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Welcome to Decoded by Threado where we chat with founders, support and community leaders.
We talk about how to do great customer/community support at the intersection of AI, unpack unconventional methods to do support and community building. Together, we dissect, decode, and dive deeper into how they had successfully built stellar teams before and/or building them now.
We are building an exclusive community for founders, support and community leaders. Join - https://www.threado.com/community
We talk about how to do great customer/community support at the intersection of AI, unpack unconventional methods to do support and community building. Together, we dissect, decode, and dive deeper into how they had successfully built stellar teams before and/or building them now.
We are building an exclusive community for founders, support and community leaders. Join - https://www.threado.com/community
49 Episodes
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In this episode of Decoded by Threado AI, we interview Hannah Millar, a seasoned leader in customer support with over two decades of experience. They discuss the evolution of customer support, the impact of AI, the importance of team dynamics, and the integration of support insights across organizations. Hannah shares her journey, insights on key performance indicators, and strategies for maintaining work-life balance in a demanding field. The conversation concludes with rapid-fire questions that highlight Hannah's perspectives on the future of customer support.
Meet Rachel Wu, Senior Manager of Technical Support at Iterable. With over a decade of experience, she's navigated everything from software engineering to retail sales before landing in customer support. Her journey may seem unconventional, but it’s this blend of skills that makes her a standout in the field.In the video, Rachel dives deep into the essence of customer support - how it's all about solving problems, building relationships, and keeping things personal. She highlights the importance of premier support, where agents become more than just problem solvers. They’re partners who deeply understand customers' businesses, making interactions more seamless.
🤙 About the guest - Giulio is the Customer Care Director at Playtomic. He has spent years building and managing multicultural teams for both B2B and B2C customers. 🤙 Timestamps - 00:00 - Introduction and Background06:30 - Overview of Playtomic09:28 - Common customer queries11:09 - Achieving a high CSAT score15:14 - Building and managing a multilingual team21:20 - Team alignment and communication26:00 - Evolution of technology in customer support27:10 - The role of AI in customer support29:00 - Challenges and implementation of AI in customer support31:24 - The future of customer support33:06 - Changing roles in customer support34:41 - Hiring and building a support team43:27 - Challenges of a remote and multilingual team48:03 - Advice for support leaders🤙 Where to find Giulio - https://www.linkedin.com/in/giulio-castiglioni/
🤙 About the guest - Kallen is the Director of Support at Airbase. He has over a decade of experience in building and managing customer support teams, especially in B2B SaaS companies 🤙 Timestamps03:06 - Challenges and benefits of remote support08:47 - Unique challenges of customer support for procurement and finance teams12:22 - Categorizing customer support levels14:00 - Philosophy and approach to customer support20:47 - Value and limitations of AI in customer support25:25 - Implementing AI: Focus on goals and use cases31:11 - Customer feedback and agent assist35:37 - Improving customer service experience37:07 - Using AI for Data Analysis40:09 - Building and developing a support team45:36 - Building trust and team culture in a remote environment47:13 - Communication and information flow in a remote team51:20 - Tools and practices for remote team collaboration53:16 - Advice for customer support leaders🤙 Where to find Kallen - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kallen-bakas-8428b850/
🤙 About the guest - Brittany is a seasoned customer support leader with over a decade of experience. She's held support leadership roles at companies like Brio Systems, Nerd Fitness, and Fracture. She's also been the director of event operations at Support Driven. 🤙 Timestamps -01:41 - Brittany's serendipitous journey 03:47 - Her early experiences in marketing and journalism 05:17 - The inverted pyramid framework to leading more efficient teams07:19 - Evolution of a support team from a leader's perspective11:30 - The nuances of e-commerce support14:37 - Avoiding burnout as a support leader17:34 - Challenges of a support leader 22:33 - Selecting the right tools for your team27:28 - The evolution of AI in support37:19 - How support leaders should ramp up their skills with the changing times43:24 - Advice for people starting in the support space46:50 - The rapid-fire segment🤙 Where to find Brittany - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fergusonbrittany/
