The Product Leader’s Cheat Sheet for Alignment: The Customer Support Edition

In an ideal world, the product team would be perfectly aligned with all other company stakeholders, including the executive team, board of directors, and customer-facing teams like sales and customer support. Yet this is rarely the case. In fact, setting expectations with cross-functional stakeholders was one of the top challenges faced by product leaders, according to the most recent Product Excellence Report.

It makes sense — stakeholder communication and expectation setting is tough because there’s no single playbook to follow. Each group of stakeholders has their own interests and priorities. That’s why it’s so important to treat your stakeholders the same way you treat your customers, 

developing a deep understanding of each group and how you can best meet their needs.

As a product leader, you might be wondering if it’s really realistic to add yet another item to your never-ending to-do list. Is this really something you can make time for? We’ll be straight with you: Yes, you should absolutely make time for it, because neglecting your stakeholders today can lead to much more trouble down the road.

Luckily, you don’t have to do it alone. We’ve put together a series of cheat sheets to help you achieve alignment with each group of stakeholders. In this edition, we’ll explore how you can best work with your customer support team.

“To deliver features that solve real-life problems as quickly as possible, you need to close the gap between your product team and your customers.” Cindy Berman, Former Product Marketing Manager at Productboard

4 tips for partnering with customer support

When product teams work closely with customer support, they can gain a better understanding of current customers’ needs and pain points. This knowledge can then be used to inform product development and ensure that the product meets customers’ requirements.

There is one caveat: Product management teams should be mindful of building only for current customers and consider the needs of prospects and new target segments as well. This is why it’s so important to establish clear communication with sales and marketing in addition to customer success and support teams. 

Here are four tactics to try: 

1. Establish regular communication and collaboration channels through regular check-ins or meetings. The support team can provide feedback on common customer issues or complaints and suggest product improvements that can help address these issues. Product management teams can use this feedback to prioritize their product roadmap and make data-driven decisions that will improve the user experience.

“When we meet with our customer success and tech support departments, we’re looking for their insight on whether:

• The proposed feature will solve users’ problem.
• We’ve provided enough information for them to drive user adoption and help customers succeed with our product.” – UserVoice

2. Provide training and resources to support teams to ensure they are well equipped to handle customer inquiries and issues. This can include product demos, FAQs, and knowledge base articles. By investing in the training and development of support teams, product management teams can ensure that support is able to handle customer inquiries effectively and provide a positive customer experience.

“Regardless of your industry or product, your agent support and product teams share one important goal: making your customers successful. That goal becomes 10 times more attainable when those two teams are integrated, sharing knowledge, and working closely together.” – Alexis Fogel, CEO of Stonly

3. Define clear escalation paths for P0 and P1 issues that require urgent attention from the product team. With a clear escalation process, support teams can quickly and efficiently escalate critical issues to the product team, which can help minimize any negative impact on the customer experience.

4. Develop a shared understanding of customer needs and feedback. This can help ensure that product management is aware of the most pressing customer needs and can build products that address those needs. When product management decides not to build a feature or implement a suggestion from support, it is important to explain why and provide transparency to avoid the feeling of a “black box.”

“Customer-facing teams bring the insights about customer needs and pain points while Product teams have the technical knowledge of what’s possible and which changes are being prioritized. Better communication and collaboration between these two areas of your company will ultimately lead to customers who feel more informed — and heard. And when that happens, everyone wins.” – Gainsight

When customer support and product teams collaborate, they can bring their unique perspectives and expertise to the table, leading to a more comprehensive understanding of the issues at hand. This collaboration allows for a more efficient and effective resolution of customer issues, as the product team can quickly provide insights into the technical aspects of the product, while the customer support team can offer valuable insights into the customer’s needs and concerns.

Resolving customer issues more quickly and effectively increases customer satisfaction and loyalty. This makes your customers more likely to stay and may even inspire them to refer your company to others. 

Never fear your next encounter with a stakeholder again. Download the cheat sheet to help you handle every interaction with your customer support team with confidence, or our guide on uniting the business for tips on how to work with other stakeholders. You can also check out the below video for tips on how product can build stronger cross-departmental relationships.