Customer Advocacy with Meghan Gallagher
In this conversation, we talk effective customer advocacy and advocating for support teams with Meghan Gallagher, a support operations professional and consultant. We discuss moving beyond isolated Slack messages to build powerful, data-backed stories for product teams. Meghan shares strategies for bridging the gap with product and engineering, proactive trend spotting, and the powerful impact of improving internal support processes.
Key Topics Discussed
Moving Beyond "Crying Wolf" with Data Storytelling
Effective customer advocacy requires moving past isolated examples in noisy channels like Slack, which can lead to issues being deprioritized. Meghan emphasizes that advocates need to use data storytelling, combining qualitative examples (like a single ticket) with quantitative data (from tools like Amplitude or FullStory) to present the full scope of a problem to product teams.
"That's the problem is that when you send just one ticket with one customer, that's just one example. That's the tip of the iceberg when it comes to actually putting out a thoughtful story on what the actual problem is and how we can come across to fix it."
Embedding Support for Product Prioritization
To successfully advocate and provide honest customer responses, support teams must embed themselves within product teams—often as a product liaison. This gives support a seat at the table to understand the product's prioritization process and roadmap. This alignment allows support agents to be truthful with customers about non-prioritized issues and, critically, influence design and development before features are even launched.
"Try to see the inner workings of product. Attend standup squad daily you know squad meetings and things like that to figure out why is something not being prioritized and have that open conversation with them."
Advocating for Internal Process Efficiency
Advocating for internal team process improvements is just as critical as advocating for customers, as operational efficiency directly impacts the customer experience. Improving clunky systems, such as formalizing a bug reporting process that was previously handled in Slack, can empower support teams and enhance customer interaction. To gain leadership buy-in for these internal changes, it is highly effective to demonstrate cost savings using metrics like cost per ticket and the monetary value of saved time (ROI).
"It does affect the customer. Um and so that's why like I try to um really be more mindful about creating SOPs because it's not just about us. It does like especially for support like it does involve the customer."
Takeaways
Use Data to Tell the Story: Always back up anecdotal evidence with quantitative data to prove the true scale of an issue.
Build Cross-Functional Trust: Start with intentional communication, like a simple coffee chat, to build a personal connection with product team members.
Get a Seat at Any Table: Seek out product liaison roles or attend squad meetings to influence product development early and avoid post-launch issues.
Quantify Internal ROI: Frame internal process improvements in terms of saved hours or reduced "cost per ticket" to secure leadership buy-in.
Remember We’re All People: Go into all conversations—with customers and the CEO—with the mindset that "everybody is a person" to reduce intimidation and encourage speaking your mind.
