Help Scout

We’re not huge fans at Help Scout of lumping decades-worth of people into generational buckets….but having said that, The Supportive Newsletter has at least one millennial locked in! “I genuinely look forward to this newsletter each week. I have never before had such a consistent and completely joyous experience with a newsletter in my millennial lifetime.” It’s a newsletter for anyone who wants to deliver exceptional customer service experiences. Every edition is full of fresh perspectives, practical advice, and pointers to the best customer service content. https://lnkd.in/gP7eGp9H

Are you applying for customer support roles? Give yourself a leg up by reviewing our collection of 60+ questions for customer support interviews. If you think through your answers now — when you’re not on the spot — you’ll be better prepared later. There are also sample job descriptions and associated sets of questions for seven different support-related roles, all free to use: https://lnkd.in/g8tzXr-m

Europeans thought the platypus was fake news when they first saw one sent back from Australia, but it’s real. Platypus Software, on the other hand, is a software company running a support team orientation in 2028 that has somehow found its way back to Mathew Patterson. Listen to The Supportive to discover the secrets of 2028 customer support https://lnkd.in/gNXr2eC9

New research suggests that self-service through kiosks at restaurants changes how people behave. Every new technology shapes the people who use it, and that creates pitfalls and opportunities for the people paying attention. When was the last time you really experienced your own company's service as a customer does? https://lnkd.in/giu-y3Jv

In the distant future of 2028, everything has changed…forever. OK, not everything, but Certain Things Have Changed For An Indeterminate Period Of Time. Fortunately, a corporate onboarding specialist from 2028 has travelled back in time with a recording of an orientation for new customer support staff at mega software company, Platypus. Help Scout’s own Mathew Patterson got access to the recording and explored it in the latest episode of The Supportive Podcast. Key messages: - Corporate onboarding is still as tedious as ever - Human support teams will be smaller but more specialized, handling higher-tier issues - Customer education will be critical as a differentiator - AI as a multiplier of human skill is the sustainable future for support #CustomerSupport #AI #FutureOfWork #CustomerExperience #CX See the full recording at https://lnkd.in/g9qmAVfc or find The Supportive in your podcatcher of choice.

Australia’s Commonwealth Bank is about to trial an AI customer chatbot. Commbank currently handles 50,000 customer contacts a day, so there is a lot to work with. Do you think this will improve customer service, make it worse, or have a different impact? https://lnkd.in/g6pDfSKP

Garbage in - Garbage out. It’s not just the name of Oscar The Grouch’s autobiography, it’s a good rule for improving the quality of your AI support. Tim Jordan has all the details on the role of data quality in creating better AI output. His best practices include: - Regular data audits to keep your AI knowledge base current and relevant - Assign owners to maintain your knowledge base data - Train your AI on diverse data sets - Use data quality tools to automatically catch errors and inconsistencies - Set up feedback loops for catching, fixing, and learning from AI mistakes For more: https://lnkd.in/grFG7s6N

👋 Curious about how businesses can embrace AI without losing a personal touch? Right now, roughly 64% of consumers would avoid businesses that rely on AI for customer support. But a whopping 60% of customer service and support leaders feel pressured to integrate AI into their roles. So how do you strike the right balance? In a recent interview with DesignRush, Help Scout CEO Nick Francis dives deep into how brands can adopt AI tools while staying true to their customers. Spoiler: It’s all about intent. Are you cutting costs or elevating the customer experience? While AI tools can save time and boost efficiency, they should never replace the human connection that customers crave. Check out the full interview for Nick's insights on balancing innovation with empathy — and why prioritizing customer-first values is the key to long-term success. #AI #CustomerExperience #CustomerService #Leadership

Our reality is a "controlled hallucination", according to scientist Andy Clark. We experience (to varying degrees) what we predict we will experience. In this article (taken from The Supportive Weekly email newsletter), Mathew Patterson discusses our predictive brains and what that means for customer support teams.

When more people from across the company (from your newest marketing hire to the founder & CEO) get into the support queue and talk to customers — it can transform your business. Bringing every team member closer to customer interactions can lead to better decision-making and a deeper understanding of what your customers need and want.