Happy to Help | A Customer Support Podcast
If you work in customer support, if you lead a support team, or if you are looking to better the customer experience for your company, then this podcast is for you!
Happy to Help is a podcast about all things customer support brought to you by the people at Buzzsprout. Join us, on the second Tuesday of every month as Buzzsprout's Head of Podcaster Success, Priscilla Brooke dives into the world of customer support to make remarkable support the standard, not the exception!
Happy to Help | A Customer Support Podcast
Cultivating a Healthy Support Team with Suneet Bhatt
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In this episode of Happy to Help, we dive into the essentials of building a thriving customer support team that’s both happy and productive! We sit down with special guest Suneet Bhatt, a leadership expert dedicated to helping people and organizations reach their full potential.
Suneet shares actionable insights from his “Happy, Proud, Not Yet Satisfied” workshop, offering powerful strategies for preventing burnout, encouraging personal growth, and empowering customer support teams to be their best. Learn why fostering empathy, promoting healthy work-life boundaries, and supporting personal well-being are crucial to long-term success for any support specialist.
Whether you’re a manager seeking ways to uplift your team or a customer support professional looking to create sustainable work habits, this episode will provide you with practical tips to build resilience, boost morale, and ensure your team feels truly supported.
We want to hear from you! Share your support stories and questions with us at happytohelp@buzzsprout.com!
To learn more about Buzzsprout visit Buzzsprout.com.
Thanks for listening!
Supporting Your Customer Support Team
PriscillaWelcome to Happy to Help , a podcast about customer support from the people at Buzzsprout . I'm your host , priscilla Brough . It's time to focus on you All . Remarkable customer support comes from a healthy and supported customer support team . So today we're discussing ways that you can support your team and look out for yourself while serving your customers . Thanks for joining us . Let's get into it All right , jordan . So today we have a very special guest with us .
PriscillaSo Suneet Bhatt helps people and organizations get unstuck , find their purpose and reach their potential . He works through his Find and Involve your Purpose approach , which he delivers through workshops , cohort-based work groups and classes at Rutgers University and classes at Rutgers University . I first met Suneet about a month ago a little over a month ago at the Elevate CX conference in Denver , where he did his happy , proud , not yet satisfied workshop . That's right , kate and I talked about it a little bit on one of our episodes a couple episodes ago . Yeah , it was the one in October . Yeah , yeah , it was such a great workshop , and so we really wanted to have Suneet come on an episode and talk about what it means to support your support team and to support yourself as a support specialist who is going to be offering support to your customers , and so Suneet has had a varied career over the years , but all of those roles that he's been through he's focused on elevating the customer service team where he's been , and so thanks for joining us , Suneet , I'm really excited to have you here .
SuneetYeah , it is great to see you again . That conference was great and I loved your podcast and being a fly on the wall during some of the recap of Happy, Proud, Not Yet Satisfied . It was very humbling to hear it and it's great to see you again , yeah it's great to see you again , yeah it's great to see you .
SuneetThanks for having me .
PriscillaSo we kick off every episode with the question of who has made your day recently ? We do this because , as support professionals , we have the ability to impact someone's day for the better every day when we interact with customers , and so I always like to start off on a positive note and to ask who has made your day recently ?
SuneetIt is the easiest question to answer . It is both of my kids . Oh , I feel like we had , you know , look school starting the ups and downs of like then time changes and everything that happens . Oh yeah , and they had last week off in Jersey . It's like last week was Jersey week , where everyone , all the schools , are off and the kids , you know , it's like election day and service day and a variety of things .
PriscillaOh , that's great .
SuneetThey just showed up and just crushed it . The way they were taking care of people , the way they were behaving , the way they were doing their work , the way they were taking care of , like , just us everything , their energy , even when they would have a tough moment , they were resilient , recovering quick and like they really just had a moment . And look , it's like all of us . It's going to fall apart again when life happens . And it's the ebbs and flows of love with your kids , when you see them take steps , blossom , take on new things , find new ways forward . It's just awesome and they're amazing . So when you sent me like so that's the question I was like , forget it . Like this is , this is the one , and it's those two , anaya and John , are the greatest .
PriscillaOh , I love that .
SuneetThat's . Those two , anaya and John , are the greatest .
PriscillaThat's awesome . I love that answer . That's so sweet . I don't have any kids , but it makes me excited one day to have kids , because that sounds so wonderful to just see them grow and learn and accomplish things .
JordanYeah , when you get those like proud moments where you see a reflection of all the work that you've put into them and you see a little sparkle , like a little glimmer of all that hard work paying off . Oh man , it feels good , it does .
SuneetIt's the best feeling . It's the best feeling .
PriscillaYeah , that's so much fun , so that kind of relates to seeing your support team accomplish things and grow right . It's like they're kind of like you can see them as your kids kind of in certain ways as you're working with a team that's growing and learning .
PriscillaSo typically with these episodes we focus on a very tangible like how to write a good email or how to provide after-hours support , something like that .
PriscillaAnd so today we're taking a little bit of a different approach and we're going to step back and focus on how to create an environment for your team where they feel supported and encouraged and excited to provide remarkable support to your users .
