From Cost Center to Profit Center: How Customer Support Can Drive Growth with Helen Maidre & Helen Paas

Andy Splichal:

Welcome to the Make Each Click Count podcast. Today we are joined by Helen and Helen, the founders of H2Resolve, an expert consultancy focused on transforming customer support from a cost center to a true growth engine. With decades of experience in consulting, coaching and training, the Helens bring a unique approach to building efficient, highly trained teams that not only solve problems, but drive customer loyalty and retention. In this episode, both Helens will share some insights into crafting winning hiring strategies, navigating the rise of remote work, and using AI to empower, not replace, the human side of customer support. We also will dive into some secrets performing impactful support audits, creating cost effective training programs, and scaling support teams effectively. So whether you're looking to cut cost, improve customer experience, or drive growth through customer support, this conversation with the two Helens is packed with actionable advice you won't want to miss. All right, welcome to the show. Helens.

Helen Paas:

Hi.

Helen Maidre:

Nice to be here.

Andy Splichal:

You know I always love hearing the why behind the work and I know listeners do too. For me, creating Make Each Click account was all about helping e commerce companies and making to make sure that they're using every marketing dollar wisely. And I imagine there's a powerful story behind your journey as well.

Helen Paas:

Yes, it is. So why customer support? So I've been working with customers since I was 14 so 20 plus years and I really really like good customer support. I like to be taking care of customer reps and another thing that I really much like is products that are good enough that I don't even have to talk with customer support but if I have to go there that they will take care of me. So that's why we're or that's why I'm very concentrated on customer support people and training them to for them to.

Helen Maidre:

Be she's here for quality humans. Yes, I was massively annoyed at inefficiency everywhere. Like I really like as a customer. I don't want to talk to your customer support. I Want to get the thing I'm trying to buy, I want to use your product. And I got so annoyed every time I'm like, I'm trying to give you my money, can you make it easy for me? And that got me mad.

Andy Splichal:

So what do you see is some of the key elements for building a customer support team that's going to represent the brand and not make customers mad?

Helen Maidre:

Have good people, it's just as easy as that. And give them a bit of freedom to make decisions. If they're only following a script, they will just annoy people. And if they're good people, well trained and smart, they're going to make them happy instead.

Andy Splichal:

You know, Amazon has really changed customer support in a way for E commerce because basically they don't have any. All of it is online. How can having a customer support and talking to a person, do you think, can that help a company compete with Amazon and kind of give that extra layer of attention?

Helen Paas:

Yes, I believe so because we don't like if you get into trouble. I just got into trouble in a very, with a very big provider and I can't get to the customer support, I can't get help. So I don't want to use them anymore. I just don't want to because what if I have a real problem right now? It's not that big, I don't need to escalate it, but I don't feel safe. So I guess that for me.

Andy Splichal:

If.

Helen Paas:

I have like this safety net where I can fall to and this is the customer support, then I would feel much more confident to buy the product and use the product.

Helen Maidre:

It's especially important if you're selling something expensive. If it's cheap things, you don't care for repeat customers. But if your product or service needs repeat customers, you want to make them feel safe on the first one.

Andy Splichal:

You know, I remember back in high school I worked for a call center. It was just a great big room of people answering the phone. Now remote work and Covid and everything, I mean that's shaken up the industry and almost everybody works remote. I, I assume with this, but a lot of times companies struggle with how do you keep remote people engaged, remote workers engaged when, when they're not, you know, face to face with management or other workers on a daily basis.

Helen Paas:

So remote work is also not for everyone. This is, this is what I've, I've seen. It's not for every single person. Some people cannot work offline, but this is good management that will help those people. So I just read an article about remote work problems are always leadership problems. And that's actually what I also believe. If you lead people correctly, if you give them correct those expectations that they have to meet, they know what I have to do, they know when they have to do this, then it's not going to be difficult. But also you have to recognize this in your people who are not able to actually follow through with working remotely.

Andy Splichal:

So you mentioned the key to good customer support is hire good people. How do you suggest, I mean, that's really the key to everything, right? You want to surround yourself with good employees and good customer. I mean, but how do you find those good employees to work your customer service?

Helen Maidre:

Start with salary. If you're underpaying, you're not going to get the best people, pay enough to be able to get somebody who's smarter than your average, especially with the tools coming up, that you want somebody who's capable of using AI tools and things that make their job go faster instead of just following instructions. Pay is the first thing. And the other things from hiring perspective.

Helen Paas:

Yes, you have to like hiring the right people comes from the company itself. You have to have very clear mission and where you want to go and then you will have to do those. And then if you know your mission, if you're sure and you know where you want to go, then you can actually make those adverts, the work adverts to attract the right kind of attention. And this already makes half the work for you. And the salary is the second part.

Helen Maidre:

Yeah. So it's not just about do you have the skills to do it, but are you the right person for this company?

Andy Splichal:

Yes.

Helen Paas:

For this mission and for us.

