193: The Perfect Support Email with Nicholas Zeisler

Charlotte Ward: 0:13

Hello and welcome to episode 193 of the Customer Support Leaders Podcast. I'm Charlotte Ward. This week we're talking about the perfect support email. So stay tuned for five leaders talking about that very topic. I'd like to welcome back to the podcast today, Nicholas Zeisler, Z to his friends, which I I I hope I can still count you as a friend, Z.

Nicholas Zeisler: 0:44

I would, I would insist on it.

Charlotte Ward: 0:46

Oh, thank you so much. Welcome back.

Nicholas Zeisler: 0:48

Yeah, it's good to be here.

Charlotte Ward: 0:50

Uh we are we're here today to talk about the perfect support email. Now, communication is at the heart of any support team's uh relationship with its customers, right? And and and like getting that communication right is A, extremely hard, and B, like mission critical to the customer experience, right? So I'm very excited because I know you have some particularly strong opinions and uh uh and some great guidance on this. Um so so I'd love to talk about that with you. The perfect support email.

Nicholas Zeisler: 1:28

We'll see how great it is, but uh I'm happy to yammer on, Charlotte, and share with you what some of my thoughts on it. This actually does line up with uh with something that I adhere to, which are what I call the five principles of good CX. And communication is is one of those. Just to frame it out, I'll share the other four with you as well. The first is to get it right. Uh, if if you make a if you screw something up, well, then you've already failed. So everything else kind of builds on recovery from that point. And so number two is to communicate. And that's obviously the the topic that we want to discuss today. But just for purposes of clarity and and to round it out, number three is to take on the stress. A lot of that does have to do with communication. You know, you've messed something up for one of your customers, and you've got this labyrinthing process about how you can unmess it up. Well, you should be taking that stress on because the customer didn't do anything to deserve. Now, on top of something having been screwed up, having to wend their way through all of your processes. Number four is uh is no near misses, which is to say, don't promise something, say that this will work, and then it doesn't work, but it almost worked, and only if we had done it just a few seconds earlier. Uh, you know, as Yoda would say, do or do not, there is no try when it comes to recovering from a support issue. Number five is every customer elite, very similar to taking on the stress. Once you've placed yourself from a corporate position in a place of having to fix something that you've messed up already. And let's be honest, that's what happened, no matter what this the situation, especially from a customer's perspective. That customer deserves to be treated uh like an elite, handheld, uh, you know, white glove concierge service walking through all of the process and and fixing everything. But then again, that comes back then to communication. And it's so vital that uh quite frankly, that's that's the grease in the wheels of any of your recovery operations, is making sure that your customers are aware of what's going on. Because I like to say the worst place for your customer ever to be is in the dark.

Charlotte Ward: 3:27

Oh, for sure, for sure. Um and and I love um what you said there about uh you know making sure that like everything's recovery from this point. I think that, you know, from a wider CX point of view, we think about this as a rescue operation because something has gone wrong. But actually, the kind of microcosm of an individual support interaction, customers don't reach out to support unless they're already in a place of needing help, right?

Nicholas Zeisler: 3:57

Yeah, just wanted to call and let you know everything's going fine.

Charlotte Ward: 4:00

Yeah, yeah, you get a lot of those. That'd be great. Oh God, I would love please find me that support.

Nicholas Zeisler: 4:06

Unless your mother is also a customer. Oh, hi dear, everything's fine.

Charlotte Ward: 4:10

Yeah, they need help. Well, yeah, yeah. Depends on the mother.

Nicholas Zeisler: 4:17

Well, it depends on the situation.

Charlotte Ward: 4:20

Um, so yeah, so customer contacts you, they need help, they need information, they have a problem, big or small, right? Whatever the challenge is, they've reached out to you because they need help. So, so you talked about like communication this in this scenario and and kind of recovering that situation. So let's think about like I think this is item two on your five-point plan, as it were, right?

Nicholas Zeisler: 4:46

So we just went right over it and hit the other three at the end.

Charlotte Ward: 4:49

We did, but it's an important one.