PriscillaI'm not a big flyer I don't fly a lot but for the past couple of months I've gone on a lot of planes .
PriscillaI feel like I have flown more in the last couple of months than I have in years , and so I've seen a lot of those like safety you know demonstrations that they do and we've all heard the put your own oxygen mask on before you put on the one for your kids , because you will do a better job of helping them once you are in a place where you're getting oxygen consistently .
PriscillaAnd I think that that's such a good analogy for us as support specialists , to be able to serve our users better when we are able to be supported by the company we're in , by ourselves , by our team members and colleagues . And so today we're going to have Suneet talk with us about ways that we can put that oxygen mask on ourselves before we help our customers
Welcome Suneet Bhatt
Priscilla? Yeah , but before we kind of get into all of that Suneet , you have a varied background which I think makes you uniquely qualified to work with all different types of people . Can you share a little bit about your experience over the years , how you've interacted with customer support in different roles and just kind of how you landed where you are ?
SuneetYeah , I mean , look , I think my life is my great experiment and that's how I started it right . I started working at big companies . I did some amazing things at the sort of dawn of the internet and some really beautiful and powerful things . And then I saw the way big companies work and how people at some point are just a number . Right , that's the way these companies have to work . And so I was like , all right , I'm never working at a big company again , Went to business school , did social entrepreneurship . Then I was like , okay , I did social entrepreneurship . Then I was like , okay , I really want to get into service . So I did housing post Katrina , within subcontractor to the government , did nonprofit marketplaces and international development , and I loved it . But I also realized that I couldn't empathize with the amount of pain and challenge these human beings were dealing with on the front lines in the US A little bit easier to understand than when I was doing microfinance work in India . I was like the level of poverty I just can't empathize with .
SuneetAnd I think to do good work , you always have to have empathy , academic , sympathetic , empathetic . You have to be empathetic to do good work , otherwise it's just work . And so I was like , all right , I need some more credibility , I need to find something local , I need more credibility . So I did like private equity work and venture capital work and I learned a ton and , you know , had some good events happen in my life not , you know , life-changing , but life-sustaining moments that were powerful and ultimately I found my way back into a convergence of all those things . Where I was president board chair at a BPO lost their biggest customer , covid hit . They asked me to come on as president and we were able to take that business go from 2,200 people . Whoa .
SuneetYeah , 2,200 people in about 20 months . What I love is we were able to do that by increasing employee satisfaction and becoming the world's largest B Corp certified BPO that was amazing , becoming the world's largest B Corp certified BPO .
SuneetThat was amazing . And in that journey , a couple of things were true all the way across , which is I always believed that the best work happened when people opted into the work . And so people believed in the work , understood the work , understood themselves and opted into the work . And more and more I felt companies getting clearer on what the job description was and people getting less clear on what their value and purpose was . And so I found myself spending more time with my teams .
SuneetMy last company 1,100 people , 1,200 people , 1,100 people reported to me and I think if you were to ask most of those folks , they would tell you in working in our team , they learned a lot about themselves and therefore what was best for themselves and what they would do best . And that's kind of the arc of the career of where I am now , which is , you know , when that company hit a crossroads , a couple of the leadership team left and I said I just want to throw myself into helping people in organizations , just do their best work , like , get unstuck , find their purpose , reach their potential . I'm not a doctor , I'm not a teacher , I'm not a nurse , I'm not a police officer , I'm not a fireman , like I'm none of those things . The most important thing I might do outside of my family is create environments where people spend time at work professionally and feel fulfilled and that carries over to the rest of their lives . That's like the best thing I could do .
PriscillaYeah , yeah , and that's so powerful to do that Like . No , it's not a doctor or a firefighter , but it's so powerful because it touches so many people and so much of our lives are spent working .
SuneetAnd .
PriscillaI mean , I had a conversation with someone just a couple days ago about how she was just really disliking her work . And you know , every day she's going to the office and she's spending eight hours there and she's coming home and she is dreading it the next day and that's just not a way to live your hours . So many of our hours are spent doing work at our jobs , and so if you're impacting people in a way that's allowing them to enjoy that part of their life more , that's such a huge , powerful impact just on the world , because it's so much of our time .
SuneetCan I double click on that ? I think you just said something that's really important and that's part of the reframe exercise that I think all of us need to go through . So you just said , hey , you were talking to somebody and they're doing this work eight hours a day and they're not happy at the work . They don't like the work that they're doing . What's amazing is the number of people I talk to or spend time with who start with that same assumption . And then when you ask them like , okay , talk to me about your experience , what are you doing daily , what matters to you ? And you zone out from the moment of work and you just step back and say let's talk about all the stuff that matters to you , that's really important to you , that makes you feel good , that makes you smile , fills your chest with pride , let's talk about all those things . And when they put those glasses back on and they look through the lens of the stuff that matters to them , the number of times people realize there's a lot about my work that I really like it's amazing to me that people get caught in this loop and they tell themselves the worst possible story , hardwired for negativity .