Andy Splichal:

We had mentioned, you know, smart enough to work with AI tools. So that, I mean it's a great segue and curious, I'm sure. You know, AI is a game changer, you know, industry, industry. But for customer support, I would think even more so. So how do you see AI complementing the human touch instead of replacing it or can it replace it?

Helen Maidre:

It will definitely replace a huge part. If you think right now like you worked in a call center when you were a teenager, how much were you following script and just doing what you're supposed to, like, you know, 100%. Exactly. That's completely automatable job. Now if you couldn't solve it by following the script, then it got sent to level two who had some more tools to do stuff. If they couldn't do it, then maybe level three. It depends on the size of the company, how many Layers you have, but the bottom layers, they're gone. That's AI.

Helen Maidre:

Now we don't have that job, it's already gone. You went cheaper, you went and outsourced to somewhere in Asia that's going. Some of it still exists, but that's halfway replaced by AI. And I would say some of the more smarter jobs where you have to take action, like chase down where this package is, that in a matter of years is going to be AI. Now what's left for humans is where we can actually be human. Because when you think about your call center job and following the script, that's not human. You're actually doing the work of a robot as a human. But like empathetic problem solving and proving to people that we got you, you know, maybe the first contact to have a human face on that.

Helen Maidre:

If it's a high trust service where you want people to know they're being cared for. But on the other hand, a bunch of shops right now, people don't even know that they're talking to an AI because if you're trying to ask a FAQ type question, you're getting the answer from an AI, but you don't know it anymore. The bots that were completely annoying at being unhelpful from 10 years ago, those are going.

Andy Splichal:

Now. A small business owner who maybe is leery about where do they even start with using AI, whether it's in their business or, or adding it to their customer service. I mean where, where should they even begin?

Helen Maidre:

Identify which parts of your business are automatable and which parts you choose to keep with humans. Instead of seeing what's technologically possible, make an actual choice. This is something where I want the customer to talk to a human and then this part here doesn't have to be a human. And then once you've decided on that, you can choose a tool that fits that. And I would not recommend any single tool because it's wild west there right now. They keep changing as it goes. But I would recommend a tool that links well into your system, whatever other system you're using, instead of having to build a link or having a linking system, but it has a direct link and it's easily replaceable because these businesses right now come and go. So get one that you're not.

intro:

Hooked.

Helen Maidre:

To that, you know, they build everything for you custom, you can't change out from that. Get something that's easy to change out from.

Andy Splichal:

Now you had mentioned the customer support can be a growth engine rather than a cost center. So what are some Strategies to actually do this, to have customer support drive growth.

Helen Maidre:

Easiest part is just to listen to them because often customer support only sees problems and they kind of start sounding like, oh, they're just complaining again. They're just complaining again. Listen to the complaints and then make your calculation if this requires attention or not. Because some things will cause complaints and that's fine. But for example, let's say that you have an item that sells for $10 and you sell 100 every week and nobody ever complains about them. And then you have a very expensive item that sells for 100, but you sell maybe one or two. But there's so many complaints about it and there's so much work hours you put into it, it doesn't add up. So basically, listen to the complaints and choose the ones that financially makes sense to get fixed.

Helen Maidre:

And your customers will tell you exactly what's wrong, exactly what needs fixing. They know this, they just need to be heard.

Andy Splichal:

Now, customer support, when it comes to this, for especially E commerce, you're talking about people who are companies that have their own websites are selling on the Shopify, The WooCommerce, the BigCommerce, not the ones that are selling on Amazon because then customer support runs through them. I guess that always brings back to how do you compete with Amazon? And I know we talked about this before, how this can be support, but I guess just what I'm trying to think of is for a small company just starting, how concerned do they need to be with customer support?

Helen Paas:

I would, I would say a lot. So do it yourself.

Helen Maidre:

Make as the owner.

Helen Paas:

Yes, as the owner. Do it yourself at first, then you will understand what the customers need. Use the AI a lot so you wouldn't be overwhelmed. Because as a, as a founder you probably have a lot of other problems as well during that. And I would say as well that I wouldn't try to compete with Amazon. I wouldn't try to compete. You have to have your own niche to do stuff. Now nowadays you have like to succeed in the E commerce, I think you have to have your own kind of.

Helen Maidre:

Amazon does everything. Yes, you do one thing really well and from customer support, if you want repeat customers, then you care for it. If you're only ever going to sell to one person once you want them, maybe to recommend you to their friends, but they're not going to talk to your customer support. The ideal you want is that they never have to talk to your customer support. And for this you listen to the problems and you solve them on the product level instead of putting band aids on band aids.

Andy Splichal:

Yeah. Now, you guys also offer customer support audits. And, I mean, I think it's probably a great way to really dive in and to help people, I guess. When you're doing an audit, what core areas are you looking at? And what are some of the red flags that you might uncover?

Helen Paas:

So my biggest red flag is bad support that deflects me from using the product and companies that don't understand how much CS actually matters in keeping your customers.

