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Using Slack bots to be more productive with Desk.com

Posted on by Nathan Harrison

Many of our Desk.com customers use Slack to help with internal communications. One of the advantages of Slack is that it lets you use (and even build your own) bots, or automated programs that run and perform a variety of automated tasks to enable and empower your team.

There are hundreds of available pre-built bots you can install from the Slack App Directory.  But at Desk.com, we had some needs that didn’t quite fit into an existing bot, so we took it upon ourselves to build some custom ones for our own support team. We wanted to share with you some of our favorite ones, which may inspire you to build some into your own Desk account.

 

Team bot

One of our biggest needs is for our entire support team to know when one of us is in a meeting, logged out of our phone system to handle something other than phone calls, or unavailable for any other reason. Due to some limitations of our phone system, it’s not possible for everyone to just *see* that, so we created a bot to let the team know.

Once invited to a channel, anyone can tell the bot they’re going unavailable with a simple “@teambot brb” or “@teambot meeting.” That kicks off a set of processes, including pushing a message to our support channel to the effect of “Mike has gone unavailable, do not go away until Mike is back.” The message repeats every 5 minutes until Mike is back. When Mike returns, he simply types “@teambot back” to turn off the push message.

In the code, we do some more complex things as well, such as:

  • We don’t allow anyone else to try “@teambot brb.” This way only one person can be gone at a time.
  • We don’t allow anyone to try “@teambot back” if they’re not the person who’s away, so people don’t set someone else as back so they can leave.
  • We log the timestamps when people go away and come back, so we can report on it and make sure nobody is unavailable for too long.
  • A built-in override for management and senior members of our team lets them “@teambot back” for anyone, or “@teambot Set Tom away” if Tom forgets to set himself as unavailable.

This bot helps us keep track of our team at all times across all locations, and ensures we’ve got the resources available for our customers at all appropriate times.

System Status Bot

When there’s any sort of problem with the Desk.com service, we run System Status Bot to remind us, at set intervals, to provide updates to our customers across all of our channels; our System Statussite, our phone system messaging, the message at the top of the Desk websites, etc.

It posts to our support channel and reminds us when it’s time to update that messaging and has proven incredibly beneficial to our customers in getting them the most up to date information when there’s any sort of issue with the service.

CSAT Bot

When we get a positive or negative CSAT rating, it gets posted to a number of our channels. This way we can recognize people’s great work or review the case and look for ways to improve and reach back out to the customer to try and turn their experience around. We also post our current overall CSAT score on a daily basis to track how we are doing.

We’ve found it’s equally important to share the _good_ experiences, too. This helps our team stay motivated to keep doing great work. At the same time, the bot gives us better visibility and insight into how we can improve and work on making every experience great.  Both approaches have really helped us drive our goal of consistently increasing our customers’ satisfaction.

 

Quiz Bot

After we complete an internal training of any part of our service, the trainer builds a quiz around it to ensure team members retain knowledge from the training.

The quiz runs in a generalize channel and makes a game (complete with a score and trophy for the winner) out of it. First person to get the answer right wins the point(s).

Make your own

Here are some resources to help you get started building your own bots:

Six Essential Skills all Entrepreneurs Need to Master

Posted on by Nathan Harrison

Being an entrepreneur is more than just owning a business. A successful entrepreneur needs to be both a leader and a manager. Entrepreneurs  are not afraid to take risks. They see hidden potential in ideas. They understand the benefit of following new opportunities.

Becoming this kind of leader might seem intimidating, but you can do it if you develop the right skills. Here are six essential skills entrepreneurs need to master:

1. Understanding “why”

When preparing a speech or even a written message, it’s easy to get caught on the what and how of your content. First you need to determine what you are trying to say, and the call to action that you want people to take. You need to set objectives so you can evaluate your content against them. From there, you can craft content that leads them to that action.

2. Being a good listener

Communication is 93% non verbal. If you’ve ever spoken to someone who looked off to the side, crossed their arms, or otherwise appeared disengaged, it was no doubt a frustrating experience.

Pay attention to your movements when someone else is speaking. Nod your head, follow the other person’s movement, make consistent eye contact, and keep your face friendly. The other person is going to be appreciative of your intentiveness, and is more likely to be receptive when you’re the one talking.

