Hey there,

Managing a support team can be a daunting task. You’re facing the challenges of maximizing your team’s talents, maintaining a manageable workload, and improving workflow efficiency wherever you can. And that’s before you even log in to the inbox!

Just when you feel like you’re hitting your stride, there’s another product launch – and suddenly you’re facing increased volume and complex questions about features you barely know. What do you do? And how do you do it without neglecting your regular customers and bumping up your response time?

This week on the Intercom blog, we discuss a new approach we took to customer support during a product launch. Eight members of our team took on the challenge of becoming specialists in our next-generation Inbox for the week of the launch. They were trained by a teammate who’d recently been on tour with the Product team as they built the new Inbox, and were prepped to answer any and all questions relating to our new product.

It was a huge success – all Inbox-related questions were routed directly to our team of specialists, leaving our generalist support superstars to maintain stellar service in our main inbox. Not only that, but our next-gen Inbox team were able to pass customer feedback to the Product team in real time, resulting in several crucial fixes and fast follows during the week of the launch.

Here’s to thinking outside the (in)box,

What we've been doing

liam geraghty

Hi, Robot: Intercom interviews ChatGPT

You won't believe our latest podcast guest. After the months of hype, we decided it was time to get to know our first-ever non-human guest: ChatGPT.

We've all heard the tales of uncanny encounters with Microsoft's Sydney, so we really didn't know what to expect from this interview. However, we're delighted to report that we had an entirely different experience. Throughout our conversation, ChatGPT remained composed, professional, surprisingly witty, and nothing less than fascinating.

Like everything ChatGPT-related, you have to see it to believe it. Watch our most surreal interview yet.

Introducing Response Time

We just published the first interview in our new "Response Time" series.

We're catching up with customer service leaders to find out what they think about support, book recommendations, and whether or not a burger is a sandwich (yes, really!)

Find out what Erin Narvaez of Frame.io doodles while she's on calls...

What's new in customer service?

How service leaders can increase customer loyalty: A recent Gartner study highlights the pivotal role of customer service in retention, loyalty, and business growth.
Poor customer service costs UK firms billions – so why can’t they get it right?: We already knew great customer service was a must-have, but the price tag of poor service is truly staggering.
The fixable problem of terrible customer service: Strict customer service policies are holding support reps back from offering excellent customer service. How do we strike the balance between rules and flexibility?

Customer service tweet of the week

This week's tweet comes from customer service expert Shep Hyken.

Customers don't need you to move mountains – they just want consistently great service. Want to hear more from Shep? Here he is discussing the art of customer retention on the Inside Intercom podcast in 2021.