[From support breakout] How do you think about improving resolution time for customer inquiries?

Having worked on our Support team for several years before moving into our Education & Community team, I have some strong thoughts about this 😀:

• Increasing headcount isn’t always the answer. Yes, you do need more people at some point, but if they’re not set up for success, then it may slow you down even more. And by “success,” I think process and education are the key factors. Will elaborate below.
• Streamlined and simple processes make things easier for your team.
  • Processes ensure that there’s a standardized way to do a task, and it should be the one that is confirmed to be the most accurate and efficient method. This saves everyone time because each person doesn’t need to figure it out every time it occurs, shaving time off the resolution time.
  • Sometimes, the opposite happens when implementing processes if we’re not thoughtful, which is that we create more bulk for teammates for the sake of following a process. The processes should be designed to solve real pain points and reduce friction. 
• Self-serve education for both customers and employees! Do this! Build a knowledge base or Learning Management System if you haven’t already, and make it good. Put someone who loves education in charge of it. This dramatically decreases your resolution time because support reps don’t have to type the same response over and over, but instead can send links to the answer, which then trains customers to self-serve more. AI is already making this process even more streamlined, but it’s important to start with a base of knowledge that everyone has access to. Pro tip: Find an ex-teacher to run your education programs 🤓
• A team onboarding program is a mix of both process and education, and makes a huge difference in the success of your team. How quickly you resolve customer inquiries depends on how well-equipped your team is to find the answer and communicate it.