SuneetIt's a lot of the research that I share , but it's amazing that we don't take the time to lock in the moments of progress and happiness and , as a result of that , we just gloss over them and ski right past them and then we feel like we're in these really challenging places . That's the first part , and the second part is we create single points of failure . So , like you asked me a question and maybe you were like Suneet , you were supposed to talk about something in a customer service environment that made your day , but in my head I'm like I'm a super complex formula for my life and right now the joy I'm getting is from my kids and I have to let that find its way into the rest of my life . If I have a complex enough formula , a variable enough formula about who I am and what I'm about , then if something goes wrong in one place , it's just one light in the entire strand of you know Christmas lights right , it's .
SuneetIt doesn't the rest of the , the rest of the lights you're still on , it's just a bulb I have to change . And so , like I love the conversation with people , the number of times we have that reframe and they say , oh , my God , you know what I am doing . A lot of things I like . It's this one thing I don't like , but what the job enables me to do is all these other things I like and that reduces the anxiety around the challenge and it makes it a mountain they can climb . It's like everything I stand for right now is right there , what we just talked about .
Highly Valuing Customer Support Teams
PriscillaYeah , I love that . So when we were at Elevate , it was clear to me when I met you there that you have just a passion for people . You care about people deeply and you care about customer support specialists deeply . So I kind of wanted to ask you a little bit what is it about customer support specifically , or people who work in customer support , that you feel so strongly about helping them be unstuck ?
SuneetI mean I did not come up with this . The head of support when I worked at Help Scout told me this . So when I was head of revenue , head of growth at Help Scout , the individual that ran customer support there she was great and she said these words when I took over the team because the team was kind of like I think it was like under product and operations and I was like we need to get this as like voice of the customer . It should be top of the funnel and bottom , not just sort of bottom and like triage and she's like Smee . If you want to understand what a company really stands for , don't buy their product , don't invest in their stock . Call their support team . Wow .
SuneetAnd like you will know what they really value .
SuneetIf those people are equipped to serve you and answer your question and they have a playbook and they get back to you and they close Great .
SuneetIf you have the best product but it goes into a general inbox and you don't , there's no queue for assignment and follow up , like you know what the company values and you know how healthy they are and whether or not they're going to survive Right , and so I think that , from a business line standpoint , is really important . I think what I always loved about my customer service , customer support teams and I've done success in sales , I think everything customer facing but at the end of the day , these are people who are hardwired to tackle problems . These are people who are hardwired to solve a problem . These are people who are so intrinsically motivated to be helpful . I just love to say it's like just be aggressively helpful and I think these are the most valuable , the highest ROI investment and change you can make as an organization is to elevate support , because it's so underfunded , I think at this point , it's so under-equipped , I think at this point . But they are literally talking to customers all the time .
SuneetAnd I think to move the needle . Engaging with support was super important . I love the people , the problem solver . There's a lot of different personas when it comes to folks in support . It's not monolithic , but at the end of the day , they're all intrinsically motivated to be problem solvers and it's an underserved population within the organization and I just at the end of the day , believe like , why are you here ? Why is your product here ? It is for a customer . The best and fastest way to get that feedback is through the lens of the people serving them . Obsessed over that point of interaction , everything else will make a ton of sense and I think that requires a commitment to being wrong , to humility , to getting the truth , all of those things that I value . I don't think there's any team that stands more for what's the truth is customer service . Look , as a salesperson . You're on the front line of the funnel . I've done sales like you have a different responsibility , right ?
SuneetYou're setting an aspiration . You know I don't buy into the salespeople or , you know , like all those myths about them , I think they're selling an aspiration because they want people to buy high , right , like , aim high and raise themselves to that expectations . But customer service people are just the truth , like . At the end of the day , they're just dealing with the truth and the reality and that there's something so beautiful about the truth . Right , the truth is undefeated , like it wins all the time , and nobody is , I guess , a better shepherd for the truth than our service teams .
PriscillaThat's really great . I also love aggressively helpful . I really like that too .
Happy, Proud, Not Yet Satisfied
PriscillaWill you walk us through your happy , proud , not yet satisfied workshop ? Yeah , not the whole workshop necessarily , but how you came up with it and how it impacts the people that you work with ?
SuneetI've been doing it for a long time and then during COVID , I had to codify it because I had to really apply it at scale to people I was meeting through Zoom , so I had to put it on slides so they could follow along and do this exercise . But I've been doing it with my teams for a long time in some format and it always started with the fundamental premise is when you do a review , when you set a New Year's resolution , anytime you set out to create a list of things that you need to do , we always start with the to-do list . We just jump in and say this is all the stuff that I have to do , and I'm a firm believer that . Look , the research shows human beings are hardwired for negativity . Negativity bias is real , it's a protection instinct . But as we become fully functioning human beings , it actually is counterproductive because you start with the negative and physiologically , like two to two and a half times , your body overreacts to the negative than to the positive . And so how do you literally combat that before you start with the negative ?
SuneetYou don't want to build a list from a position of fear or scarcity . You want to build it from an abundance mindset and with momentum of fear or scarcity . You want to build it from an abundance mindset and with momentum , and so how could I create momentum against that list , that to-do list ? This is what our team wants to do next year . This is what our company wants to do next year . This is what I want to do next year , whatever it is , I do it with my kids every day . We do , happy , proud and satisfied every day .
