10 Lessons 10,000 Customers Have Taught Me: Your Guide to Support Customers

//14 mins read

Over the weekend, I went for a walk in the park and found that it took me around 90 mins to complete 10,000 steps. In comparison, it has taken me well over two and a half years to successfully support 10,000 customers.

I joined HubSpot as an Associate Customer Support Specialist in early 2019 and helped my first customer. I would not have thought back then, that there would be so many lessons gained from those that I help, and so I am celebrating this milestone by sharing these learnings from my journey.

Why does it matter??

Whether we are an aspiring customer support specialist looking to kickstart a career in the tech space, a specialist in a current role, management managing/planning a customer support team in an organization, or a customer-facing role in any capacity, I believe there are actionable and impactful takeaways for all. I would also encourage anyone who has a well of experience in any role to do this.?

Thank you for indulging my attempt.?

Here are 10 lessons 10,000 customers have taught me:

1. Lead With Empathy

If I could offer only one tip in supporting customers (or working with people in general), leading with empathy would be it. Over the years as a Support Specialist in HubSpot, I have learned that:

• Empathy retains customers, despite imperfect solutions.?
• Empathy builds trust, in worrying circumstances.
• Empathy creates happiness, across every experience.

Empathy has always been a critical skill for any interaction. Demonstrating empathy contributes to increasingly positive outcomes in any situation. People want to feel engaged and listened to throughout their conversation — people want to matter, people want to feel heard.?

I struggled tremendously in empathizing with customers when I first started as a Support Specialist. Customers reach out to us to resolve a technical issue, correct? That may be true, but customers also reach out to us because they are unable to resolve and troubleshoot the issue by themselves and they require a human touchpoint.

Leading with empathy is to be human.

What is my value add to a customer over a knowledge base article? Is it that I have already read the article and know the exact steps to resolve the issue? Is it that I am able to prevent incorrect setups to avoid errors in the future? Or is it to reduce friction for customers trying to use our platform?

I tend to lean towards the last query. My role, at the core of it, is to ensure that customers are not only able to achieve their goals in the most efficient and effective ways possible, but to walk away feeling confident and excited about themselves and future tasks.?

It took me many moons and countless reviews with my manager to display empathy within my conversation with customers. It might not be an easy journey but empathy can definitely be learned.

We can start leading with empathy by spending an extra minute with our customers by asking them about their day. Being genuinely curious, celebrating achievements, or recognizing the challenges they’re going through.

Trust me. That extra minute spent can go a long way with customer interactions.

2. Support Is No Longer A Cost Center

Studies have shown that acquiring a new customer is anywhere from 5-25X more expensive than retaining an existing customer. Having a well-trained support team not only builds brand loyalty, creates personal connections between customers and the support team, it also allows the support team to qualify customers for additional products and services.

A great customer support team is able to consult customers and raise questions about their current processes and objectives, provide competitive insights, and prevent common errors that may have a long-lasting impact on the customer’s businesses.?

Another hallmark of a great support team is the value we are able to add to customers, and as a result, reduces churn (customer’s leaving) from customers.

Part of being in customer support means being at the forefront of customer queries. This in turn means that the support team will have the most touchpoints with customers across the business and we are able to identify potential pain points before it becomes critical. This sometimes results in opportunities to work with our colleagues in sales, to further qualify and solve for the customer, and contribute to the revenue of the business.

There are often workarounds that we are able to MacGyver, but solving for the customer sometimes means using more of our product. Be it recommending that extra feature or tweaking their workflow processes, we shouldn't shy away from helping our customers see more value in the product.

So not only is customer support able to reduce churn, we are able to garner new business.

In the year 2021, I will have influenced nearly $200K annual recurring revenue as a support specialist. For context, this works out to about 20 new Marketing Hub Professional customers or 370 new Sales Hub Starter customers.

When we truly care about our customer’s success and do not view a customer as a KPI, we are able to understand the pain points of our customers and help our customers find and extract value from our product. Identifying these opportunities often leads to long-term cost-savings, efficiency, and effectiveness as our customers scale.?

This by no means is a reflection of only the support team’s work, but also a testament to the product. The key takeaway is to have the support team work collaboratively with other functions in the organization to identify how the support team is able to contribute and assist other teams to influence revenue for the business.

3. Our Role Does Not Have To Be A One-Way Transaction

While many customers do call in to request technical support on what they may be building, many call in for consultations as well. As such, a new support specialist may be great at providing technical value to customers, but over time the same support specialist will start to provide high-value consultative work as well.?

To me, a technical and consultative question is really two sides of the same customer coin.