Helen Maidre:

So we check for that, and then we check for your numbers. If you have numbers. If you don't have numbers, we actually, that's where we say that that's your biggest problem. Figure out what's going on. Like, get the data, NPS tracking, and both sides, companies get stuck in either only looking at the top or the bottom. So we take that cohesive hold of why are customers recommending you to their friends and why are customers, like, really mad at you? And then you have to see, like, which part you need more focus on, like, do you want to scale bigger or on, like, getting more of why we recommend you? And the reverse is like, okay, is there some core problem that keeps coming up and up? And every time you look at mps and you compare that to your customer interactions, why we're talking to you, you will find your answer there and any other number that you can track.

Andy Splichal:

So how does the process work? I mean, how do you go in, a client comes to you and say, I'd like one of these audits, my customer service, how does it work? How does your process specifically work with working with clients?

Helen Maidre:

We want to see what systems you use, how they connect to each other, what you track, what you don't track. We look at it on the, let's say, infrastructure level first and see what moves and what gets saved. If you have feedback, then that's the next step as to what your customers actually want or don't want. And then depending on the size of your team, of the people that you've hired, or like, you know, even your AI would be considered a team member. We look at workflows as to where people get stuck, where employees get stuck. The other part is looking at where the customer gets stuck. And we try to give you a good idea of if you remove these hurdles, either your customers are going to get through more and they're going to end up buying or. Or your customer support stops getting very slow in certain points.

Andy Splichal:

Now, I read also that you guys offer different sort of training programs. Now, how does. How does that Work. And are you able to uncover what's needed after these audits or tell me about that?

Helen Paas:

Yes. So first we do the audits, we will understand what is needed from the customer side. And then comes the you need training strategy. So people do argue with me that we're a small company, we don't need it, but actually, no, you need a training and like, I would even call it people development strategy because everybody in the company actually needs development in order to just be like, when the company is growing, you need to develop in order to keep up with this. Like this is, this is development already. And you have to have those plans. Everybody have to like, they have to hit some marks and you have to have a strategy, a good strategy, good plans that will support the strategy.

Helen Maidre:

We have a lot of pieces that we can mix and match depending on what your personal need is. But that depends on what's the big hole.

Andy Splichal:

Yeah. Now I know a lot of company owners specifically don't want to spend money on more entry level people training because there is a lot of, could be a lot of turnover in a company especially, especially with remote work that it's happened, everything's happened the last four or five years. What would you say to somebody who came and said, I don't want to train more entry level people?

Helen Paas:

So I would say that all right then, then be happy with the turnover. Like, because those people who, who you don't invest in will be probably the ones who are leaving anyway.

Helen Maidre:

And if you have growth of your company and your team in mind, customer support is a good internal place to hire from. Like, there are often students who are studying something, they have more skills. Okay. It depends on who you hire. If you hire somebody who's been doing customer support for 30 years and they know how to follow a script, build a bot, you don't, you don't need that human. But other customer support reps can become different roles in your team and they're going to be more useful because they know what your customer thinks and wants.

Andy Splichal:

Do you guys offer any sort of AI services as far as plug this in there. This when you do the.

Helen Maidre:

We do not build our own tool, but we will help you choose which one. And if you are willing to give us access to your code and so on, then, then we have specialists who will make the connection for you. But we do not have our own tool. We just pick what fits your need best.

Andy Splichal:

Well, I mean, this has been really, really revealing information. Tell me what kind of listener, if they're out there, should contact you. And how can they contact you?

Helen Maidre:

So our website is h2resolve.com so we resolve problems and we're to helens. We also have a special offer for your listeners. Sorry, we have a special offer for your listeners, which is h2resolve.com make each click count and then come to us with a real problem. We'll give you one hour of free consulting five first people that make it. And we're not gonna, you know, spend that time trying to figure out who you are, what you do, and just chatty. Give us what your problem is and we'll give you the best solution we can in one hour.

Andy Splichal:

Well, that's great. And yeah, I mean, this has been a lot of fun and you've given a lot of great information. Is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap it up today?

Helen Maidre:

Go do it like the thing that you've been waiting to do and you're procrastinating on and you're listening to this podcast to get good ideas, do your first step.

Andy Splichal:

Well, those are great final words. Well, thank you for joining us today, Helen. Thank you for joining us today, Helen.

Helen Paas:

Thank you for having us.

Andy Splichal:

All right, for listeners, remember, if you like this episode, please go to Apple Podcast. Leave us an honest review. And if you're looking for more information on connecting with Helen or Helen or H2Resolve, you'll find the links in the show notes below, including that special offer for a free consultation with the first five to take advantage. In addition, if you're looking for more information on growing your business, check out our Podcast Resource center available at podcast. Make each click count.com where we have compiled all of our different past guests by show topic and include each of the contact information in case you would like more information. Any of the services discussed during previous episodes. Well, that's it for today. Remember to stay safe, keep healthy, happy marketing and I'll talk to you in the next episode.