When Blackthorn started, our products didn't do much, so we compensated with killer support. We had a culture of going above and beyond for customers, staying up late, going into the weeds, helping however necessary.
Somewhere along the line, this got diluted. Unrelated to the number of hours our team is working, it's just how we're delivering service at scale. Our customer support quality slipped. This does not mean our "Support" team, this is across our org, in general.
- Dev: We got more bugs than anticipated (there will always be bugs, but there should be very few)
- Support: Responses weren't meaningful, we asked for the same information over and over, we had 6 agents responding per cases (yikes)
- CS: Many customers were not spoken to for the duration of their contract
- Onboarding: Some customers didn't get enough training either during go-live or afterwards
Servicing 30-50 customers across two products is a whole other thing when it surpasses 600 customers and five products. Customers want:
- App stability
- Round the clock support
- Access by phone and chat besides email
- A portal to check all open cases in one view
- A dedicated support person
- Meaningful responses
Here's what we're getting going to change our culture. This is a version of a presentation I gave to our team yesterday (on December 12, 2023).
We used to get 5 star reviews for our support but haven't had one for a while. I want us to be known for stellar customer service. We can be excellent.
We're putting the following into place:
- A dedicated support person per account, with routing back to the queue if the person is out of the office. (in process)
- A support phone number. I'll be a member of the call queue. (in process)
- Quarterly customer meetups for all accounts > $10K ARR (this generally equates to larger customer deployments) by our CS team to view how our customers are using our apps. (in process)
- I'll be emailing all customers who created a support ticket with us in the last two years, offering a 1:1 with me and my phone number to hear any feedback, to make sure they feel heard, and so we can fix our processes. (likely tomorrow, December 14)
- Unlocking our support portal to all customers, regardless the support tier, with auto-creation of portal users on signup. (in process)
- All tier 1 support members will get a test from me, that they'll need to demo in real-time to me to pass. (in process)
- Significant reduction in automation. We became to robotic, often auto-responding or auto-closing cases too quickly. (done)
- Started a certification program so customers can thoroughly learn our apps, complete with a learning library and method of reaching our onboarding team for questions ([email protected]). (done)
- Dumped our support chatbot that was deflecting cases and increasing friction, in lieu of a simple form with less required fields. (done)
- Released a learning library with a certification test to create a self-learning path. This should help to reduce support tickets and increase adoption, much like Trailhead does. (done)
Any other ideas, write to me please. [email protected]. I want to hear from you, particularly our customers.
-Chris. Founder/CEO @
Blackthorn.io
Senior Sales Executive - Atturra
1 年Love it … already talked about in our house hold and I shared with a cuwtomer today … thanks Chris
Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) and Generative AI/GPT for Salesforce
1 年If you need some GPT/AI to help with this, let me know. I think when automation is deployed correctly, it can add 10x relief to specific pains (plus, we have some joint ISV customers together. Makes sense to keep them happy ?? )
Owner of Reverent Wedding Films | Award-winning wedding videography
1 年Chris Federspiel I can’t tell you how refreshing this is to hear. Customer service needs to be revitalized! Glad to hear companies are starting to understand this again. Look forward to following your progress! We have been toying around with automation but I fear we might lose that personal touch if we take it too far. Is there any automation (that has customer touch points) that will remain in place?
Agile & Product Practitioner | Enterprise & Startup Experienced | Background in Game Design, QA, Digital Art, Process Improvement, Project Management, Agile
1 年Visual control can be very important in helping set customer expectations. You may do this already, but it could be helpful for the customer to see the average response time.
Salesforce Certified Professional | From Educator to Salesforce Pro: Helping Nonprofits and Small Businesses Streamline Operations and Boost Impact
1 年This was so encouraging to read! My nonprofit is currently a Blackthorn customer, and I appreciate the proactive steps you are taking to be continually improving. I have been on the receiving end of some of the bugs and slow support resolution, but I have also been on the receiving end of a great on-boarding experience and responsive and intentional communication with you personally. You are doing great but are still looking to refine and redefine processes to improve. Well done and thank you!