🤙 About the guest - Neal Travis is the creator and host of Growth Support and is creating a resource library for support professionals across the globe. He is also a support leader at the Academy to Innovate HR. 🤙 Timestamps 00:47 - Neal's introduction02:38 - The evolution of the customer support landscape over the years04:18 - Neal's philosophy in delivering great customer support06:14 - The two-by-two matrix of the support landscape08:24 - Role of support ops10:16 - AI in support ops13:25 - How can support and product teams work in collaboration16:55 - Best practices for support leaders18:58 - Remarkable interactions with support leaders21:11 - Best practices for remote support teams23:20 - Metrics for measuring success of support teams25:40 - What do support leaders think of AI29:01 - Apprehensions of using AI in customer support30:24 - Evolution of the skillsets for people working in support32:31 - Tech stack for today's support teams34:58 - Recent trends and observations in customer support39:50 - Predictions for customer support in 2024🤙 Where to find Neal - https://www.linkedin.com/in/neal-travis/
🤙 About the guest - Dave Chapman is a Senior Customer Advocate at Buffer. He has been with Buffer for nearly a decade now. He works at the intersection of tech, social media and marketing and focuses on work culture, product management, communication and wellness.He has also worked at Apple Retail and has been an Osteopath in the past. 🤙 Timestamps 00:54 - Dave's journey till now02:03 - Transition to Buffer08:51 - Evolution of Dave's role at Buffer11:29 - Buffer's approach to customer advocacy14:25 - Intersection of a support community and customer advocacy17:50 - How to be more proactive in customer support24:42 - Anecdotal insights from Dave's experience at Buffer26:48 - Memorable interactions with customers29:48 - Doing things that don't scale32:23 - Metrics to define the performance of support teams36:09 - Role of AI in customer support40:18 - Suggestion for support leaders to look at support beyond just like a cost centre44:35 - Integrating support team's feedback in the product roadmap46:57 - Remote work in customer support - pros and cons50:46 - Tips for support leaders🤙 Where to find Dave - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davechapmanuk/
🤙🏻 About the Guest - Peter Peart is the founder of Scale-Upp.uk. He has 17+ years of firsthand startup and scale-up expertise with various orgs to improve their internal processes. He is also an advisor and a mentor. 🤙🏻 Timestamps - 01:25 - Peter's career highlights till now04:56 - The mindset of helping others grow in their careers08:16 - What does it mean to work for yourself?11:32 - Being your boss vs working under someone14:00 - Success stories of Peter's clients22:28 - How to define OKRs that moves the needle26:40 - How do support leaders improve customer experience journey mapping?30:33 - Active listening in customer support34:08 - Training agents for active listening37:09 - How does a customer-centric approach help a company grow?41:53 - How should a support leader unlock customer success in the right way?49:37 - The surfing analogy in support51:17 - Closing thoughts🤙🏻 Where to find Peter - https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-peart/
![[Special Episode] Lauren Fearn - AI in Customer Support from the Director of Support at Zapier](https://img.transistor.fm/z_QEAu396anGoPXuN3WeQROkkTPpVgXL8odmeetaSoc/rs:fill:3000:3000:1/q:60/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9lcGlz/b2RlLzE2NDE3OTYv/MTcwMjUzNDMxMi1h/cnR3b3JrLmpwZw.jpg "[Special Episode] Lauren Fearn - AI in Customer Support from the Director of Support at Zapier")
🤙🏻 About the Guest - Lauren Fearn is the Director of Support at Zapier. She has been with the Zapier support team for more than five years and has over a decade of experience in building customer support teams in companies like Madgex, BrightLocal, Create[dot]net🤙🏻 Timestamps - 00:48 - Intro of Lauren01:27 - Implementing AI at Zapier07:05 - Learnings from implementing AI at Zapier11:41 - Handoff from a chatbot to human support16:24 - Some measures to make the integration of AI more human19:53 - Tips to build better documentation 25:51 - Opportunity for AI to add value and make support agents's lives easier29:02 - Measuring AI's performance32:44 - Pitfalls to avoid while using AI37:49 - AI in support teams - tips and measures for support leaders48:37 - Can AI take care of redundant tasks almost independently so that humans can focus on solving complex problems?50:56 - Can you use AI support in Slack Connects?53:29 - Outro 🤙🏻 Where to find Lauren - https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenafearn/
🤙🏻 About the Guest - Kincy Clark is the founder of OneStudy.ai. He is a support leader with 12+ years of experience in companies like Bolt and Autopilot.🤙🏻 About the Host - Sharath Kuruganty is the Head of the Community at @ThreadoHQ. Currently, he is building Huddle, a tight-knit community of world-class support and community leaders.🤙🏻 Timestamps02:01 - How to start with building a support team06:01 - Support teams in established companies13:43 - Support as a career18:38 - Skills required for building a career in support 27:57 - Frameworks for support managers34:37 - What can you do outside of work to grow in your career38:23 - How to get into leadership positions in support46:51 - Lessons from Kincy's time in the army 51:21 - What Kincy is building next55:15 - Closing thoughts🤙🏻 Where to find Kincy - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kincy/overlay/about-this-profile/🤙🏻 Where to find Sharath - https://twitter.com/5harath?s=20
