satisfaction scores allows managers to provide feedback and recognition to top performers. Focusing on individual accomplishments in addition to team goals can boost employee engagement and productivity.
Andra Roston: Thrown In the Deep End: What I've Learned in My First Few Month...Support Driven
?
Being thrown into a management role without experience or training can be overwhelming but provides valuable learning opportunities. The author shares lessons learned in her first few months as a new manager, including focusing on developing relationships with her team, learning to delegate tasks, and gaining confidence in her abilities as a leader.
Karen Arnold and Samantha Hare: Multilingual Support: How We Expanded From En...Support Driven
?
Automattic expanded their support for multiple languages beyond just English. They went from only supporting English to now supporting over 6 different languages on their site. The document discusses how Automattic was able to expand their language support across more languages.
Louise Draper: Measure the Success of Your Self-Service OfferingsSupport Driven
?
Self-service offerings allow customers to help themselves, but companies need to measure how well these offerings are working. Key metrics to track include the percentage of issues resolved through self-service, customer satisfaction scores for the self-service experience, and how much self-service reduces calls to support agents. Tracking these metrics will help companies understand if their self-service offerings are truly helping customers and reducing support costs.
Andrea Silas: Forecasting For Support Coverage: Growing is Never Linear!Support Driven
?
This document discusses forecasting support needs for growing companies. It notes that as companies expand, their support requirements do not always increase in a linear, predictable fashion. Additional support staff or resources may be suddenly needed as usage or customer needs change unexpectedly.
Cameron Dunn: Operations Is For Everybody: Creating and Maintaining Resources...Support Driven
?
Operations is for Everybody discusses how operations teams create and maintain resources that the whole company uses. It argues that operations work benefits all teams, so operations teams should involve others to get feedback and buy-in on priorities. Operations teams that collaborate this way can better support the whole company's goals.
Hilary Dudek: We Are More Than Just Robots: How Emotional Intelligence Helps ...Support Driven
?
Emotional intelligence helps you better support your support team. Having empathy for others allows you to understand their perspectives and needs. Practicing emotional intelligence creates a more positive work environment where people feel heard and cared for.
Taylor Davis: Building the Ideal CX Dashboard. (Through Mostly Trial and Error).Support Driven
?
Building an ideal customer experience dashboard requires trial and error to determine the right metrics and data visualizations. The author details their process of experimenting with different metrics and visualizations to create a dashboard that provides valuable insights into the customer journey and experience. An effective CX dashboard should synthesize data across teams to identify opportunities and drive improvements through a shared understanding of customer needs.
Just Say Yes -- Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone and Build Strong Relationships W...Support Driven
?
Getting out of your comfort zone and saying yes to new opportunities can help you build strong relationships with your peers. By attending events you may not normally go to and volunteering for projects you aren't required to do, you show colleagues you are willing to get involved and help others. Forming these connections through shared experiences makes you a more valuable member of any team and opens the door to future career opportunities.
Forecasting For Support Coverage: Growing Is Never Linear! by Andrea SilasSupport Driven
?
Forecasting growth is challenging as it is rarely linear. Andrea Silas from DreamHost gave a talk at the 2019 SD Leadership Summit on how to provide support for forecasting. She emphasized that organizations need to account for non-linear growth when planning support coverage.
Growth Rubrics and How To Make 'Em worksheetsSupport Driven
?
This document provides a growth rubric worksheet to evaluate communication skills. It includes categories for evaluation, qualities and skills for each category, instructions for prioritizing them, getting feedback, and having agents self-evaluate. The document provides a sample communication category rubric with 4 levels and increasing skills, from asking clarifying questions to generating needed information and clear communication. It also includes a sample "Solves Tickets Efficiently" category and a point scale for determining overall evaluation level.
Growth Rubrics and How To Make 'Em by Danna SampsonSupport Driven
?