Nicholas Zeisler: 4:51

But that's why it's come so first. I mean, obviously, the first thing is to not screw up in the first place. Once it's too late for that, because you can't go back in time and and and make it that you didn't screw it up. The first most important thing you can do, and quite frankly, it's what ties together, taking on the stress, no near misses, and every customer elite is that communication. It really is the fiber that holds all of your recovery processes together. You've got to tell your customer, okay, this is what happened, this is where we are, this is what's coming next. Oh my gosh, here's what to expect next. Never get off of your customer, especially uh get off the phone with your customer or chat or an email, especially if it's a recovery situation without leaving the expectation for what happens next. What an easy, easy mistake to make to just say, yep, well, we know because these are our internal processes. We know what we're gonna do next, and we know that the customer will be fine. Well, that's all good and well. But if I'm the customer sitting over here in the dark, wondering, well, I gave the person my information, I think it's good to go. No, that's not nearly good enough.

Charlotte Ward: 5:56

Yeah, yeah. And and I think this just ties so nicely with taking on the stress as well, because I think that um one of the things I often talk about is like making that relationship as frictionless as possible. And and we've talked about this before about saving your customers time and things like that. Um like just in terms of um reducing friction, giving them back time in your in their day, right? I know you have a story around this, don't you, about wasting time.

Nicholas Zeisler: 6:25

Yeah, yeah. And in fact, it just happened it today. I am uh I'm a fortunate one as a member of the uh armed forces over here in the US uh and as a veteran. I was contacted just today by the veterans administrations. Hey, guess what? We have a shot for you. And I said, Well, I did plenty of shots this weekend. I don't know if I need any more, but it they meant a different type of shot, a vaccination for for uh COVID. And uh it was very slick. Reply if you want this, reply when you want it. That's great. They it's all I think it's almost all completely bots. I don't think that there was a person involved at all. And at the end of it, it was, well, all right, Colonel, you are registered and go at this time on this date to this building. But it just gave the name of the building. I didn't know where, I didn't know what the address was. Fortunately, at least it did communicate to me that hey, if you have any more questions or if you need to cancel or update or whatever, dial this number. I sat on hold for 30 minutes because my call was very important to them, they kept saying, and uh when when the the the the happy government employee did get on the phone, uh in all credit to her, she was able to tell me exactly what the address was. No problem. And I and I get and I offered her a little feedback, by the way. The text thing was awesome, but that little bit more of communication would have helped me out a little bit more. And she says, Oh, that's a good point. I'm glad to know that it's working at all. You know, sometimes even that is uh but you know, the thing about it is, Charlotte, too, a lot of times these instances end up happening when we don't do uh what we should do uh that should carry over from our voice of the customer program, which is walking in the customer's shoes. We're so used to our own processes and knowing what is coming next that we don't think that that sort of thing necessarily needs to be shared. But what we don't appreciate is that from our customers' perspective, looking from the outside into our processes, they just simply aren't even aware a lot of times of what the next thing is. Heaven forbid I get there for my appointment on that date. And oh, by the way, you didn't bring this with you. Oh no, I didn't even think that I would need to bring, you know, this piece of documentation. But for what it's worth, they hadn't said anything. And that's so important, you know, that's that's the biggest mistake for communication. Understanding your processes well enough for it not to occur to you to clarify them for your customers.

Charlotte Ward: 8:42

Yeah, and a customer shouldn't have to navigate your processes, right? They shouldn't have to game the system to that degree. We should be effectively hand-holding them, which is something you mentioned later on in the in the steps. That kind of elite customer perspective is is uh every customer elite is kind of a view that frankly, if we are putting ourselves in the customer's show shoes, um is it you know, like every support engine, every support person, every CX person is also a customer. So it's not some kind of flight of fancy to put yourself in a customer's shoes. And yet we always treat it like it's a a thing that's like otherworldly. It's actually not that hard to put yourself in the customer's shoes.

