T here are so many amazing tools and resources out there for customer support and service that
we wanted to take a moment to list a few to get you started.
Customer Support Management
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Chatra.
Our very own customer service tool that allows you to talk with your website visitors
in real time, or in messenger mode to answer questions and alleviate concerns more
easily. We are currently expanding to offer full help desk features, with all the
benefits of a messaging app — stay tuned!
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Respond.
Buffer’s social media support tool. Their tagging tracks things the same way that
most helpdesks do and makes it easy to track trends in customer troubles.
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StatusPage.
A super-easy way to communicate swiftly with customers about status issues and
events.
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CloudApp.
A tool that automatically uploads and creates a link for screenshots and
screencasts.
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Wistia.
Video hosting with analytics! This is great for support documentation because you
can see where people went back when they got confused.
Company Communication & Project Management
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Trello.
Trello it great for reporting and tracking bugs, feedback from customers, and
offers a sleek interface for project management as well.
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Slack.
Great for asynchronous and cross-team communication, especially when you’re remote.
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Dropbox
and
Dropbox
Paper.
This can keep all your documents together, and track meeting notes/minutes and
or collaborate on specs for new features.
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Google
Hangouts.
Great for weekly team meetings and one-on-ones, if remote.
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Zoom.
A more structured video chat tool that is excellent for webinars.
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Basecamp.
A good tool to use for daily updates including bugs, new support documents, and
general news from the support team.
Community groups & resources for customer support
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Support
Driven.
If you’re not prepared to start your own “support for support group,” you might
consider joining this organization, which hosts a semi-annual conference, blog,
newsletter, job board, and Slack chat with channels dedicated to local meetups,
relevant reading material, and support in general. It’s an incredible resource for
anyone wanting to start or further a career in support.
-
Support
Ops.
This great crew hosted a weekly podcast, published a newsletter, and offers
a couple free support guides on their site. (Bonus:
their “following” page
on Twitter
is a who’s who of support pros.) While they no longer record, their historical
episodes are still useful!
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We Support.
An online community for community managers and support teams. You can sign up for
their weekly newsletter
here
and follow
the people they’re
following
on Twitter.
Customer support conferences & meetups
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Elevate
Summit.
Formerly UserConf, this was the first conference geared exclusively toward modern
customer support professionals.
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SupConf.
The semi-annual customer support conference put on by the Support Driven community.
Customer support-related reads
Customer support job sites
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Support Driven
Jobs.
Is exclusive to jobs in customer support, both remote and co-located. It’s $150
to post a job for 30 days or $250 to post it for 45 days, plus a special highlight
on the page.
Join the email
list
to have new job postings sent to you.
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We Work
Remotely.
Is a comprehensive remote-jobs-only site, created by the folks at Basecamp/writers
of
Remote,
and it has a
section dedicated to customer
support.
It’s $200 to post a job for 30 days.
-
Remote.co.
Also has a
job board section for customer service-related
work.
It’s $179 for 30 days with a discount for multiple job posts (helpful if your
remote company is hiring in other departments). Job seekers can sign up to have new
job posts emailed to them.
-
Remote
OK.
Lists customer support work among its
non-technical job
listings.
It also lets searchers filter for the highest-paying jobs. Posts cost $200 a pop
and are syndicated to other sites, so posting here may have you sifting through
hundreds of applicants.
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Remotive.
A remote jobs community, hosts (you guessed it) a remote job site with a
section dedicated
to support.
-
Working
Nomads.
Also curates a
remote jobs
list
with a section dedicated to customer success.
-
Hire Tech
Ladies.
Is a members-only service connecting women and non-binary folks in tech
to companies who want to hire them. It’s free to post a job, pending approval and
a direct-line email address to the hiring manager.