The document discusses how to create growth rubrics for evaluating employees. It provides examples of categories and levels that could be used in a rubric for customer support agents. The categories include bugs, solving tickets efficiently, communication, and being informative. For each category, it lists different levels of performance criteria. It then guides how to collaboratively create rubrics, such as brainstorming categories, filling in requirements, and prioritizing them. The final part discusses giving agents self-evaluations using the rubric.
Tech Stacks In A Successful Contact Center by Ramon IcasianoSupport Driven
?
This document discusses technology stacks used in successful contact centers. It was presented at the SD Expo Americas 2019 conference by Ramon Icasiano of Stella Connect. The document focuses on the importance of integrating different technologies to power modern contact centers and provide excellent customer experiences.
Turn Feedback Into Action: A Method for Scoping Support Issues by Brian LevineSupport Driven
?
1. The document provides a method for support teams to scope issues by developing a priority matrix with two dimensions: Impact and Severity.
2. Impact refers to how many users are affected, while Severity refers to how the product/service is affected. Different levels such as small, medium, large are defined for each.
3. For business-to-business companies, two additional dimensions are recommended: Customer Value and Customer Severity. Customer Value refers to how important a customer is to the business, while Customer Severity refers to how a problem affects a specific customer's product/service.
Josh Magsam: Let's Stay in Touch -- A Low-Key Approach to Maintaining Your Pr...Support Driven
?
Maintaining professional connections takes effort but doesn't need to be stressful. The author recommends a low-key approach of sending occasional messages to update contacts on your current work and life, and asking how they are doing in return. Keeping in touch in this casual way helps strengthen your network over time with minimal effort on your part.
Grace Antonio: Why You Shouldn't Always Hire For Culture FitSupport Driven
?
Hiring for only "culture fit" can limit diversity and innovation. While company culture is important, focusing solely on how well a candidate's personality matches your current team can exclude qualified candidates from various backgrounds. Hiring managers should evaluate both a candidate's qualifications and potential cultural fit, and recognize that different types of people can strengthen culture in different ways.
Petya Sotirova: Customer-Centric or Product Culture -- Can You Have Both?Support Driven
?
Many companies focus either on customers or products, but not both. However, it is possible for companies to have a customer-centric culture while also prioritizing product development. With the right leadership and processes, companies can gather deep customer insights to drive product innovation and deliver exceptional customer experiences through their products.
Yvette Johns: Leading Through Change: What Mattered Most When We Asked a Team...Support Driven
?
A team at MailChimp was asked to change their work hours from a traditional 9-5 schedule to flexible hours. When surveyed about the change, employees reported that clear communication from leadership and maintaining a good company culture were most important. Having leadership set a good example by being flexible themselves and prioritizing outcomes over face time also helped the team adapt to the new schedule successfully.
Nykki Yeager: Motivate Your Team With Individual Performance MetricsSupport Driven
?
Motivate Your Team with Individual Performance Metrics discusses how to motivate employees by tracking individual performance metrics. Tracking metrics like tasks completed, projects delivered on time, or customer satisfaction scores allows managers to provide feedback and recognition to top performers. Focusing on individual accomplishments in addition to team goals can boost employee engagement and productivity.
Andra Roston: Thrown In the Deep End: What I've Learned in My First Few Month...Support Driven
?
Being thrown into a management role without experience or training can be overwhelming but provides valuable learning opportunities. The author shares lessons learned in her first few months as a new manager, including focusing on developing relationships with her team, learning to delegate tasks, and gaining confidence in her abilities as a leader.
Karen Arnold and Samantha Hare: Multilingual Support: How We Expanded From En...Support Driven
?
Automattic expanded their support for multiple languages beyond just English. They went from only supporting English to now supporting over 6 different languages on their site. The document discusses how Automattic was able to expand their language support across more languages.
Louise Draper: Measure the Success of Your Self-Service OfferingsSupport Driven
?
Self-service offerings allow customers to help themselves, but companies need to measure how well these offerings are working. Key metrics to track include the percentage of issues resolved through self-service, customer satisfaction scores for the self-service experience, and how much self-service reduces calls to support agents. Tracking these metrics will help companies understand if their self-service offerings are truly helping customers and reducing support costs.