SuneetYou want to give people momentum , and so the fundamental premise is therefore no-transcript bit more complex , because you really want people to go deep and spend time on it . Only five minutes on each of these questions , though , and then you , sarah , what are the things that made you proud ? Which is like what are the things on one end is , what are the things where you felt your confidence grow ? You did something , and you felt your confidence grow , so it's still not about the accomplishment . I want to focus on the energy . Like outcomes be damned . We don't control outcomes .
SuneetWe only control inputs right and so where did you feel your confidence grow If you didn't achieve it ? Where did you feel better about yourself ? And on the other side is what happened around you , and you were there and a part of it . I want you to take credit for things you're a part of . We tend to exceed credit . I want you to take credit so you feel good about this . Now imagine again putting those glasses on . You have a lens of like these are all the things that made me happy . These are all the things that made me proud . It's on the tip of your tongue . What kind of a to-do list do you think you're going to build now ? It is going to be a bigger list , a longer list , a richer list and a more meaningful list , Because you're coming at it , looking at the world , freshly reminded of , like , what filled your cup . You know what filled your confidence , and now you have this list and it's so much better . And then , when you finish the list , have this list and it's so much better .
SuneetAnd then , when you finish the list , you feel like you have energy and momentum to achieve it , as opposed to starting at the base of the hill , having to run up a mountain with no running . Start Like it's about momentum , and then it just becomes if you practice it , it becomes this tight little flywheel . So , like I'll do it with my kids in the morning , I'll be like what's the one thing that made you happy yesterday , it's one thing that made you proud yesterday , and I don't say not yet satisfied . I say what's the one thing you want to do today to make sure you have a good day ? And my son's like he got in trouble for talking in class yesterday , so he's like I'm going to try and not talk in class today .
SuneetI so like those are the kinds of things that happen , but it's about momentum and I think it acknowledges the fact that . Look , if you're in customer service especially , all you hear is what is broken and what is wrong . If you ask that .
SuneetThat's why , you know , when I would run product teams and I would go to support , I would have to help them reframe the positive , because they would give me all the stuff that was broken , not all the stuff that needed to be fixed and not all the stuff that needed to be different . And so I had to reframe them and then ask for their feedback so they could pick their heads up and give me the best feedback that we would ever get . But if we didn't reframe , a lot of product managers used to say , like , well , if you talk to supporters , can you get all this stuff that's broken ? I'm like that's because that's what they deal with every day and you haven't given them any space to tell you anything different . Right , give them space .
SuneetAnd so I think that is the premise of happy , proud , not yet satisfied is to build a personal flywheel , build some personal momentum and avoid burnout . If you're in a job , it's very unlikely that you hate all of it and it's very unlikely that you hate everything around it . And so if you explode that formula and look at it as a bunch of different variables , you're going to find some things that are happy . You're going to find some things that you're proud of . Maybe it's 10% , but those are still places to plant your feet , those are still footholds to plant your feet , and we all have those . We just don't take the time to document them . And the last part , and so you might remember this , but the hardest one for people is proud , like proud is the hardest one .
PriscillaYeah .
SuneetAnd so I used to do that , and then sometimes the conversation would just get stuck . So I added a slide , which is see yourself through the eyes of someone who loves you . Like , if you can't see yourself as proud , look through your kids , your parents , your best friend , whoever it might be , but see yourself through the eyes of someone who loves you . There's a lot to be proud of . What would they say for you ? What would they want you to say for yourself ? It gives people a bit of an unlock and it's like and that's it , it's 15 minutes right , it's not a long and lengthy exercise , but it's so good .
PriscillaYeah , that's profound . That last thing you just said about seeing yourself through the eyes of someone who loves you , that was a huge moment , at least for me , when we're , you know , sitting in that room . Yeah , I just got a little weepy there for a second . It's hard .
PriscillaIt's hard sometimes when you're sitting there trying to kind of especially for people who work in support , who are so often used to helping other people and pointing out to other people and not pointing toward themselves to hear OK , what , what are you proud of ? What make you proud ? A lot of times , when you're thinking about the things about your product that you're proud of , you're like oh well , the developers created this really cool tool , or there was this really cool marketing initiative . It's hard sometimes to think , oh , the support we offer is the thing that makes me proud . And so , thinking about it from an outsider , looking at you , who loves you , and I think that's a really powerful tool that we can just use every day when we're thinking about ourselves , because we all have these negative self-talk in our head and if you think about yourself through the lens of someone who loves you , I think that's really , really powerful .
SuneetThere's some video and I'm too old for TikTok they won't even let me on Right , but there's a . There's some video that I've seen a couple of times and it's some mom who's like eating pizza and her kids are off to the side . She's like my kids are eating pizza because I'm a terrible mom . And then she flashes over to her kids and her kids like no , you're not , take it back yeah you're say I'm a great mom , you're a great mom .
SuneetAnd the mom's just like , oh my god , like so she's telling herself this story , yeah , of how she stinks as a mom . And and then her kids are like , don't you dare say that about my mom ? Like those are the eyes you need to find and look through Like that's what you need to find .
