Whether you're running a whole support department or just handling customer issues as part of your job, I bet you're making the same mistake as everyone else. It all boils down to one big misconception about customer support. Curious? Let's dive in!

Here's the hard truth: most people hate dealing with support. I know, I know – it hurts to hear that as someone who's passionate about support. But think about it from the customer's perspective:

"Ugh, I have to contact support? That means something's broken or not working right. Now I've got to waste time fixing this instead of just using the product I paid for."

So right off the bat, we're fighting an uphill battle when trying to figure out how to best serve our customers. But wait, it gets worse.

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The Real Kicker

Here's the thing – most companies secretly feel the same way about support as their customers do! They're thinking, "If our product just worked perfectly, we wouldn't need support at all." And that sneaky bias shows up in how they make decisions about support.

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Follow the Money

Want to see this bias in action? Just look at the budget. Support always gets lumped in with the costs, never with growth. So what happens? We're always trying to cut corners – spend less money, less time, resolve issues faster with fewer people.

Now, don't get me wrong – being efficient is great! You'd be hard-pressed to find any CEO (let alone a CFO) who wants to pour money into support as a way to grow the business. And hey, customers want quick resolutions too.

The problem isn't wanting to be efficient. It's that we're so biased against support that we've lost sight of a simple truth: support can actually be a powerful tool for growth.

Think about it – when you secretly wish you didn't have to do something, you'll look for any excuse to avoid it. We're missing out on the fact that each support interaction could be one of the most valuable touchpoints with a customer. Instead of making the most of it, we've already decided to minimize it through our support processes.

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Embracing Support

Leaning into support instead of trying to dodge it is key. Some companies have found success by having every single employee – no matter their department – spend time handling simpler support issues. This approach can bring people closer to both the product and the customers. For smaller companies, this can be an especially valuable strategy to try out.

The best customer support software enables businesses to make vital, human connections in their support interactions. By focusing on these personal touches, companies can transform their support from a cost center into a growth engine. The most successful organizations use their support tools to create meaningful relationships with customers, rather than just resolving issues as quickly as possible.

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The Loyalty Challenge

As your business grows, it gets harder and harder to keep your customer relationships from feeling cold and impersonal. It might sound like a fuzzy problem, but trust me – it's the biggest threat to your business that you actually have control over. Customer loyalty is more valuable than ever, with businesses losing a whopping $75 billion a year to churn because of crappy service.

So what does that "crappy service" look like?

Customers feeling unappreciated. Never being able to talk to a real person. Getting bounced around different departments. Endless hold times or being stuck with chatbots and FAQs.

In other words, it looks exactly like what happens when you design a workflow that's all about efficiency above everything else.

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The Real Goal

You're optimizing for the wrong thing, probably because you see support as just a cost. What you should be focusing on is customer lifetime value (CLTV). I might not be able to convince your CFO to magic support out of the cost column, but hopefully I can convince you support leaders that you can drive serious growth in CLTV – and actually reduce costs while you're at it.

So how do we get more bang for our buck? It's obvious that just slashing your resources will hurt your service quality. If you just cut staff, ditch software, and force everyone into self-serve, you're accepting worse service.

But let's talk numbers – what does worse service really mean? Lower retention rates, both in terms of dollars and customers. Less expansion. Less word-of-mouth leading to higher customer acquisition costs.

In other words, it's all about the money. You're accepting less growth because you think the costs are too high.

But what if you could rebuild your support strategy to cut costs and improve service quality at the same time? Imagine boosting retention, expansion, and customer advocacy while spending less.

My guiding principle in service and support is that any customer conversation is a "moment of truth". When you put pressure on a relationship, it'll either get stronger or crack. We can't afford to waste those high-impact moments.

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Making Personal Support Scalable

That's why we designed our support workflow and product around the conversation itself. Other systems tend to be built around databases or internal teams. That's why you see support workflows obsessed with team capacity or ticket numbers.

We need to think differently. Remember, support isn't a chore – it's one of the few times customers are actively reaching out to interact with you. Your marketing team has to pay for that kind of engagement. Don't waste it!

Every support process starts with a conversation, and how you resolve it should be flexible. Team members should be able to jump in and out of that conversation seamlessly. A customer shouldn't even realize they've been "passed around" because their conversation remains the single source of truth. Instead of trying to cram the conversation into your CRM or knowledge base, bring the relevant info from those tools into the conversation itself.

Those conversations can happen anywhere – email, text, Twitter DMs, you name it – but they all follow the same general workflow for our team.

The goal is to make every support interaction strengthen our relationship with the customer. The only way we know how to do that is by making those interactions more personal and human. Actually, that's the only way anyone's figured it out.

Where we've been able to innovate is figuring out how to do it efficiently at scale.

So next time you're chatting with your CFO, make some time to argue for more love (and investment) in support. It's either going to drive growth or be a wasted opportunity – but the choice is yours!

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And here's the key: exceptional support isn't about sacrificing efficiency for a personal touch, or vice versa. It's about finding clever ways to provide both. By harnessing innovative tools like Ariglad to boost your self-service capabilities, you can build a support ecosystem that adds value at every interaction.

Ariglad's AI-driven platform does the heavy lifting of keeping your knowledge base current and streamlining routine tasks. This frees up your team to focus on those crucial personal interactions we've been discussing. Want to see how Ariglad could take your self-service support to the next level? Book a demo and explore the possibilities for yourself.