The Supportive Podcast

Help Scout
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Management
  • Updated Biweekly

Brought to you by Help Scout's Mat Patterson, The Supportive is a show for the customer-centric leaders of today and tomorrow. Tune in for tons of customer experience insights, practical tips, expert advice, and a bit of fun. (Also dad jokes).

  1. Speak to a human with Pavel Malyshev

    18h ago

    Speak to a human with Pavel Malyshev

    Pavel drove AI customer support adoption as head of support...and then he got laid off. Mat chats with Pavel about his 13 years in B2B SaaS customer experience about the way execs are thinking about support today. Plus: why customers still want a human to confirm an answer, even when the AI got it exactly right. For a full transcript, notes, and links, see https://www.helpscout.com/blog/inside-ai-customer-support Find Pavel at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pmalyshev/

    27 min
  2. Relevance before brevity in support with Leslie O'Flahavan

    Jun 15

    Relevance before brevity in support with Leslie O'Flahavan

    Leslie O'Flahavan has spent 30 years teaching people to write well at work — including plenty of customer service teams. Leslie and Mat discuss what it takes to write concisely in support, and how to develop your team's concise writing skills. Listen out for Leslie's simple 10% word-count game, and the surprising shift she's made just this year in her approach to spelling and grammar. For full show notes see https://helpscout.com/blog/customer-service-writing

    31 min
  3. 700 classes and 0 perfect takes with Alison Groves

    Jun 2

    700 classes and 0 perfect takes with Alison Groves

    After 700+ live Help Scout classes, Alison Groves has figured out what makes customer education work — mistakes. Well, not exactly, but that's part of it. In this episode of The Supportive, Mat talks to Help Scout's Customer Education Lead, Alison, about what she's learned, how to get started, and why imperfection builds trust. WHAT WE COVER: - Why 90%+ of Alison's attendees stay for the full session - The three types of people who show up (and what each of them needs) - Why making mistakes live is a feature, not a bug - How to start even if you have zero experience - What happens when only 3 people show up vs. 120 - Whether AI will make live human teaching more or less valuable TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Introduction 0:32 Meet Alison — 700+ classes and counting 4:11 What makes a great teacher (and a terrible one) 5:41 Getting over the fear of being wrong 8:09 Why people sign up for live classes 11:30 Live teaching vs. recorded demos 14:07 The value of imperfection 17:59 Advice for getting started 20:06 Your first step: just record yourself 22:14 Big class vs. small class — does it matter? 25:25 How to know if it's working For notes and links: https://helpscout.com/blog/teach-your-customers/

    30 min
  4. Kristi Thompson creates her own job

    May 17

    Kristi Thompson creates her own job

    What if making your work visible wasn't about promoting yourself — but about telling the stories of your customers? Help Scout's Kristi Thompson spent nine years on the customer support team. She wasn't angling for a promotion or trying to build a personal brand. She just noticed a gap — consultative conversations that email wasn't suited for — and started volunteering to take those calls. She tracked what happened and shared it with her team and manager in Slack. Eventually, Help Scout created a customer success role and gave it to her. In this episode, Kristi and I talk through one edition of The Supportive Weekly newsletter "Why you should show your work" . Kristi brings the real-world version: what she actually did, why she called it an experiment, who was reading her Slack updates (more people than she expected), and how a one-minute video highlight reel can land harder than any spreadsheet. We also get into: whole company support, what remote work does to your visibility, the difference between self-promotion and reporting on what you've done, and why you should never expect anyone to connect the dots for you. https://www.helpscout.com/blog/the-su...

    21 min
  5. 5 Themes from Season 2

    Apr 20

    5 Themes from Season 2

    Season 2 of The Supportive brought together founders from seven very different businesses — software, hardware, beer, mattresses, and more — all with a reputation for putting customers first. In this wrap-up episode, Mat draws out the five themes that ran through every conversation: being your own customer, staying close as you grow, values that drive real decisions, deliberate growth, and treating support as intelligence. If you've followed the season, this ties it together. If you're just discovering it, start right here.

    21 min
  6. Is David Sparks too kind to be a lawyer?

    Mar 24

    Is David Sparks too kind to be a lawyer?

    Mat sits down with David Sparks — lawyer turned full-time creator — as he shares how 28 years in the courtroom shaped his approach to serving his technology audience. From playing imaginary clown music at raging opposing counsel, to personally answering emails from 93-year-old customers, David reveals what it looks like to build a business around kindness, craft, and staying close to the people you serve. https://www.helpscout.com/resources/supportive-podcast/macsparky/ for full show notes.

    35 min
  7. NapLab tells you what mattress sellers will not

    Mar 8

    NapLab tells you what mattress sellers will not

    NapLab — Our First Customers on The Supportive Mat Patterson talks with Derek Hales, founder of mattress review site NapLab, about building a customer-centric business in an industry that works hard to keep consumers in the dark. Derek shares how a frustrating mattress shopping experience led him to create one of the web's most rigorous product review platforms — and what happens when the reviews don't work for readers. For the full show notes and transcript: https://helpscout.com//resources/supportive-podcast/naplab/

    37 min
  8. Young Henrys — Our First Customers

    Jan 19

    Young Henrys — Our First Customers

    Mat sits down with Oscar McMahon, co-founder of Sydney brewery, Young Henrys, as he shares how community, values, and a ‘challenger mindset’ have helped build one of the city's most loved independent companies. From the Inner West music scene to their “Serve the People” ethos, Oscar shares how purpose shows up in hiring, customer service, and business strategy. Full show notes and links: https://www.helpscout.com/resources/supportive-podcast/younghenrys/ Listen out for: (04:16) The birth of craft beer culture and why engagement matters (06:01) Inner West Sydney: the impact of local culture (09:05) How a passion for music shaped Oscar’s leadership (11:04) Lessons from touring bands and applying them to business (14:09) Every touchpoint matters: holistic customer service (15:36) Why shared company values come first (17:16) Making values stick with a self-policing culture (19:06) Hiring for fit: values vs experience (22:26) Embracing challenge for genuine growth (28:30) Human connection beats tech in hospitality (29:16) Community partnerships and authentic marketing (33:13) What “Serve the People” really means at Young Henrys (34:11) Sustainability, B Corp and the innovative algae project (39:13) Building real customer value beyond transactions (44:23) Independence vs. challenge: what keeps brands thriving

    47 min
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About

Brought to you by Help Scout's Mat Patterson, The Supportive is a show for the customer-centric leaders of today and tomorrow. Tune in for tons of customer experience insights, practical tips, expert advice, and a bit of fun. (Also dad jokes).

Information

  • Creator
    Help Scout
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    31
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2024
  • Show Website
    The Supportive Podcast