PriscillaAnd we , as support leaders , have the ability to be those eyes for the people on our team Right .
PriscillaSo when people on your team are feeling that burnout or feeling like , oh my goodness , I just got another bad rating from this user . We have the ability to be those eyes and say , hey , the bad rating does not define the level of your work there . That is not the definition . We need to go and look at the work and figure out where it stands . But that is not the definition of what is good and what is bad . That is not the definition of what is good and what is bad , and so I think it's important that we remember that when we're trying to build these healthy environments for people to work and thrive in , that we can be that view that people don't see when they're thinking about themselves and that negative talk is coming up Exactly .
SuneetOh
Healthy Support Teams & Happy Customers
Suneetyeah .
PriscillaI think support specialists are unique because we spend our days thinking about other people and actively helping people all day , every day .
PriscillaThat is the focus , and so it's rare that we think about ourselves .
PriscillaAnd I think it's natural that you end up with people on your support team who are kind of the people pleasers , who are just they're totally okay with staying out of the limelight or being in the shadows and pointing to other people , which can be really heavy when you're doing it every day , especially when you're working with hundreds of people every day and you're constantly thinking about how to make their day better .
PriscillaAnd so , as leaders , you know it's our job to make sure that we're creating these environments where our support teams feel supported and healthy so that they are able to go with vigor and excitement to help people because they feel that kind of support from us . And I think it's easy to ignore the impact that a healthy work environment or an unhealthy work environment can have on your customers . So the environment that your customer support team is working in has a direct impact on how your customers are having in their interactions and their experiences . So can you talk a little bit about what you have seen about how the health of the customer support team directly correlates with the customer's experience .
SuneetI don't think it's terribly complicated , right .
PriscillaI mean .
SuneetI think if your support team doesn't feel supported , your customer is not going to be supported , and that's really it . And some companies will make that the cost of doing business , which is we're going to hire someone . They're going to burn out in , you know , like 12 to 18 months , and we will . We're going to limit the amount of scope that these folks have the authority to do . We're going to make it highly transactional , and those are the places that you know you probably don't want to work in or you probably don't want to buy from . If it's a considered purchase , you probably don't want to buy it , and so the health of every employee is just what matters . And I think if you take care of your people , people take care of your customers and everything else will take care of itself . But you have to live it . And I think it goes back to that academic , sympathetic , empathetic which is . Some people may be willing to throw more resources or more money at customer service and support teams . They'll be like , yeah , invest in a better tool or we'll get you an operations person , or whatever it might be . But the companies that really get it and the support teams that really feel heard are the ones where the company and the leadership team spends time on the front lines , and I think that was something I always did . I would always . You know I've spent more than my fair share of time on Valentine's Day and Mother's Day like serving , you know , some extraordinary specialty retailers , you know , and being in the weeds and , I think , having to do that stuff . And then when you pick your head up , you realize that it's about way more than just throwing money and incentives at these people . How do you motivate them intrinsically ? You have to empathize with them . And then the second thing is how do you elevate their voice and make faith for their voice ? So , feet at the table . You know , one of the things that I was most probably proud of was , you know , at Help Scout .
SuneetIn my 18 months there , we took customer service from , sort of you know , one level all the way up to reporting to the CEO , right , and I know that I drew that straight line and stepped it up , sort of , and made the case along the way , and when I left , the customer support team was represented at the executive table , and so you got to kind of do it both ways . You have to be willing to go spend time on the front lines and you got to bring them back into the boardroom and know that they're heard all the way through . But the best support is just empathy and understanding , because then you're going to start crafting leave plans . So I took over the sort of the delivery team at the BPO 1,100 people right and people were not taking vacation . I remember , because I took over just before the Christmas holiday , my direct reports and my team and some of the and just going like talking to everybody and I remember people being like I'm burned out heading into the holiday . I haven't been able to take any vacation . I don't know if I'm going to be able to do it again . And I was like , okay , I heard you over the course of the next year .
SuneetMy primary operating metric of the top three operating metrics one of them for that team was you need to make sure that nobody has gone more than 20 days without taking a vacation . So I want PTO as a management KPI and if you're a manager and your team is not taking PTO , then that's going to go against your performance rating . You create that performance rating . It happened and I remember the thing that , like the words that still I loved hearing , were the number of people who came to me before Christmas saying I'm like , how do you feel now ?
SuneetAnd they were like I feel really refreshed , I feel like I'm going to enjoy my vacation . And I was like , oh my God , because it wasn't just about the KPI of like take the time , it was , you have to make sure they are covered and performance doesn't slip . And so the managers had to be deliberate about planning PTO . They had to make sure there was coverage , and so when the person stepped away , they actually stepped away and like that flywheel was beautiful . And I remember those conversations for my team because that was a survey I ran when I first took over the team 12 months later , and that was one where everyone was like we just feel better , I feel like I can take vacation , yeah , and that was like it . And so that's like the support that you provide , your support team right .
