Erez Zuckerman, CEO and co-founder of ZSA Technology Labs, shares how a focus on craftsmanship, honest communication internally and externally and deep support has helped his small keyboard company punch well above its weight. See https://www.helpscout.com/resources/supportive-podcast/S202/ for show notes

What does it take to earn the trust and loyalty of over 12,000 customers, build a team that cares like you do, and hold onto your values for over a decade? In the first episode of season 2, go behind the scenes with the three founders of Help Scout – Nick Francis, Denny Swindle, and Jared McDaniel – and hear how they turned their frustrations with clunky support tools into a business renowned for its customer focus. For show notes, transcript, and links: https://helpscout.com/resources/supportive-podcast/S2E01/

How can we frame AI chatbots as self-service tools, not worse-than-human support?

Season 1 of the podcast comes to an end, and Mat explores the recurring themes in classic clip-show style. Listen for a sneak peek of season 2!

Priscilla Brooke leads a team of support experts to help podcasters run, distribute, and grow their shows. In this episode she talks about her journey into support, and her approach to service at Buzzsprout.

Elevate CX founder Sarah Hatter chats with Mat (again!). This time, she shares her community building journey from idea to impact, revealing how in-person connections, shared wisdom, and a true sense of belonging have shaped Elevate CX into the community it is today.

Sarah Hatter — support veteran, community legend, and founder of ElevateCX — joins Mat to talk about the early days of SaaS support, and the human support of the future. Sarah will be back next month to talk about the incredible support community she helped create. For show notes, links, and further reading, check out https://www.helpscout.com/resources/supportive-podcast/S1E8/

Mat and a bunch of support experts share actionable tips, encouragement, and helpful advice for people new to support, those considering a support career, and even jaded veterans.

In the final Supportive Podcast of the year, Santa's dealing with change, just like the rest of us, and Mat has some thoughts and thanks as we consider 2025.

A stranger delivers a USB-C stick from the future, and Mat discovers it contains a recording of a corporate onboarding for new support staff in November of 2028. What does it all mean? Listen now, or visit https://www.helpscout.com/resources/supportive-podcast/S1E6/ for a video version, plus show notes and further reading.

Mat shares a special crossover: Episode 6 of Epochal Growth with host Sarah Caminiti interviewing Ben McCormack, a customer experience expert, who discusses the importance of customer journey mapping in fostering customer-centricity within organizations. Huge thanks to Sarah for sharing her interview with us. To hear more from Sarah on Epochal Growth, visit https://www.epochaloperations.com/epochal-growth

Mat describes his first customer service experience working as a paper boy. What was yours? Email thesupportive@helpscout.com to let us know.

Mat chats with Elyse Mankin, experienced support leader and former headband girl to talk about her experiences moving from frontline support into a leadership role. See https://www.helpscout.com/resources/supportive-podcast/S1E5/ for more.

In this episode, Mat shares stories and lessons from six examples of customer service fails throughout history — from poor quality trade goods in ancient Mesopotamia to spectacularly bad motel service in present-day Australia. For more information on all of these incidents, a full transcript, and further reading, visit https://www.helpscout.com/resources/supportive-podcast/S1E4/

Mat explores the recent Biden/Harris announcement of a "Time is Money" crackdown on customer hostile business practices.

Ben Henderson — product manager, former DJ, and boot Tetris expert — chats with Mat about his role and how customer support leaders can most effectively make their case for product changes and fixes. Plus, an Aussie slang challenge! For show notes, relevant links, further reading, and a full transcript visit: https://helpscout.com/resources/supportive-podcast/S1E3/

Mat reveals that Aussies love Tina Turner, but thinks customer support teams may soon need another hero.

Self-service technology, through AI, is the future of online support.

In this in-between non-episode, Mat talks about why Help Scout is not an AI-first company.

AI and the future of support teams, 3 truly terrible predictions, several action items for support leaders, and Shawna explains the Rule of 40. For notes, links, and a full transcript: https://www.helpscout.com/resources/supportive-podcast/S1E1/ Please send feedback to yourfriends@helpscout.com