🤙🏻 About the Guest - Hilary Dudek has over a decade of experience in support. She was a senior director of support at SANA. She's in advisory roles right now at Partner Hero, Aimiable. She took leadership roles in companies like Glooko and Handshake. She is extremely passionate about remote culture, fantastic Customer Experience, and growing people in their Support careers and beyond.🤙🏻 About the Host - Sharath Kuruganty is the Head of the Community at @ThreadoHQ. Currently, he is building Huddle, a tight-knit community of world-class support and community leaders.🤙🏻 Timestamps02:01 - Current role as a support leader 05:14 - Skills learned during the journey of becoming a support leader07:04 - Coaching strategies for support leaders who want to amp up their skillset 13:09 - Tools that bridge the gap between agents and managers16:38 - Operation strategies for support leaders26:13 - Advice for support leaders who are handling remote teams31:05 - Some mistakes that people should avoid when they hire agents33:22 - Checklist to have while hiring people39:27 - Areas where agents stumble and excel when it comes to efficiency42:21 - Closing thoughts🤙🏻 Where to find Hilary Dudek - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilarydudek🤙🏻 Where to find Sharath - https://twitter.com/5harath?s=20
🤙🏻 About the Guest - Andrew Rios is a Global Customer Support Leader. He combines an energetic leadership style with a strong technical foundation and a deep understanding of Customer Experience/ Support and Engineering Operations. As a technologist, runner, mentor, speaker, and experienced Customer Experience and Technical Support leader, Andrew brings 25 years of BPO and global experience in team building and resource management. 🤙🏻 About the Host - Sharath Kuruganty is the Head of the Community at @ThreadoHQ. Currently, he is building Huddle, a tight-knit community of world-class support and community leaders.🤙🏻 Timestamps01:57 - Framework and a way of approaching a new role as a leader04:40 - The science behind the 100 days plan08:16 - Success stories of people who followed the 100 data plan13:12 - Importance of documentation for CX leaders18:21 - Building CX teams from scratch22:01 - Hiring people from different industries28:38 - Best practices CX leaders should follow when it comes to communication33:11 - How a CX leader should build an audience on LinkedIn46:00 - Tips to be a consultant in the CX industry🤙🏻 Where to find Andrew Rios - https://www.linkedin.com/in/riosa/🤙🏻 Where to find Sharath - https://twitter.com/5harath?s=20
🤙🏻 About the Guest - Craig Stoss is the Director of CX Transformation Delivery at Partnerhero. With a strong background in software engineering, Craig is recognized for driving exceptional customer experiences across the globe.🤙🏻 About the Host - Sharath Kuruganty is the Head of the Community at @ThreadoHQ. Currently, he is building Huddle, a tight-knit community of world-class support and community leaders.🤙🏻 Timestamps02:31 - What does the role of the Director of CX transformation delivery entail05:19 - Catering the requirements of customers across the globe10:52 - How to measure the success rate across the industries13:34 - Keeping up with the new tools in the market19:54 - Things support teams shouldn't miss to deliver the best customer experiences27:23 - Self-service strategy31:10 - His experience of managing customers across different cultures37:19 - Managing customer experience process when it comes to global teams44:26 - Parallels between software engineering and customer support50:56 - AI in designing customer experiences1:06:27 - Outro 🤙🏻 Where to find Craig - https://linkedin.com/in/cstoss/ 🤙🏻 Where to find Sharath - https://twitter.com/5harath?s=20
🤙🏻 About the Guest - Garry Gormley is the founder, and CEO of FAB Outsourced Solutions which is helping contact centres operate more efficiently! He has 20 years of experience within the contact centre industry. 🤙🏻 About the Host - Sharath Kuruganty is the Head of the Community at @ThreadoHQ. Currently, he is building Huddle, a tight-knit community of world-class support and community leaders.🤙🏻 Timestamps0:49 - The leadership aspect of customer support04:18 - The underestimated role of call centre agents8:24 - The two career-defining roles in Garry's life11:33 - Operational excellence in terms of customer support18:09 - Gaps between sales and customer support teams and how to bridge them28:49 - Is AI going to take away the service jobs?34:18 - What can CX teams learn from call centre agents38:47 - Outro to the podcast🤙🏻 Where to find Garry Gormley - https://www.linkedin.com/in/garry-gormley-the-fab-group/ 🤙🏻 Where to find Sharath - https://twitter.com/5harath?s=20
