Support Ops Hangouts

"It's not personal, it's just business". You've heard this phrase before and maybe even said it. But is it true? On this episode, fill in the good manager question with this belief - “Regardless of seniority, every good manager will care personally.”

Next up in our "Every Good Manager Will..." series is an important one that often gets overlooked. Managers tend to focus on action - do this, don't do that, etc. On this episode, we talk about the idea that “Regardless of seniority, every good manager will listen.”

It's new series time here around the show. There was a great Tweet that caught my eye, both because it's a great prompt and had a great conversation thread alongside it. "Regardless of seniority, every good manager will" and you get to fill in the blank. With this series, we're filling in that blank. And on this episode, we're talking about encouraging and developing each team member. "Regardless of seniority, every good manager will encourage and develop each of their team members."

Camille E. Acey joins the show this week as our special guest. You might remember her from SupConf NYC back in November. We look at how burnout happens and more importantly, how you can help your team both prevent and manage it.

With special guest Emily Triplett Lentz on the show, we take a look at one of her recent articles over on the Help Scout site. In The ROI of Thanking Your Customers, she makes a case that something as simple as a thank you card can have a big impact on customers as well as the business's bottom line.

It's the last in our boundary series so we're focusing entirely on your customer borders. When you have customers that have been with your company forever, it's tempting to set them up with perks and special treatment. Where's the line for these types of VIP customers?

This week we're talking about one of the most important boundaries to set - your time. We look at ways to control how much time you spend on your work and how much of your time people grab for themselves. Best of all, you'll hear how each of us says "no" to protect our own time.

If you don't have clear boundaries on when to share one's work, a person can get wrapped up in it and let it become part of them. If/when the work doesn't pan out, that person can get discouraged and frustrated. All that brings us to this week's question - how much work should you let your team put into a project before sharing?

This week, we kick off a new series focused on boundaries. We have boundaries all around. With customers. With team members. With work itself. This series it going to look at those boundaries and help you rough in where the lines actually are. First up - social media.

It's our live show from SUPCONF NYC! With it's AMA style, we tackle everything from "Do you have any advice for someone who wants to get into support with no experience?" to "What you rather be a dragon or have a pet dragon?".