Learn to be a customer support pro.
This show we’re talking about remote teams. Since it’s a bigger topic, we’re going to split it into two shows. This episode, we’ll look at hiring and training a new support pro remotely. The best part of this is that we’ve got both sides here. Carolyn and the Buffer team are remote while Jeff and the Wistia team all work from the Wistia office. It makes for a fun discussion.
All that and more from the best team in customer support on this episode of the live Support Hangout!
You may not even believe some of the emails we get: Bug reports with in-depth videos showing steps to duplicate. Annotated screenshots. Feature suggestions with well-considered ideas for implementation. On my birthday, a handful of customers (who I assume follow me on Twitter) began their emails with “happy birthday”.
“Thank you” is less about the words than the tone. People will often send followup emails to thank us for answering their questions. When they do, I like to crack a joke or sometimes even offer up a promo code to share with a friend. But no matter what, I make it a point to let people know that their time is appreciated.
Couldn’t agree more. The real magic in customer interactions happen in the small details like saying thanks or cracking a joke at the end of an email. That’s where customers realize they really love doing business with you.
This week I interview Robert Gregory from Media Temple. We talk about the acquisition of Media Temple by GoDaddy along with how the support team fielded the flood of opinions on it. Then we move into the world of gamification with examples of how Robert successfully uses it with his support team.
Intercom posted a great message on their fallout from the MongoHQ situation. It’s thorough, reassuring, and just really well written.
The part I love is their summary timeline. It details exactly what happened each day from the announcement on October 29th. It’s clear to the customer that the Intercom team was working every day to make sure their data was safe and secure. Definitely a nice touch and something to have in your back pocket if this ever happens to your team.
First it was Buffer and now it’s another app I use – Sunrise. Sunrise was part of the MongoHQ security breach. Just my luck to get front row seats to security breaches this week.
Here’s the email they sent out letting me know about it:
Dear Sunrise User,
We have been informed that our database provider (MongoHQ) has experienced a security breach. In handling security incidents, our priorities are to make sure your data is safe, eliminate the control failures that allowed the breach to occur, and to report the incident accurately to our customers.
Here is what it means for you:
- Your Google, Facebook and Twitter data are safe. We’ve refreshed the identification key that allows our servers to communicate with your connected accounts, which means any data that could have been taken by a malicious party is useless before or after the incident.
- Your LinkedIn, Foursquare and Producteev data are safe. You’ll just have to reconnect those services to Sunrise, as they don’t offer the same security control as Google, Facebook or Twitter.
- If you chose the “Email” option to signup to Sunrise: your Sunrise email and password are also safe. We encrypt them in our database using the industry standard algorithm (bcrypt).
- If you connected an iCloud calendar to Sunrise, even though we don’t store any credentials, the security breach may have put some of your calendar data at risk. As a precautionary measure, we recommend that you change your iCloud password and reconnect it to Sunrise: simply click here and then click on “Reset your password” to do it.
- As one of the many precautional measures we are taking, we will be logging every Sunrise user out of the app. Simply log back in using the “I’m Already a Sunrise User” button and choosing one of the options that you had previously connected to your account.
- Just to be clear, none of the data affected by this incident has any access to your credit card or banking information.
If you run into any trouble or if you have any questions, please email us at support@sunrise.am. We are here to help.
We are incredibly sorry that this happened. Your security is very important to us, and once we were aware of the issue we took immediate steps to protect you and maintain your trust.
Just like with Buffer, let’s take a look at how well the Sunrise team did.
Sunrise didn’t quite match Buffer’s one hour email time. The MongoHQ breach happened on October 28th. Sunrise sent this email to me on November 2nd at 10:15pm Central Time.
I understand that it might have taken some time to confirm Sunrise was a victim in the MongoHQ breach. There’s a balance between a fast response and a helpful response. Just keep in mind that the quicker you can get information to your customers, the better.
Sunrise nails this with their email. I love the section detailing exactly what this breach means for me. Notice the constant reference back to your data being safe. That’s my main concern at this point. By addressing it head-on and putting it in bold, I easily see it with my first scan of the email and relax a little.
They also give a direct email address back to their support team. It’s easy to find just in case I need some questions answered.
It would’ve been nice to have the link back over to their blog post in the email. That would give me an easy place to check for updates rather than constantly watching for another email update or such.
It’s been a tough time for anyone caught in the MongoHQ situation. Security breaches are never fun but like with Buffer, openness and transparency keeps customers loyal to you. That’s why I’m still sticking with Sunrise. They told me what happened and how I was impacted. Openness and transparency wins every time.
Have you seen any other companies handling security breaches like this really well?