PriscillaYeah , I remember at previous jobs where the feeling was , yeah , you've got this PTO , but no one actually wants you to take this time off , and so there's always a little bit of like this vibe of you know , you really shouldn't take this time off . And when I started working with Buzzsprout , I think I had been here a month and one of the co-founders sat down with me and said hey , you know , you haven't put any PTO on the calendar . You really you should do that . And I thought I've been here a month , what do you mean ? And it was so refreshing to have someone care about me enough to say you need a break and actually do it and not just say , oh , we really want you to take your PTO , but actually sit down and say hey , I need you to go put some PTO on the calendar .
PriscillaI need you to figure out what you're going to do and when you're going to take a break , because it is more important to me that you are healthy and that you feel empowered and excited about your work than that you burn out and are gone in a year because you didn't ever take care of yourself . Yeah , yeah , and so hearing that , I think that's so . It's such a tangible thing . But it's so important to encourage the people on your team to take PTO , and you said it when you're managing a support team , it's hard to push people to take PTO , because what that means is that someone else is covering that work . You know , if you're working in a different role , it might be easier to kind of push the work off and get to it when you come back , but with support it doesn't stop , and so someone else is going to cover it while you're gone .
PriscillaAnd so for those of us people pleasers who don't like to make other people do anything for us , it can be really hard to take ETO . And so you , as the leader , have to be intentional about pushing people to do that , because it's more important that people have that balance and that they're able to be healthy and have a healthy work environment , a healthy mindset to avoid burnout . But even just work where you feel stressed all the time or you're wishing you could go and you see other people taking PTO , but the support team never takes PTO . So I think that's a really good example of a way that we as leaders can support our team and I like that you built it into the responsibility of the manager .
SuneetOh yeah , and what's neat is , look , the managers would say , well , what you did was you forced them to realize that there was an answer to the problem ? So the manager , you know , in many cases they're like look , there's uptime and downtime . I can look at ticket volume , I can look at call volume , I can look at chat volume . Like I know , there are times where things are quiet and times where things are heavy . So let's analyze that and let's pick the time where things are low . That's one option .
SuneetIf there's never a downtime , right , then there's just an expectation management issue or prioritization issue which is , hey , there's never downtime , so three weeks from now we're going to have this person off . Give us your prioritization of issues . We're going to let customers know that we have a service outage or downtime for this day . So you set expectations , you manage the queue , you do everything . So there's always , outside of a true disaster , which we've all experienced , and exceptional circumstances , there's an answer . And what the best part is that these exceptional times , that's when people tend to be at their kindest anyway , right , so like that's like you have to play to the natural ebbs and flows of the space that the world gives you .
SuneetAnd space exists , Like it always exists . You just have to set expectations . You have to be clear , you have to prioritize or you have to wait for the downtime .
Managing Empathy in Customer Support
PriscillaBut there's always space . There's always space . I love that . One of the things that we can do as support leaders to help have healthy environments for our teams is by giving them strategies that we've found over the years to help us do better work and to protect ourselves and our mindset and things like that .
PriscillaAnd one of the things you know that we have to do you've mentioned , as support specialists is we are empathizing with people . That is such a big part of our work is that we are finding ways to empathize with our customers , and you wrote a really beautiful article that I read recently about how empathy can become a self-imposed burden . Oh , wow , yeah , and I'm going to read just a little part of it . So you wrote empathy has been overcomplicated to the point of feeling heavy . If we get back to empathy being about the feeling that's created between people , not about the solutions that are provided to people , people will feel less anxious about being empathetic . I thought it was a really cool way to look at it that empathy doesn't have to be this huge burden that we're carrying , because as support specialists .
PriscillaIt can feel like that sometimes . And so I thought it would be cool . Will you share with us just a little bit more about your opinion on that and how we can use that in support to help lighten that load a little bit ?
SuneetYeah , wow , I don't write a lot . I wrote that one and I use it in my class at Rutgers , so it was like it serves a purpose and I think your tie to support is really important . And the origin of that article was I was doing a coaching session with this executive of a large agency and he was having this challenge with an employee . And so it's like how do I reconcile this challenge with this employee ? And so just kind of avoiding the conversation and not wanting to find the solution . And we got to this place where I was like when you go to someone with a problem , what's your expectation ? On the other side ? And he's like well , I just sometimes just want them to hear me out . I just got to talk it out , like that's kind of what I would do . I'm like so how come , when somebody comes to you with a problem , you think you're supposed to give them an answer and carry it around with you for the rest of your life ? I was like what would you do if you knew that every time you asked somebody for help , they felt like they had to solve it and then they carried your burden around with them for the rest of their lives ? How would you feel ? And he's like I would never expect them to do that . So why do you think they expect you to do that ? And so that's the first part of the exchange . And then the second thing is like , how do you channel ?
SuneetAnd part of empathy is like teaching people how to put things down , like you can hold it for that whole conversation , but it's not about you , right ? It's just not about you . So put it down and like , empty your backpack and then get on with the next thing , and sometimes you have to be deliberate about that . You have to make a decision , and a choice , which is I just get a lot of things said to me . This is my process for emptying my backpack . It's not about me , this is my mantra , this is what I'm going to say , but I think that's the big challenge and I think overall and this is what I talk about in my class one of the reasons that anxiety is so high is because , generation by generation , we're pushing empathy , but we're not teaching people what to do .
