Customer Feedback Lessons from Lyft, Square, and Google
Beth Trame has built support organizations from scratch multiple times, including at Lyft and Square, both businesses that dealt with steep volume increases and diverse customer bases. In this episode, Beth shares her experiences as we discuss customer feedback, criticism, and how support teams respond to them. Subscribe to The Supportive in your podcast player (or via Spotify and Apple Podcasts), or watch the full episode below. Every episode this season will also be on video, so please subscribe to the Help Scout YouTube channel for notifications if you prefer that mode.
Some key moments
(0:19) Meet Beth Trame: Square, Lyft, and 10 years at Google
(1:21) The newsletter: "Nobody Likes to Be Criticized"
(5:45) The three-way relationship: driver, passenger, and the business
(12:29) One-star reviews and reaching out to drivers directly
(16:35) The A/B test that split CSAT into product vs. agent
(25:28) Project Aristotle and psychological safety
(35:21) Beth's advice: be a listener first
Too long, didn’t watch? Here’s a concise version
Clarify your ratings. Make an effort to differentiate rating the customer support from feedback about the product or service.
It's (maybe) not about you. Seeing feedback from customers as separate from a personal judgment is a healthy place to get to, and you can make that easier for your team.
Be a listener first. Show curiosity and dig for more details before you react.
Links from this episode
Find Beth on LinkedIn
Read Mat's original newsletter that Beth reacted to
Guides to team effectiveness from Google's Project Aristotle
21 Customer Service Training Ideas, Courses, and Resources, which includes a link to Radical Candor
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Mathew Patterson
A veteran support leader, Mat spent years teaching better online support at Help Scout before founding More Human Content. Subscribe to The Supportive or find him on LinkedIn.
