My top Technical Support said this to a customer, “You’re right, I can’t believe our team hasn’t fixed that yet!”
I got a private message, “Hey, your team went unhinged in the Eng-Support Slack channel.”
”When will you fix bugs?? We spend all day telling people ‘it’ll be fixed soon’ but you keep shipping new features instead!”
There was cleaning up to do.
As the Director of Customer Experience, I needed to meet with the individual, address the Support team, meet with the Eng Director, fix things with the customer, and fix our processes.
Here’s why this wasn’t discovered. This customer’s experience was an issue that was unique to just the one customer. My Technical Support rep told them there weren’t enough reports of the issue.
That customer had an “Ah Ha” moment of becoming the reported volume to have their problem fixed.
This issue helped me identify 3 specific gaps in our processes:
We didn’t have clear guidelines for tone and empathy or escalation processes when issues arose.
We weren’t meeting with Eng each sprint to define the most pressing issues.
Most importantly, I wasn’t asking the emotional status questions during my weekly 1:1 check-ins.
This was the progress on addressing those gaps:
Defining our Style Guide and Escalation Processes was completed in a week.
I met with Eng to clean up our bug reporting process and meeting cadence. We met twice per month to discuss biggest issues (based on report volume and severity) and bug fixes that paired with the work they were doing. More issues were solved in one quarter than had been in the whole year because we partnered and communicated.
The biggest gap this uncovered was my 1-on-1 structure.
→ I was addressing individual metrics work being done. Some of my team members weren’t openly sharing struggles with their work and I wasn’t prompting it either.
That one Slack message forced me to build three systems I didn’t have.
Most Support Leaders don’t get a warning this loud. The gaps exist, but they’re quiet. They show up as turnover, missed SLAs, or customers who leave without telling you why.
I’ve spent 20 years identifying these gaps and building the systems that prevent them.
I put 18 of them into a framework: Organize, Prioritize, Optimize, Advise.
If you’re a Support Leader who knows something’s missing but can’t pinpoint what, download this resource to identify the structure you want to aim for.
→ Build Support systems that scale
If you’re a Support Leader who knows your team needs better systems but you’re too buried in the queue to build them, take a look at this.
This 18-point framework identifies the EXACT areas you need to build a high-performing Customer Support team, but you just don’t have enough time in the day to do it.
You’re hitting your numbers, but it’s costing you nights, weekends, and your best people burning out.
You can see the problems like manual escalations, outdated articles, and AI that’s causing a new layer of confusion, but there’s no time to fix them.
I’ve been there. I inherited 10,000 unanswered conversations and turned it into 98% CSAT before Adobe acquired us for $1.3 billion.
Rush to Resolution helps Support Leaders build the systems that scale so YOU’RE not the system anymore.
If you’re ready to start building the Support org you truly deserve and implement this framework THIS YEAR, schedule a call to connect. We will share some actions that you can take and implement.
CX FRAMEWORK
Use the 18-point framework to
Build a High-Performing SaaS Customer Support Team.
For Leaders Who Want Scalable, Efficient, Customer-Centric Operations. Success of a Support team depends on how they work – not the software they use.