Over time, being inquisitive into customers’ businesses and setup has exposed me to an incredible amount of industries and business types. By asking questions and learning more about the different types of businesses out there from customers, this role has covered more than any 101 courses would be able to.

"If two bodies exert forces on each other, these forces are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction." — Newton’s Third Law

The value that I am able to gain from any conversation with a customer is equal to the time that I put into understanding the customer's business and concerns.

This means that we are not only performing tasks and troubleshooting technical issues for customers, but also learning about their business by asking questions, and even challenging them on their set-up.?

The nature of a support role has provided me the opportunity to build upon my consultative skills. And over time, I see myself evolving from a technical specialist to a consultant.

4. It Is Okay To Not Have An Immediate Answer

An important part of any support conversation is to identify 3 things: the current situation (point A), the customer’s end goal (point B) and the roadblock/obstacle/challenge. This is essentially our roadmap to success. But not all maps have a direct clear path.?

While some of us navigate with Apple/Google Maps, there are some who opt for a $5.99 road map from the gas station. And then there are the lucky few who have come across a treasure map, but I digress. But with any map, on occasions, we may run into an issue with our connectivity or a page might be torn or missing from our physical map.?

Our job is to ensure we know where point A and point B is, and what is preventing our customer from reaching point B. Sometimes we know the way to point B from memory, sometimes we may not and need to take time to consult others before coming back with the correct information — we need to find our connectivity or that missing page (or even download an update for that new burger place that popped up on Ocean Avenue.)

To be absolutely clear, looking at the map or finding the missing piece to the map is to consult our resources or ask our peers/seniors/subject matter experts on our team.

Better to let our customers know that we have to spend some time looking at our map than spending time chasing tails. Imagine getting into a cab at an airport and wanting to head to the hotel. Would we rather the driver be honest with us and spend an extra moment looking at their map to know where they’re going, or would we rather the driver gas it and make guesses in one direction??

It is alright to not have an immediate answer, but the most important part throughout this process is to be transparent and keep channels of communication open with our customers, and share updates along the way. Our goal is to solve for the customer.

5. Solve For The Customer, Not The Problem

"The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease." — Sir William Osler

As support specialists, we are trained to diagnose and resolve issues. The very nature of our role working with technology will influence our problem-solving approach, and we may become increasingly task-oriented when presented with a problem.

We go through a mental checklist of all possible variables that may be the cause of the problem. And so when a customer reaches out, requesting a task to be performed, we should always request further elaboration on what they’re wanting to do, and where they’re wanting to go.?

The reason for doing so is because while the customer knows exactly where they want to go, they may not be entirely sure on how to get there.?

This is similar to our map analogy. While the customer may know a route to their destination, it is our job to know the best route to the destination. And while the customer -may be - always right, I would like to think that the customer can always benefit from more information in their decision-making process.

Solving for the problem is making the problem disappear. Solving for the customer is ensuring that the customer is able to understand what went wrong, how they are able to prevent the same problem from arising in the future, and how the problem is resolved. One of these will have a longer-lasting impact over the other and sets up the customer for future success.

6. Equip Customers For Future Success

While it may be easy to perform a task or fix for customers, I always challenge myself to spend an extra 5 - 10 mins in teaching and coaching our customers through errors they have made and field any questions they may have while resolving the issue.?

This often leads to uncovering their end goals and objectives, and we are able to either talk or walk through the steps or concepts they will have to take in order to ensure they know how to achieve their goals moving forward.?

And even though it would be a great place to end the conversation, we want to leave an open line of communication for the customer to check back anytime they need to ensure that they have set up their environment correctly in order for it to perform the way they want.

Doing this, not only helps add value to our interaction with the customer, but it also ensures that our customers are able to optimize their time in the future and be more effective at their work.?

What does future success look like? This can show up as one of these three things:

Firstly, this specific customer will not reach out with the exact same issue in the future, saving both parties time.?

Secondly, if this is part of a team in their organization, they would be able to assist their colleagues with the issue, passing on learnings and helping them elevate their own skillsets within their team.?

Lastly, when the customer does phone in again, we know that they are seeking even higher value help where we are able to add value to our customer’s business and in turn gain more from the interaction as well.

7. Treat Yo’ Self

The phrase comes from the 2011 Peabody Award-winning Parks and Recreation, and there is so much that can be embodied in a customer support role.

The truth is working in customer support can be mentally and emotionally draining. There are days where our voices disappear and our fingers seize up from never-ending calls and chats. Every interaction requires our full attention and concentration to best serve our customers.?

"In the event of a cabin pressure emergency, put on your own mask first before assisting others."

We need to help ourselves first — treat ourselves first, in order to be present and go beyond for our customers.?

