January 2020 Summaries

GetAccept, an all-in-one platform for B2B sales teams, has grown its revenue by 450% in the last year using Intercom as a central solution for customer communications. The company integrates with top CRM and sales automation platforms to track deal progress and stay connected with prospects throughout the buying process. GetAccept uses Intercom's features such as video, live chat, proposal design, document tracking, and e-signatures to personalize support at every stage of the sales cycle, including lead generation and account-based marketing. The platform has scaled from a handful of staff in its San Francisco office to functioning 24/7 across five countries today, with Intercom proving integral to its success as one of its top three must-have components for its technology stack.

The text discusses how much text is used in the first screens of popular iOS apps, with a surprising finding that about 36% of these screens are dedicated to displaying text. The author studied 25 popular apps and found that this percentage ranges from just 3.5% for Snapchat to 57.5% for Ticketmaster. The study also reveals that different types of apps use varying amounts of text, with social media apps reserving most of their interfaces for sharing personal video or images instead of text. The author argues that the right amount of text to show in an app screen is around 30-40%, and suggests that developers should prioritize clear and concise communication over visual design elements. The study's findings have implications for app design, highlighting the importance of language as a fundamental element of user experience.

The text discusses the challenges of building and scaling a Customer Success team, which arose out of the need to provide high-touch guidance to valuable customers without disrupting Sales and Support teams. Initially, the team was seen as "support on steroids," but it became clear that they needed to be trusted partners to the Sales team and customers. The author shares three key lessons learned from building their Customer Success team: defining a mission early, maximizing impact by embracing what doesn't scale, and building trust by prioritizing people over process. Each lesson is accompanied by personal anecdotes and insights from books like Simon Sinek's "Start with Why" and Paul Graham's "Do Things that Don't Scale." Ultimately, the author emphasizes that every Customer Success team will be different, but they must prioritize their customers' success and become strategic partners to Sales teams.

Learning how to handle uncomfortable customer calls is crucial for both defusing anger and maintaining a professional demeanor. Dealing with angry customers requires understanding the root cause of their frustration, remembering that they have lives outside the product, using the right tone in communication, being willing to say "no" when necessary, and applying empathy in active listening and problem-solving approaches. By following these principles, customer support agents can turn around bad experiences, show care for problems, and ultimately strengthen customer relationships.

Creating great proactive help content starts with asking the right kind of questions to get the best content out of your support team and product team. This dialogue helps resolve customer queries, increases customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention, while freeing up the support team to focus on more critical conversations. At Intercom, they plan carefully, ask the right questions, such as what job the feature enables, how to use it, its limitations, and how to address customers' concerns, to create valuable content that addresses real problems and empowers customers to excel at their jobs. By asking these questions, you'll get answers that make great FAQs, best practice guides, and how-to guides that both engineers and non-technical colleagues can understand, ultimately fighting your customers' corner from the very beginning.

Proper botiquette – five rules for designing impactful chatbots` is about finding a balance between making chatbots helpful to both customers and teams, while also avoiding common pitfalls such as overpromising the bot's capabilities. The first rule emphasizes choosing the right tasks to automate, focusing on predictable, low-stakes interactions that can be resolved quickly and safely by bots. The second rule highlights the importance of empathy in chatbot design, which is not about saying nice things but rather anticipating customers' needs and addressing them accurately. The third rule advises against giving chatbots too much self-awareness, as it can lead to overpromising and underdelivering. The fourth rule suggests providing customers with options, such as choosing whether to interact with the bot or being redirected to human support. Finally, the fifth rule recommends writing chatbot messages in a conversational style, similar to texting, while using emojis judiciously. Ultimately, designing effective chatbots requires asking the right questions about what the bot can do for customers and how it will communicate with them.