In customer support, we don’t get many big product launches or spectacular milestones to celebrate. That’s just the nature of the work. In between the infrequent major projects, and the even rarer appearances in an executive slide presentation, it’s nice to notice the smaller encouraging moments of daily support life.

Here are some of my favorites, alongside some suggestions from Help Scout’s own support team, and subscribers to The Supportive Weekly newsletter (itself intended as a bright spot). If you have your own win to add, email them in and I’ll consider it for the list!

  • Deleting 76 not-actually-support conversations from the queue.

  • Seeing a complex case open back up…but they're just letting you know it is solved.

  • A new customer mentions they have heard about the quality of your support.

  • A justifiably upset customer who remains polite and calm.

  • That suspiciously quiet queue turning out to be just legitimately quiet.

  • Getting respect from engineers when they realize that you only send them the major bug fixes, and resolve the smaller stuff within the support team.

  • Discovering the final piece of a technical mystery, unlocking the whole issue.

  • A customer writes in purely to tell you that they like your products.

  • Customers who wish you did support for the other products they use.

  • 5 concurrent "error!" tickets turning out not to be signs of a major outage.

  • Sharing a laugh with your team on a long day.

  • A colleague saying "oh assign that to me, I know what to do".

  • Realizing that the hairy issues that used to scare you no longer do.

  • Receiving the Anakin "It's working! It's working!" gif while on IT tech support.

  • Remembering there's a knowledge base article that covers this scenario.

  • Reading "You can close this, it turns out it was on my end, all good."

  • Learning that it's a public holiday for your biggest customer base.

  • Hearing "I'm sorry for getting angry at you, I know you're just doing your job."

  • The magic of "I've also recorded a screencast showing what happens, if that helps."

  • Letting customers know you've released a feature they requested.

  • A customer sharing a photo of their cat.

  • Your prodigal customer returning:"We left a while ago, but we just didn't get the same quality of support over there."

  • Seeing the executives talking directly to customers in your queue.

  • Recalling problems that used to dominate your queue, but have long been resolved.

  • Customers describing their issue with perfect clarity and context.

  • Finally succeeding in making your grumpiest customer happy.

  • Watching new teammates get excited when they learn new skills.

Some days the big picture isn’t available; let the small stuff get you through. You just need to look for it.

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Mathew Patterson
Mathew Patterson

After running a support team for years, Mat joined Help Scout, where he helps people deliver better online customer support. Subscribe to The Supportive Newsletter or find him on LinkedIn.