Treating ourselves doesn’t have to be something extravagant or over the top. Sure, it’s great to indulge every so often, but treating ourselves also means being mindful of where we are now and where we’re going next.

Treating ourselves means taking breaks even when it is hectic — especially when it is hectic. A short 5 mins break around the workspace to rest our eyes and stretch can do wonders. In the event we’re unable to do even that, spending a couple of mins exchanging pleasantries with the next customer can give us the break we need.

To go a step further, sometimes treating ourselves can take the form of investing in our learning so we can help others better, be it customers or even our teammates.?

8. Have A Growth Mindset

Ensuring a constant flow of learning and upskilling in our role equips us not only to perform better, but also helps us to add more value to our customers. As a Support Specialist in HubSpot, we have access to unlimited books and an amazing subscription to Treehouse - a resource library to upskill in all things tech.

Beyond that, having a growth mindset also means looking at every customer interaction as a learning opportunity. It means taking ownership of escalations and cross-team collaborations and keeping an open mind to business concepts and unique resolutions that we may not have learned otherwise.

And over time, these little things will snowball into something greater than we would realize.

That first customer I helped as an associate customer support specialist in HubSpot was from a developer looking to edit their code — it was highly technical beyond the scope of our support work, and more importantly, beyond my understanding. I was honest and shared this with the developer but I wanted to help and to learn more from them. I asked many questions and with the help of our internal developer support team, I was able to gather a few developer documentation resources to be shared across with them, which to my surprise, resolved their issue.?

Today, I am able to understand and navigate technical questions developers may have, and to provide assistance confidently. Of course, there are still times where a question may blindside me, but having a growth mindset means never backing down from a challenge and seizing the opportunity to learn.

Having said that, it is important to understand that there are no hard and fast rules about learning. This can come from anywhere and be about anything, the important part is the continuity of learning, you never know the value your knowledge will provide.

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards." — Steve Jobs

9. Make Mistakes

While it may seem counterintuitive, making mistakes is one of the most important skills we will need in this role. Mistakes are inevitable in life, and when we are faced with countless unknown factors while supporting customers, it would be impossible not to second-guess ourselves when giving advice or next steps.

Making mistakes is important because they present us with opportunities to learn. It implies that we have taken a risk in doing something we may not be comfortable with. It shows that we are trying new things, attempting to adapt, to improve.

"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." — J. A. Shedd.

The core of making mistakes is the learnings we take away — how we make the most of it, and how we grow from the experience. We need to ensure that the mistakes we make are worth it and that we don’t make the same mistake twice.

Of course, I am not advocating to take risks for the sake of failing, but rather to analyze a situation and to take a calculated risk in trying out something new. Because taking risks and trying new things is how we make mistakes, and mistakes are how we can learn and grow.

At the end of the day, we either win or we learn.

"“You miss 100% of the shots you don't take” – Wayne Gretzky "

—Michael Scott

10. Smile ??

Our job can be tough. Smile. A smile can change a lot in us. Smile not because things are easy and going our way, but because we’re prepared for a challenge.?

Smiling releases dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin. The happy feeling that fights off stress and lowers anxiety levels.?

Smile in the face of adversity.?

Smile with customers, and accept that there are things beyond our control: products will break, systems will fail, the golden goose promised to our customers does not exist.?

When all else fails, smile knowing we have done all we can, and fall back on our first lesson: lead with empathy. Empathize with the customer and their journey. Share what we can do and will do and keep the channel of communication open.

Finally, if the role we are in collects written feedback on our performance (think NPS), save those glowing 10-star reviews for a time when we need them. Reading through reviews and seeing the impact we leave on customers can give us that boost we need from time to time.?

Thank you, Nicholas, for keeping me out of the ICU. You helped me avert a heart attack. - One of the most memorable feedback I’ve received

If your role doesn’t collect them, drop me a message and I’ll be honored to write some feedback for you, because you are worth it.

What Will The Next 10,000 Customers Look Like?

At the end of the day, a customer support role is a challenging job. To paraphrase Newton’s Third Law — we reap what we sow.?

This role has provided me with opportunities to interact with so many people around the world, to learn about their lives, their pets, their businesses. The sheer volume of supporting customers has been one of the highlights of my career. I have made friends I can identify from the sound of their voices, I have received standing invitations to meals and city tours should I ever visit their countries, and I am grateful for stumbling into a support role at HubSpot.?

Remember that at the core of it, we’re all humans just wanting to go about our days. The brief connections we share can make the difference between a good and a great day.

Enjoy the journey and let’s go on an adventure and perhaps I’ll talk to you too!

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PS: What are some lessons you have learned from your industry or role? ↓↓↓ ??