In anticipation of the first Mariah

December might mean lighting up the Christmas tree, or the menorah, perhaps?your whole house. There could be solstice festivals, family holiday gatherings, or?bōnenkai.

These are all wonderful, but the most treasured and ancient holiday tradition of?my?people—the SaaS content marketers—is the posting of the annual “[X] Predictions for [Currrent Year+1]” article. The holidays haven’t truly arrived until your inbox is chock full of lukewarm takes on the next year in every conceivable field of business.

But I hate them, so I’m not doing one. Unless someone makes me (1). However, I do want to talk about predictions. I’ve been reading a fascinating book,?The Experience Machine. The author, philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark, explores the way our perception of reality is heavily based on our mind's predictions about what we?expect?to see and feel.

Clark calls our perception of the world a "controlled hallucination" (different than?generative AI's confabulations). We’re all constantly predicting what is going to happen outside our own bodies, and then adjusting those predictions according to incoming information from our senses. What we think of as reality is a complex mix of our own internal predictions, our internal senses and the external signals we’re receiving.

Our predictions are informed by past experiences, a truth which every support agent knows. Customers who have had bad experiences with other companies often arrive in our queues already anticipating disappointment and frustration. They predict poor service, and so they often perceive poor service even in the most objectively neutral of support responses.

They see what they are expecting to see. That can be a challenge for support teams who find themselves behind the game from the start (2). That’s why I believe “customer happiness” is not something support teams can actually change. We can only control the quality (and tone and speed) of our support, never the customer’s emotional response to it. That’s between them and their predictive brain.

The good news is that predictions work the other way around too. If your customer has had a lot of good experiences with your support, they’ll be anticipating quality service and give you the time and space to deliver on it, even when mistakes happen.

Building up trust over time with our customers improves their ability to predict how well we will help them, and thereby strengthens their connections to the company.

Think about your favorite artist. You might be willing to listen to their country album, even if you’d never otherwise listen to country. Or recall that?wine measurably tastes better when you believe it’s more expensive.?

Great support teams are out there changing hearts and, literally, minds. If we can create reliable, predictable, consistent systems of support, we also create the conditions for the loyalty and trust that will translate into long-term business success.

?

1.?So far, so good...but if you do see one from me, please do read it in the gracious holiday spirit of performance metrics.

2.?Imagine what it must be like to be a used car salesman or a parking inspector. Those client expectations are so deeply embedded.?

Further reading

Support teams in 2028

In this episode of The Supportive podcast, a visitor from the future brings Mat Patterson a gift. Not lottery numbers, sports results, or stock market listings. Nothing so helpful. Just a recording of a corporate onboarding session.

What does this recording reveal about the state of human customer support in the mildly-distant future of 2028? Listen (or watch the video) here to find out or search for The Supportive in your podcatcher of choice.