🤙🏻 About the Guest - Jeff Breunsbach is the Director of Corporate Marketing at Higher Logic. He is also the co-founder of Gain Grow Retain, a community for Customer Success leaders to share their work, collaborate and grow their careers. He has worked with over 60 B2B SaaS brands as they build scaled customer programs.🤙🏻 About the Host - Sharath Kuruganty is the Head of the Community at @ThreadoHQ. Currently, he is building Huddle, a tight-knit community of world-class support and community leaders.🤙🏻 Timestamps - 2:40 - Scaling customer success through community8:24 - The frameworks to elevate great customer success or experience13:22 - Where to start building customer success through community18:49 - The trickiest part of starting a community22:26 - Skills that CX support leaders can rely on to do community31:18 - How much brand involvement happens in customer success 36:18 - How can the brand guidelines be effectively passed on to the CX leaders40:36 - How content and CX can collaborate 46:12 - Unconventional ways to do great customer success or support50:13 - How to hire great talent53:09 - How should a startup or a business build customer programs58:58 - How do CX leaders build a network, especially on LinkedIn1:02:10 - Closing thoughts🤙🏻 Where to find Jeff - https://www.linkedin.com/in/scaledcs/🤙🏻 Where to find Sharath - https://twitter.com/5harath?s=20
🤙🏻 About the Guest - Kel Kurekgi is a dynamic and accomplished leader in the customer experience industry, currently serving as the Senior Global Customer Experience Manager at Zapier. Rooted in the United Kingdom, Kel's professional journey spans across industry-leading companies like James and James Fulfilment, Network Rail, and Rightmove, demonstrating his expertise in Client Services and Customer Experience Management.🤙🏻 About the Host - Sharath Kuruganty is the Head of the Community at @ThreadoHQ. Currently, he is building Huddle, a tight-knit community of world-class support and community leaders.🤙🏻 Timestamps03:38 - Kel's transition from a scriptwriter to Customer experience in tech09:45 - What is a superpower for a customer experience representative13:26 - How empathy is the key to success in this sector20:30 - How Kel's non-linear career path helped him at Zapier25:47 - Frameworks used by Kel at Zapier31:15 - The biggest problem in customer support40:05 - Two things every customer success team should be doing now43:10 - The difference between customer service and customer support47:38 - Scaling customer success teams54:49 - Closing thoughts56:04 - Outro to the podcast🤙🏻 Where to find Kel Kurekgi - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kel-kurekgi-643b6b61/🤙🏻 Where to find Sharath - https://twitter.com/5harath?s=20
🤙🏻 About the Guest - Tom Blossom is a customer experience leader with experience in building and coaching support teams for over a decade. He has worked with companies like Sentry, Instana, Tecton among others!🤙🏻 About the Host - Sharath Kuruganty is the Head of the Community at @ThreadoHQ. Currently, he is building Community Champs, a tight-knit community of world-class community leaders.🤙🏻 Timestamps5:03 - Key elements of building a support team7:40 - Establishing a standard process in teams11:28 - How should a founder start a support team from ground-up17:06 - Coaching and designing the systems for people who are working remote20:04 - Tom's hidden methodology used over the 10 years of support experience21:49 - Handling the clashes of support teams26:56 - Navigating the uncertainty of support tickets28:30 - Handover process internally between the support team30:16 - how does great customer support increase business revenue or a startup's revenue33:47 - Success metrics for support teams38:33 - Tools to accelerate the support process47:57 - Instances where Tom's team has impacted the whole business strategy53:04 - Important qualities of support folks56:50 - Outro to the podcast🤙🏻 Where to find Tom Blossom - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomblossom/🤙🏻 Where to find Sharath - https://twitter.com/5harath?s=20
🤙🏻 About the Guest - Max has been a support leader at brands like SuperHi. With over 5 years of experience in support and community building, Max Pete is passionate about building communities that spark impactful change.🤙🏻 About the Host - Sharath Kuruganty is the Head of the Community at @ThreadoHQ. Currently, he is building Community Champs, a tight-knit community of world-class community leaders.🤙🏻 Timestamps02:33: Max’s observations at SuperHi leading a creator community.09:21: How did he empower the active members12:33: Handling the conflict between selfless support and rewarding it16:88: Balancing KPIs of the community22:19: Moderation in community30:00: The worst ways to do support33:52: Transitioning between different community platforms42:13: Supporting the community to adapt to a new platform45:55: Outro to the podcast🤙🏻 Where to find Max Pete - https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxpete🤙🏻 Where to find Sharath - https://twitter.com/5harath?s=20
Pramod Rao and Abhishek Nalin co-founders at Threado have a chat with our host Sharath Kuruganty the Head of the Community at @ThreadoHQ. They talk about the journey so far, the feedback and love received by the customers, why transparency is important and how building AI-powered support solutions is the way forward!
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