Moving house and cleaning house

News from Around Supportlandia

I feel like I always pick the worst times to take a week off because a ton happens whenever I’m away. Rather than try to cover it all and miss good stuff, I’m just going to declare news bankruptcy and instead boost all the awesome content y’all made while I was out.

Cleaning house

I did want to note one bit of news that’s pertinent to our interests: Support Driven’s Scott Tran announced this week that the community has paused new member signups from its website.

The reason: an influx of scam jobs, spam, and bad actors that the current open-door model wasn't equipped to handle. The community is building a deliberate application process to protect existing members and grow more intentionally going forward.

I just want to send them some encouragement that this isn’t just happening to Support Driven. The state of the internet being what it is right now — flooded with AI bots and slop and other ill-conceived and ill-intentioned schemes — it makes sense that all of that would eventually find its way into our communities.

It’s something that’s hitting the CX community as a whole hard (stay tuned for a feature on that, as boy do I have some things to say), and so my sympathy goes to them while they try to deal with a gnarly problem. They’re taking a good step by not shutting the door forever, but rather putting a doorbell on it, and I wish them the best.

And Now for Some Good News

Lots and lots of career successes this week — these are just the folks who gave me the okay to celebrate them. I know the market has been rough, but hang in there — I’m hoping this is signaling an upswing.

• Jesus Taboada Foen joined HubSpot as a Customer Support Specialist.
• Omar Islam joined Flock Safety as a Customer Experience Associate.
• María Alejandra Márquez Ramírez joined Gainsight as a Scaled Customer Success Manager.
• Tania Markosian joined Global Ledger as the founding Customer Success Manager.
• Steve Responte joined Clarify as the founding Customer Success Manager.
• Monica Rosales was promoted to Manager of Customer Success at LettrLabs.
• Melissa MacAlister was promoted to Vice President of Customer Success at Gladly.

Read, Watch, and Listen

Read

Jackye Clayton launched Who Do I Work For?, a free company research tool that is extremely relevant to anyone who has ever stared down a job listing wondering what they're actually getting into. If you're a Bad Job Bingo fan, this one's for you.

Rachel Provan wrote about why not everything customers want needs to be a feature request.

Ben Werdmuller wrote about the landmark social media addiction verdict against Meta and YouTube — a jury found them negligent, which could have big implications for social media platforms going forward. I’d love to revisit this in a future issue when I have more time.

Daria Littlefield wrote about what it really means to retain a customer — and why the old playbook is dead.

Fernando Duarte wrote about how the first thing AI changes in Support isn't headcount, but the job itself.

Sarah Betts has been busy during her hiatus, but her recent piece It Was the Org Chart All Along on EQ and power dynamics in companies is a particularly good one.

Alice Goguen Hunsberger shared some great resources for upskilling Trust & Safety and Fraud teams on AI.

James Baldwin wrote about the skill that took him from leading a CS team to leading his company's AI strategy (a trajectory I imagine many CX folks will be interested in).

Tom Sweeney put together a roadmap for CX leaders looking to reallocate resources toward high-leverage work — framing AI as a liberator of time rather than a justification for cuts.

Ines van Dijk published Part 6 of her burnout in CX series, this time with real-world examples.

Kristi Faltorusso wrote a very relatable post about the imposter syndrome and pressure that comes with putting yourself out there as a creator.

Nico B. Boyce wrote wrote this fantastic and aptly titled piece: You Did Not Get Hired (But It Is Not Your Fault).

Ryan Coughlin of Savi Security launched Scamwise, a free tool for determining whether something is a scam. Everyone should have this bookmarked. Everyone should use it, and huge kudos to Ryan for making it possible.

Hat tip to Dominic Sandoval for sharing this LinkedIn Translator — put in anything, get back corporate speak. It's deeply stupid and you'll use it immediately.

Watch

Marginal Support sat down with Stefano Virgili to talk about what counts as Good Lazy.

Support Stack talked to Thomas Hils about how he's using Claude + Intercom to build a QA system that actually works — without buying yet another tool.

The CX Files talked to Michelle Wideman about turning CS teams that feel like an afterthought into functions that earn company-wide recognition.

Listen

Customer Support Leaders talked to Ryan Klausner about what Support becomes when it's no longer defined by tickets — a question the whole field is grappling with right now. The podcast also dug into what Fearless CX looks like inside an organization with Nate Brown.

More Than a Brand broke down what it actually means to have a customer retention strategy.

CX Passport talked to Lisa Guzman about building CX in remote startup environments and leading without micromanaging.

Punk CX talked to Help Scout co-founder Nick Francis about the enduring and evolving craft of customer support.

Customer Career Success Coach covered why mass applying to CS jobs is a terrible idea.

Upcoming Events