April 2022 Summaries

E-commerce companies need to prioritize customer experience to stay competitive, as consumers' expectations have increased during the pandemic. To achieve this, businesses should act on customer feedback, maintain an omnichannel customer experience, and prioritize meaningful customer engagement. This can be achieved through surveys, personalized interactions, and adapting to behaviors. Additionally, supercharging support with automation, perfecting FAQs and knowledge base articles, and optimizing checkout processes can also improve the customer experience. By focusing on these areas, e-commerce companies can create a seamless and enjoyable experience for their customers, leading to increased loyalty and conversion rates.

Eileen Naughton has joined the Intercom board with a broad set of experiences across Google, Time Magazine, Fortune and other prominent companies. She brings exceptional leadership skills and insights from her roles as Chief People Officer at Google and President of Time Magazine. Eileen is excited to bring her expertise to Intercom's Board of Directors, where she believes the company's technology has the potential to make the internet feel more human. With her extensive board experience, she will be a valuable addition to the team.

Designers at Intercom work in cross-functional teams to consistently ship great products, focusing on simple systems that solve complex problems. They follow design fundamentals, which are patterns commonly followed to make products easier and more delightful to use, enabling designers to focus on solving problems quickly without getting lost in re-inventing standards. These fundamentals are based on human psychology and take the form of visual design rules, interaction design standards, or content design best practices. By following these fundamentals, Intercom's product team can deliver value to customers quickly, innovate where it matters, move faster, and build stronger designs that respect their customers' time.

I am delighted to share that our senior leadership team here at Intercom continues to grow. Our company's global People organization is now led by L. David Kingsley, who has joined as the first Chief People Officer. He will oversee talent acquisition, onboarding, learning and development, HR business partners, total rewards, diversity, equity and inclusion, and real estate & workplace experience. The new hire follows several other recent additions to the company, including Declan Ivory and Laurie Borgen, who have also been welcomed as VP of Customer Support and VP of Digital Marketing respectively. David's leadership will help build on Intercom's fantastic culture and employee experience to drive exceptional customer experiences.

The Klaus Customer Service Quality Benchmark Report reveals positive shifts in the customer support landscape in 2022. Businesses are investing more in measuring the impact of their customer service, leading to increased quality and improved customer experience. Support teams are also facing challenges, such as maintaining quality support at scale, but modern technology like proactive and self-serve support tools can help mitigate these issues. The report highlights the importance of tracking key metrics, partnering with sales and marketing, learning from data, and leveraging automation and chatbots to provide fast and personalized support. By adopting these strategies, businesses can gain a competitive edge in 2022 and build lifelong relationships with customers.

To design effective and engaging surveys, it's essential to start by defining a clear goal for what you want to learn from your customers. Next, choose the right survey format and delivery method to suit your audience and question type, considering factors like response rate and analysis time. Keep questions concise and well-written, avoiding leading or complex questions that may deter respondents. Plan how you'll use the collected data to drive meaningful actions and workflows, such as personalizing customer messaging campaigns or filtering and segmenting insights using Reports. Use targeting to reach users at the right moment, controlling where and when surveys appear, and consider adding incentives like digital rewards to boost participation. Finally, don't over-survey your customers' time, and make sure surveys are fun and personalized to foster engagement and trust. By following these best practices, you can create surveys that provide valuable insights and drive meaningful impact.

Atlassian and Coda, two fast-growing organizations, share their experiences on creating personalized customer experiences at scale. Both companies recognize the importance of tailoring communication to meet individual customer needs, as customers expect high-quality, in-context experiences that drive business growth. Atlassian's Wayne Stewart notes that engaging with customers early on can lead to long-lasting relationships and a positive experience that stays with them. Measurement is also crucial for success, with Wayne's team focusing on first-response time and maintaining an average close time of just over two hours. Having a flexible customer communications platform that adapts to growing business needs is essential, as seen in Atlassian's use of Intercom. Coda's Brian Lederman emphasizes the importance of understanding user personas, providing contextual experiences, and leveraging in-the-moment feedback to deliver personalized interactions at scale. Integrating tools seamlessly and maintaining data integrity are also critical for success, according to Brian. Both companies aim to continue delivering exceptional customer experiences as they grow, with a focus on scaling their platforms to meet evolving business needs.

Switch is Intercom's solution for businesses looking to scale personalized support. It allows companies to move inbound call volume to messaging without changing phone providers, making it easy and cost-efficient to introduce messaging to their current support offering. Switch prioritizes personalization, recognizes customers' phone numbers, and tailors the flow based on user profiles. It offers benefits such as faster resolution times, lower cost-per-contact, personalized experiences, self-help options, automated answers, and triaging. By switching to messaging, businesses can reduce wait times, free up support teams' bandwidth, and reduce costs, while also scaling their customer support offering and improving customer satisfaction.

March was a significant month at Intercom, marked by St. Patrick's Day celebrations and the return of teams to working from offices. The company hosted its first global virtual event, New at Intercom, which brought together leaders and customers under one virtual roof. The event showcased industry trends, customer insights, and game-changing products that will transform businesses. Intercom also launched new features and updates, including surveys that capture and act on customer feedback, allowing businesses to turn insights into action with responsive workflows. Additionally, Intercom Switch enables customers to seamlessly transition from phone calls to messaging, while elevating designs with multicolumn email layouts and editor improvements. The platform now supports Ukrainian language, making it easier for businesses to communicate with people in Ukraine. Furthermore, tagging Articles in Intercom facilitates content management by allowing teammates to filter and search for specific Article types. Overall, March marked an exciting month at Intercom, with new products and features set to help businesses take engagement to the next level.

Intercom's engineering team culture is built around a unique balance that helps engineers learn quickly and grow sustainably. The company encourages learning from production as quickly as possible, starting with small chunks of work and building on them as they go, a approach known as "starting with a cupcake." Intercom also chooses boring technology when it's the right tradeoff, introducing necessary complexity can create issues down the line. Lean processes are implemented to balance speed and correctness, and teams keep things simple by following principles over processes. The company rewards kindness and has created an environment where people feel supported and encouraged to have a positive impact. With its emphasis on growth, flexibility, and collaboration, Intercom's engineering team culture is helping Plushcap thrive in their role.