Andrea Silas: Forecasting For Support Coverage: Growing is Never Linear!Support Driven
?
This document discusses forecasting support needs for growing companies. It notes that as companies expand, their support requirements do not always increase in a linear, predictable fashion. Additional support staff or resources may be suddenly needed as usage or customer needs change unexpectedly.
Cameron Dunn: Operations Is For Everybody: Creating and Maintaining Resources...Support Driven
?
Operations is for Everybody discusses how operations teams create and maintain resources that the whole company uses. It argues that operations work benefits all teams, so operations teams should involve others to get feedback and buy-in on priorities. Operations teams that collaborate this way can better support the whole company's goals.
Hilary Dudek: We Are More Than Just Robots: How Emotional Intelligence Helps ...Support Driven
?
Emotional intelligence helps you better support your support team. Having empathy for others allows you to understand their perspectives and needs. Practicing emotional intelligence creates a more positive work environment where people feel heard and cared for.
Taylor Davis: Building the Ideal CX Dashboard. (Through Mostly Trial and Error).Support Driven
?
Building an ideal customer experience dashboard requires trial and error to determine the right metrics and data visualizations. The author details their process of experimenting with different metrics and visualizations to create a dashboard that provides valuable insights into the customer journey and experience. An effective CX dashboard should synthesize data across teams to identify opportunities and drive improvements through a shared understanding of customer needs.
Just Say Yes -- Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone and Build Strong Relationships W...Support Driven
?
Getting out of your comfort zone and saying yes to new opportunities can help you build strong relationships with your peers. By attending events you may not normally go to and volunteering for projects you aren't required to do, you show colleagues you are willing to get involved and help others. Forming these connections through shared experiences makes you a more valuable member of any team and opens the door to future career opportunities.
Forecasting For Support Coverage: Growing Is Never Linear! by Andrea SilasSupport Driven
?
Forecasting growth is challenging as it is rarely linear. Andrea Silas from DreamHost gave a talk at the 2019 SD Leadership Summit on how to provide support for forecasting. She emphasized that organizations need to account for non-linear growth when planning support coverage.
Growth Rubrics and How To Make 'Em worksheetsSupport Driven
?
This document provides a growth rubric worksheet to evaluate communication skills. It includes categories for evaluation, qualities and skills for each category, instructions for prioritizing them, getting feedback, and having agents self-evaluate. The document provides a sample communication category rubric with 4 levels and increasing skills, from asking clarifying questions to generating needed information and clear communication. It also includes a sample "Solves Tickets Efficiently" category and a point scale for determining overall evaluation level.
Growth Rubrics and How To Make 'Em by Danna SampsonSupport Driven
?
The document discusses how to create growth rubrics for evaluating employees. It provides examples of categories and levels that could be used in a rubric for customer support agents. The categories include bugs, solving tickets efficiently, communication, and being informative. For each category, it lists different levels of performance criteria. It then guides how to collaboratively create rubrics, such as brainstorming categories, filling in requirements, and prioritizing them. The final part discusses giving agents self-evaluations using the rubric.
Tech Stacks In A Successful Contact Center by Ramon IcasianoSupport Driven
?
This document discusses technology stacks used in successful contact centers. It was presented at the SD Expo Americas 2019 conference by Ramon Icasiano of Stella Connect. The document focuses on the importance of integrating different technologies to power modern contact centers and provide excellent customer experiences.
Turn Feedback Into Action: A Method for Scoping Support Issues by Brian LevineSupport Driven
?
1. The document provides a method for support teams to scope issues by developing a priority matrix with two dimensions: Impact and Severity.
2. Impact refers to how many users are affected, while Severity refers to how the product/service is affected. Different levels such as small, medium, large are defined for each.
3. For business-to-business companies, two additional dimensions are recommended: Customer Value and Customer Severity. Customer Value refers to how important a customer is to the business, while Customer Severity refers to how a problem affects a specific customer's product/service.