SuneetOnce they've been empathetic , and so everyone is more empathetic . This generation in college right now is more empathetic than we are . They're smarter than we are . They're more diverse . They are amazing . There are all these amazing things , but nobody . They're more anxious because nobody's taught them . We've taught people to be empathetic , but not how to channel that empathy , and that's why I got this push . There's a lot of research of shifting from empathy to compassion , which is empathy plus action , and the action can be anything from solve the problem to put the problem back down to whatever it is . But when you do empathy , if you don't add an action on the end of it , then it's just a burden . It just becomes a burden , right .
PriscillaYeah , and then by the end of the day you're just completely drained because you're carrying all of these questions that you've been helping people with throughout the day and you have to find a way to put that down and move on , because if you don't , you're going to burn out very quickly . If you can't
Building Healthy Support Team Environments
Priscilla, yeah . So what strategies would you recommend to someone who maybe they're leading a support team ? Maybe they're leading a company and they have a support team that works for them and they're trying to find ways to set up that environment better to serve the support team , so that support team is healthier and better equipped to serve the support team , so that support team is healthier and better equipped to serve the customers . What advice would you give them ?
SuneetLook , I think the thing that , as a leader , helps me the most and I am a big fan of what I'm about to share it's a one-on-one framework , which is how do you engage with all your direct reports ? And the premise is really simple and it works in . Like any environment and any context and any dynamic , it feels hokey , so there's resistance to it . When people embrace it , it's really powerful and I think you'll see why at the end . It's a 25 minute agenda . There's 10 minutes . 10 minutes and five minutes . It's three questions .
SuneetYou can guess by now that I love the rule of three , right ? And the first question is basically you have clients internal , external . What do they need to be happy , healthy or successful ? And just write that down . So what are your clients ? What do they need to be happy , healthy and successful ? Awesome , great . You have team members on your team , vendors , partners . You have a team , you have a definition of a team . What do they need to be happy , healthy and successful ? And it's very important . Happy is a backdrop , healthy is like I feel good , and successful is thriving , right . So they can be at different stages . Some clients can be unhealthy . I can't worry about them succeeding . I just got to get them healthy ? Like how do you sort of migrate people through that workflow ? And I think this is really important for so many people . As you saw with the Happy Proud Night and Satisfied exercise , people are not ready to talk about themselves . Yeah .
SuneetSo if they come to a one-on-one and they're coming with all these responsibilities I got this stuff to do for my team , I got these clients to work with , I got these partners , I got these people internally they're telling them all that and you say , hey , how are you doing ? They're not going to answer the question , they're not going to answer it thoughtfully . But if you let them empty all their burdens about the people they serve clients , internal or external right If you let them empty all the burdens of the people they work with this person needs this , I need this to work with this person , et cetera and then they're like not , like all right , cool , you good . Everything , anything else you want to talk about , and they're like nope . And you're like all right , good , Now tell me about you . What do you need to be happy , healthy and successful ? And what's amazing is , if you do that in 25 minutes , you will have the richest understanding and shared common ground with that , with that team member .
SuneetAnd they will have given you their to-do list that you need to pick up , and you will have a clear understanding of how they're actually doing and where they need your help . You do this in 25 minutes . It's the most effective one-on-one agenda you can ever have and , if you do it right , they fill it out before you look at it and you can actually spend the full 25 minutes just on them , and so I think everything we do is in . You know , there used to be this book called the worst case scenario handbook . It was this thing they used to give out , like 25 years ago , what to do if you get attacked by a shark .
SuneetLike all these things , the one that like stuck out to me was what do you do if you're in an avalanche ? Right , and right now we are all in an avalanche . Right and right now we are all in an avalanche , yeah , and the first thing they told you to do was put your hands by your face and push out and create a pocket of air and some space to breathe so you can think about what to do next . We are all in an avalanche right now at work , socially , doesn't matter , and so the best thing we can do for people is guide them to put their hands at their face , push out and create space to breathe , and then think about what really needs to get done . And so that's what , like a one-on-one structure will do . Is it just like , if you follow it thoughtfully , you're just continue to create space , but not empty space where they feel anxiety . You create space with a structure and expectation within it so they can just show up and be themselves .
SuneetIf you're like , hey , I'm going to give you 25 minutes to talk about you , people are going to feel anxious . But if you say , hey , I want to know what makes you happy or healthy , how can I make you successful ? These are your three pumps . You've got five minutes , like go for it . And then you do this every week , every two weeks . The rhythm is there . They just come in ready to talk . It just becomes an easier format and structure for them to operate against . So , like that's something I really , really I believe in almost as much as like happy , proud and satisfied is like important and that approach to a one-on-one . There are a lot of people who say I'm going to let the employee define the one-on-one framework . You can't see the label from the inside of the jar , like I don't think that's the right move . Sure , sometimes there's stuff you want to talk about , bring it to the table , like all that stuff is great , I get it . But I think putting that kind of pressure on the employee , you've just outsourced another burden .
