Customer support that works better, for your customers and your team.

I start with the customer’s path, not the dashboard. I follow a handful of real conversations from first contact to resolution: where the customer started, how many times they had to repeat themselves, who touched the ticket, and what finally solved it.

Next, I look for repeat contacts. When the same question keeps coming back, the cause usually sits outside support: a confusing screen, an unclear policy, or a help article that doesn’t exist yet.

Then I look closely at handoffs. Escalations are where most delays hide. I check whether everyone knows who owns the next step, what evidence engineering needs, and how the customer hears back.

Finally, I separate what’s confirmed from what’s assumed. Teams often carry beliefs about their queue that the data doesn’t support. A good review names the evidence behind each finding, so the priorities that come out of it are ones the team can trust.

Most startups wait too long. By the time founders feel buried, replies have slowed down and the product team has lost touch with one of its best sources of customer feedback.

The signals are usually clear: founders or engineers spend hours a day in the inbox, the same questions come up every week, and customers wait overnight for answers that take five minutes.

Look for someone who can answer well and build at the same time: write the first help articles, tag what comes in, and tell the product team what customers are struggling with. Your first support hire sets the tone for everyone who follows.

Before they start, have three things ready: a shared inbox, a short set of saved replies, and a clear path for bugs to reach engineering.

When support feels chaotic, a new platform is tempting. Sometimes it’s the right call. More often, the existing tools are capable, and the gaps are in how they’re set up and used.

The signs are familiar: tags no one trusts, routing rules added one at a time and never revisited, reports that need a spreadsheet to interpret, and knowledge that lives in a few people’s heads.

Before adding anything, I map the work: what comes in, how it’s sorted, who acts on it, and what “done” means. That map usually reveals a few clear fixes, such as simpler categories, clearer ownership, and a short list of measures people actually look at.

If a new tool is still needed after that, you’ll choose it with far better requirements.