In 2016, I was the 8th hire of a small startup. On my first day, there was a monumental product launch. There were already 10,000 unanswered conversations in the queue, and 100 conversations were coming in per hour. Customers loved the hype video about the launch, but didn’t know how it worked. I didn’t know how it worked. This was my first day!
What have I done? Should I leave now?
I didn’t leave. I love the product and the team is incredible. The customer base doubled year over year, while our team was not doubling. We had to find ways to reduce support and empower our customers, which means we were making many changes with every process you could imagine.
During the pandemic, our customer base skyrocketed because our product filled the need of remote collaboration for media. We were rewriting our processes, while we were also trying to identify how we needed to change the way we provide support for our customers.
Then, in 2021, our company was acquired by a Fortune 500 company. They needed a full report of the current state of our support team – which means – every process documented and every gap identified. It can be terrifying to turn over stones you haven’t touched in awhile. Right?
But honestly, I wish I was doing this all along because the more you assess the gaps in your processes, the more optimized your team is to succeed. Many of the stories I’m sharing with you today are from the acquired company about those process gaps I found in my People, Customers and Technology.