SuneetYou just like . That's not what you're there for . You're there to remove obstacles and make their life easier , give them structure within through which to see their work , help them pick their heads up and think about their work differently , and you're not going to do that by putting another thing on their plate .
PriscillaYeah , what you just said is so powerful that you're there to make it easier for them . That's your role . You're there to remove roadblocks and to make it easier for them , especially in a customer support world and that system . You are there to make it so for them , especially in a customer support world and that system . You are there to make it so that they can serve your customers , your users , better , and so thank you for coming and talking through this with us . It was really great to have you here and to talk about it , and I hope that anyone listening who is working in customer support whether you're a specialist or whether you're running a team it is important to take care of yourself and the customers get the benefit right , but really it's for you you are .
PriscillaThe most important thing in this situation is that you have a healthy work environment and that enables you to offer better service . But the reality is you need to make sure that you're in a healthy spot , and so if that's communicating with your manager what it is that you need , then that's great , and if it's as the manager looking out for and being intentional about how your specialists are working and how their work environment is , then that's what needs to happen . Or if you're the CEO and you're looking at your support team and you're encouraging them to take PTO because you see that they're not doing that . All of these things are really important to foster this environment of just healthy service for your support team . So thank you for coming on and talking through that with us , Suneet . So , before we jump into our Support in Real Life segment , can you tell our listeners a little bit about where they can find you and how they can learn more about the work that you do ?
SuneetYeah , I would say the best place is either LinkedIn so Suneet got on LinkedIn or my website , which is called my Authentic Story . Those are the two places to find me and to get a hold of me .
PriscillaAwesome , and we'll link all of that in the show notes for this episode .
SIRL: Connecting with Customers
PriscillaNow it's time for Support in Real Life , our segment where we discuss real life support experiences and questions . I actually have a question for Suneet today . Ooh , so I was on your website and I saw a review of your work that I'm going to read . So it said the way Suneet effortlessly combines wisdom and empathy has not only inspired me , but also ignited a burning desire to pay it forward and share this remarkable gift with others . So ignited a burning desire to pay it forward and share this remarkable gift with others .
PriscillaDanit's innate ability to connect with people from all walks of life is unparalleled , making every interaction an enriching and transformative experience . First of all , that's just like an amazing quote to have on your website , but the thing that really stuck out to me was that it is such a necessary tool to have in our toolbox as support specialists the ability to connect with people of all different varieties , because you're working with people that you don't know their whole backgrounds , and so it's clear that you do it really well . Can you share a little bit with us about how you connect with people , like what strategies people can use to help connect with all different types of people through customer support .
SuneetThat's a great question . I think the thing that I love doing and therefore spend a lot of time doing and doing well is I just love listening to people talk , tell their story , and then I love when people feel really heard . So I love playing it back to them . I've always done it and I love playing it back to them in a way where they feel it sounds even more positive and flattering like for them . So I tell people when we have a conversation , I want you to feel like you were in one of those old school 80s like house of crazy mirrors and I want you to feel like you're looking in the best and most flattering mirror you've ever looked in . When we talk , so like that's what I love to do for people , right Is ? I just want to do that and I think in customer service , I think the most important thing for you to do is be really honest about your strengths and your values . What are you really good at ? How do you thrive ? And then show up that way authentically and verbalize it , which is , if you're a problem solver , say , hey look , I get energy from solving problems , so if you're going to bring me a problem , my instinct is going to be to start solving this . If I'm not listening to you correctly , just let me know . Know I'm doing that because I'm excited to help you Like verbalize it , tell people , so don't mask it , don't hide it , don't run from it , own it , know it and own it and then communicate it so that way you can set expectations in the context of that conversation .
SuneetSo nothing is there . So I think , just like , listen , listen , listen , listen . Like really well , with no bias , try and play back what you've heard as a baseline , really authentically and ideally frame it in a way that they feel good for having articulated it . Do you think anybody feels good calling support and complaining ? Like nobody wants to do that . And so if they call and you say I heard you and oh , my goodness , what a smart perspective , what a great point of view , if you make them feel good for sharing , that's the first . Hear them , make them feel good for sharing , and's the first . Hear them , make them feel good for sharing . And then the third part is talk to them about how you are going to approach the solution , how it works for you and gives you energy , so they feel it's authentically . You Like those are three ways to do , I think support service conversation like really really well .
JordanThank you for answering that those are great tips Really is I'm thinking about using some of those on my family too . I'm excited .
SuneetYeah , it's . It's so good to be able to tell people what you're like , what your natural instinct is , and for you'd be like you know what ? I just want to solve this problem . Is that what you want right now ? And they'll say nope , and you're like , great , I'm going to be quiet . Yeah , that's , that's a life lesson there .
PriscillaThat's so good . So if you have a question or a support situation that you would like us to discuss , you can email us at happy to help at buzzsproutcom , or text the show using the link in our episode show notes . You may hear your question discussed on a future episode . Thanks a lot , Suneet , for being here . It was great to see you again and I hope to talk again in the future . Thanks everyone for listening . Now go and make someone's day .
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