224: “In Support, I Believe…” with Matt Dale

Charlotte Ward: 0:13

Hello and welcome to episode two hundred and twenty-four of the Customer Support Leaders Podcast. I'm Charlotte Ward. Today we listen to some support beliefs.

Matt Dale: 0:33

Hi, I'm Matt Dale, Vice President of Customer Support at Illuminate Education. In support, I believe it's all about making a human connection. Let's face it, pretty much no one is contacting our support team because they like our product and hope we're having a wonderful day. They're contacting us because our product didn't work as expected, or because they couldn't find the answer themselves in our knowledge base, or they weren't properly trained. Whatever the reason, they needed to stop what they were doing, set aside their plans for the day, and reach out to our support team for help. At its core, the goal of support is to fix a problem. You, the customer, have a problem, I, the support agent, have a solution. Transaction done. If we leave it at that, a pure transaction where we did what they needed, they'll likely go away pleased to have their day back on track and satisfied with the resolution. But people aren't just robots. We're complex creatures with complex emotions. Instead of simply solving the problem, it's much better if we can connect with them as a human being, understand their problem, and make sure they feel heard. Now I'm not talking about fake empathy here. This isn't something you can script. Something like, I hear your problem, sir, and we'll take personal responsibility to resolve it. That doesn't help. The words are right, but the heart just isn't in it. This isn't something you can pretend to do. Great support goes beyond the transaction. Make the effort to connect on a human level. Truly listen to the person's issue. Don't jump right to the solution or or be thinking of what you want to say to solve their problem while they're talking. Acknowledge what's going on. Then solve the problem if you can. In the instance where you can't immediately solve the problem, the customer you connected with will have more grace for you in turn. There'll be more understanding of the time it takes you and your team to fix their issue or come up with a workaround. In either case, connecting at the human level will meet their needs and leave them feeling better about you and your company or product than when they first reached out. This is what true customer satisfaction looks like. And this I believe.