Thanks so much for agreeing to be a guest on the CS Leaders podcast!

Here’s a few things about it, and what we’ll do:

I use Zoom or Squadcast to record the show. (Book a time slot here) Though we’ll have the video on, I’ll only be using the audio recording.

Do:

  • Use your best headphones or mic. 
  • Connect to your best internet connection.
  • Silence your phone and switch off notifications on your laptop, if you can! Of course, life and work both happen, so we can interrupt or reschedule if you need to get involved in something.
  • Smile! You’ll just sound cheery, and it’ll make me smile. Otherwise, you might see my RBF, and that’s pleasant for no-one.

Who:

  • Just me and you on the recording, for the daily eps. For the panels, there’ll be several guests.
  • The audience… well, they’re probably other CS Leaders, or aspiring leaders, or people who are just trying to figure this stuff out.

What:

  • This has a different format from a lot of podcasts.
  • The CS Leaders podcast has a theme each week. Each episode is only about 5-7mins long, with one idea/approach/story by just one leader. There are five episodes in the week on that theme. So our chat will be chopped up by topic to sit with that format. We’re looking to examine a theme in 5mins, from your very personal perspective! We’ll chat for anything from 15mins to an hour, depending on how many topics we cover. More if you want!

To think about next:

  • I’d like to know a couple of things about you, in case I don’t already know them:
    • If you’ve not done a text interview for the CS Leaders site, then a couple of facts about your support background, employer, history as a leader etc would be great.
    • Any special way of pronouncing your name? 
    • Anything we shouldn’t talk about?

So… HERE ARE THE TOPICS I’M CURRENTLY RECORDING:

  • Self-care in Support
  • Knowledge management strategies and ideals.
  • What’s the best self-service solution for your customers?
  • What’s the best way to empower your agents with the right information to do the job?
  • Different customer bases, highly-technical support, e-commerce, GenZ support.
  • Growth, scaling, and support as a profit centre, not a cost centre.
  • Support’s relationship with other depts and at the exec table. Telling the story of your team to a wider audience.
  • Forecasting.
  • Budgets.
  • Resourcing.
  • Process improvements.
  • Onboarding new hires.
  • Outsourcing.
  • Remote life. Remote leadership.
  • Automation or AI
  • Tooling
  • Customer satisfaction, CSAT, NPS.
  • Firefighting. Any particular lessons learned about dealing with the queue, or managing the rest of the work?
  • Giving and receiving feedback.

I usually try and record topics roughly in the order I intend to broadcast them, but can record a few with you ahead of time.