Support is the Home Team

October 26, 2016

While watching Game 1 of the Word Series, a thought hit me: Support is the home team.

In baseball, the home team has the advantage of batting at the bottom of each inning. They’re able to “answer” and have the last at-bat in a game.

Support teams are there to help solve mistakes. If your team has the last inning mindset, each case that comes in is an opportunity to win. No matter how dire a case might look at first.

When an issue comes in, the team should have all of the tools available to them to answer and resolve the issue. The team should also realize creative solutions are sometimes necessary. Or, if you screwed up, admit and be transparent in ways you’re working to avoid the mistake in the future.

For example: A case might not be resolvable right away – Sometimes a case might require further investigation or escalation. Take the issue to “extra innings” and let them know what’s going on, keep your customer in the loop, and follow-up when you have an answer.

Shortly after signing up a customer decides they need to cancel their account and asks for a refund – Happily give them the refund, you never know when they might have a need for your service in the future.

If your DNS provider goes down – Find a way to provide your customers IP addresses to keep using your service for critical functions they use your service for.

By the way, I’ll take one ticket to the Cubs bandwagon 😀.