Nicholas Zeisler: 9:29

Well, you know, and I'll tell you what, Charles, it's one of the reasons why I always admonish uh organizations to hire for their CX leadership, people from outside, not just the organization, if you can, but if you can and if you feel comfortable with it, outside of the industry altogether. Uh I talk to a lot of folks in in in industries that are highly regulated, like insurance, like medical, uh, like like banking and finance. There's so much that's confusing in there for just the regular person who's doing a little investing, putting away the money for retirement or whatever. That I don't understand that I need to fill this out, that I need to do this this way. Well, it's uh it's your responsibility if you're in that industry. It's not just to make it easier, it's to make it clear, right? Well, here's why you need this in triplicate, or but you know what, just do it once and we'll find a way to make it triplicate or something like that, right? So it extends beyond the support, but it certainly shows up in support all the time. I don't know how anything's getting done over there. It's all behind a curtain as far as I'm concerned as a customer. But if you communicate with me at least what I need to do and what is coming next, well, then I at least know what to expect.

Charlotte Ward: 10:38

Yeah, yeah. There's a there's a level of transparency that I think is is unnecessary. But I think I think those two key points. Like I don't need to tell customers the inner workings of my Zendesk process or anything, or you know, uh, but your tickets been closed. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Um, but exactly that. If I tell the customer what they need to do, what to expect, what's you know, and and basically the steps from their perspective that that every communication will take them one step closer to resolution, for want of a better word, of their problem. Um uh, you know, ticket closure or whatever it may be. Um, I think that's I would love that level of communication from every organization. But but uh so it's about it's about just the right level of transparency, isn't it? Um, and and and figuring out exactly what the information is that customer needs, like the address of the building, for instance.

Nicholas Zeisler: 11:38

Yeah, you know, actually, you bring up a great point, Charlotte, because it's not as though everybody wants to see or cares to see how the sausage is made necessarily, but I do need to know what what documents I need to bring, what I need to look up, what my role in this recovery process as the customer is. And and I'll say it again, what happens next? Are you supposed to call me or am I gonna call you? And then you get this like jilted girlfriend-boyfriend situation was like, no, well, I thought I didn't want to call because I thought you would call me. And then call and I didn't want to like be pushy or anything, and yeah, so yeah, it's how are you how are you fostering that relationship between yourself and your customers?

Charlotte Ward: 12:20

Yeah, yeah. And and and if you if you do enter that kind of coy, awkward stage with your customers, then then it going back to that point about wasted time, we just spend so much time tiptoeing around. Um, like the the lack of transparency becomes an obstacle, doesn't it? The lack of again, not not not even full transparency, but the lack of that, those key pieces of information become an obstacle because we end up talking around them a lot, either because we're making a lot of assumptions or because we've assumed some piece of information or or some process has happened earlier, um, and and that we're now having to navigate it around navigate around it.

Nicholas Zeisler: 13:02

Surely, and as many times as a business or or or uh you know a an associate uh support agent might think to him or herself, well, how could this person not have known to have done this ahead of time and brought this with him or or had this information at the ready? Is as obvious and simple as that may seem to the to the agents and to the to the companies that are responsible for for you know responding to this uh issue, just as easily the customer would probably say, Oh, if you had mentioned to do this, I probably wouldn't have had any problem doing this and had it all lined up for you and ready to go.

Charlotte Ward: 13:43

So yeah, exactly. Exactly. Um so then I I think the the final point that I want to kind of cover with you is um how do we how do we move on if we want to have a better work?

Nicholas Zeisler: 14:02

You mean you and I to another topic or oh no no no, no, no.

Charlotte Ward: 14:06

Um I don't feel we've exhausted this one, but we but we do have to fit this in this week of great support professional conversations, right? So yeah.

Nicholas Zeisler: 14:15

I I would say that it is uh it's goes back again. I'll I'll quit it, I'll equate it once more to to the voice of the customer. We can ask serve, we can send out surveys, we can ask questions, we can ask this ridiculous and and preposterous question about whether or not somebody would recommend us to somebody else. Or we could experience things ourselves to get that experience, right? My biggest, and you know, because you and I talked about it plenty of times, that I'm the biggest advocate for walking in the customer's shoes as a true voice of the customer program. Not to not do surveys at all, but you never get the experience, you never understand the experience as much as if you you live it yourself. In a similar sense, we should apply the same curiosity and apply the same uh concept of walking in our customer shoes when we develop our processes about recovery or support in and of itself. Take yourself out of the custom the company's shoes, put yourself in your customer's shoes and walk through that process. Oh, I can see why somebody wouldn't know to do this. Let's make sure that we uh put a reminder in at this point that they need to do this, or better yet, do it for them, right? Yeah, yeah. But that those communication misses are usually the result of companies not thinking about what their customers are going through in the first place. And that's you know, that's the age-old problem when it comes to CX end-to-end.

Charlotte Ward: 15:42

Yeah, it surely is. And this doesn't have to be, I think, just just as a final point, um, to somewhat woman splain this to you.

Nicholas Zeisler: 15:54

I will try to understand.

Charlotte Ward: 15:57

Which which is which is that that uh walking in your customers' shoes actually applies at all levels of the organization, doesn't it? And I think that what's um maybe this isn't so much woman spleening as like an extension of the thoughts. So I'll I'll forgive myself for it.

Nicholas Zeisler: 16:16

As long as it's not britt British spleening to me.

Charlotte Ward: 16:19

Oh no, I haven't ventured there yet. Not today, anyway. Um but so I think I think where I was going with this is that walking in the customer shoes, as we said earlier on, there's no great mystery to it. You just have to step out of your own head for a second. But it doesn't have to be a big program. You can create a customer journey map of your of your whole journey start to finish. You can create a a map of like uh just the typical support interactions, but but like down at a tiny level, you can just step out for a moment and think about that email, right? You can think, okay, I'm gonna this is what I want to send to the customer. What's been the customer experience in this conversation up to this point? And what assumptions am I making? And and therefore what actually could I do to improve this single communication? And I think sometimes we forget that we can just do that. Um, and it it's so it's so um, it gives such like clarity to some of those emails, I think, when you think, oh, the customer will have just got that automated thing and they won't have spoken or received that yet. So I probably just need to, you know, and I think we can be you can do that on a within a single email, right?

Nicholas Zeisler: 17:37

Oh yeah, absolutely. And it's it's walking through that experience yourself that takes you out of the mindset of your own internal processes. Uh you know, that was one of the things that I realized right away early on in in CX is that so many companies consider so many brands consider their customers as simply part of the process rather than the recipient of everything that goes on. And when you start to recognize that no, it's not that this customer is part of it's it's a marble that runs through the little Rube Goldberg machine of our processes, but it is everything should be kind of working around it, right? Uh it's kind of a oh, it's kind of a Copernicus approach to CX. When you realize that the customer should be the center of all the processes rather than something just goes through the the uh you know through the chute, it it actually makes a big difference.

Charlotte Ward: 18:32

I I love that because I think you've just put me in mind of two things. One is how many times in a in a day, or certainly over the span of my career, I've I've said, what's the customer perception of this? Like, like just how does the customer see this, which is what is their perspective, like which is a very customer-centralized question, I think customer-centric question. But you've just like this image of a marble has just put me in mind of a vision of a customer journey I was looking at recently, which was just all these little round emoji faces, and the customer and the customers, therefore, really did during that journey look like tiny little marbles in a marble run as they went up and down and up and down.

Nicholas Zeisler: 19:11

Yeah, you know, that's a good point too. When you think of all the customer journey mapping, and this is and this isn't to give a hard time to journey mapping because it's it's it's it's valuable, obviously. It's it's it's very important, but they don't customers don't necessarily just follow through all your little shoots and ladders of your they they go ways of like, well, you know, I drove here the other day and I did this the other day. I've got my own life here. I don't have to and don't want to be subject to all of your nonsense internally in your company. All I want is this thing delivered to me on uh uh at the right time or to the right address or or this thing fixed or this thing replaced. I don't care what it takes and why it isn't your policy. I hold you responsible because you're the company that sold it to me.

Charlotte Ward: 19:58

That's it for today. Go to customersupportleaders.com forward slash one nine three for the show notes, and I'll see you next time.