3. Managing stress

A great entrepreneur needs to spin a lot of plates at once to keep the business running smoothly, and be making daily decisions that have unforeseen impact. Under this kind of pressure, anyone faces the chance of burning out.

Stop, take a breath, and look at that huge to-do list. What can you delegate to someone on your team? That’s why you chose them right? Remember that success is team effort and don’t be afraid to pass something off if you can. And remember to take breaks! You might feel like you don’t have the time, but you’re going to be more effective if your mind is well-rested.

4. Managing expectations

To avoid disappointment, set clear expectations on what you can deliver to clients, your team, and even yourself. Be realistic, not idealistic, when giving timelines. Anticipate results that you know you can achieve based on past work. Even if you know “you can do better”, don’t assume that is what will happen.

By using this tactic, the worst possibility is you deliver exactly what you promised. If you deliver more,  it’s an unexpected surprise that will leave the other party impressed..

5. Surrounding yourself with the right people

People say “you are who you hang out with”, and this is true in the professional world as well. Build yourself a support system of fellow entrepreneurs, and you will increase your odds of success. These people will be able to give valuable insight and advice because they’ve faced the same issues you have now. You’re also going to be inspired by their success to keep moving forward.

If you’re looking for practical ways to make this happen, search out networking groups in your area. Many events are specialized and you’ll likely find one with entrepreneurs like yourself.

6. Embrace failure

Nobody wants to fail. But when you’re trying something new, it’s going to happen, and it’s going to happen frequently. Don’t shut down in the face of the failure. View it as a learning experience and take some time to analyze the mistakes. You can’t change the past, but you can create a system for a better future, because failure is simply the “data point on the way to success”.

Mastering these skills will not happen overnight, just like building your business didn’t! Be patient with yourself as you seek to improve. Find people who can hold you accountable and check in on your goals over time. You’ll be amazed how much more confident you feel when you master these entrepreneurial skills.

5 Channels You Need to Consider for Customer Communication

Posted on by Nathan Harrison

How you communicate to your customers is just as important as what you’re communicating to them. In other words, if you don’t speak to them via the right channel you can’t fully engage with them in meaningful ways. The sooner you recognize which channels are best for your business, the quicker you’ll see a return on your investment.
“To determine the appropriate communication channel, identify the people you want to communicate with, research how they obtain information, consider the complexity of the message you want to communicate, calculate the cost of communicating and decide whether you want the communication to be interactive,” small business expert Ian Linton suggests.
Every business is different, but there are a few channels that seem to perform well across the board. Check these out:
1. SMS
One channel that you should be using but may not already have in your repertoire is SMS. According to statistics, text messages have an open rate of 98 percent and nine out of ten messages are opened within three minutes.
Whether you’re a school or daycare center, church, property management firm, ecommerce company, or anything in between, the opportunity to send customer notifications via SMS is something you shouldn’t miss out on.
2. Phone
While written communication is fine in many circumstances, it’s definitely not a perfect solution. Communicating with customers over the phone is an effective strategy in many industries when something like email or SMS isn’t possible.
When calling your customers, remember that phone calls can be seen as somewhat intrusive. Always introduce yourself and quickly explain why you’re calling. The last thing you want to do is come across as a telemarketer or spammer.
3. Call Centers
While phone calls from your company to the customer serve one purpose, having a call center in which customers can initiate contact themselves is also critically important for seamless communication.
The key to a successful call center is responsiveness. If there’s one thing people hate about calling a 1-800 hotline, it’s the fact that they often have to spend 10 or 15 minutes waiting on hold. If you don’t have enough people to staff your call center, offer a callback feature which allows you to then call the customer when lines free up.
4. Push Notifications
For less-pressing communication, a push notification via a mobile app can be an unobtrusive way to get in touch with customers. Push notifications are great because they allow you to deliver information without totally infiltrating the customer’s space. They see a notification pop up and can deal with it when they feel the time is right.
5. Social Media
Don’t forget about social media. There are times when Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other similar platforms can be used to initiate or respond to contact. The thing you have to remember here is that most social media communication is public (unless you’re direct messaging). Only communicate information that you’re comfortable with others seeing and accessing.
6. Face-to-Face
Nothing can replace your traditional face-to-face interaction with customers. While face-to-face communication is more conducive to certain businesses, even ecommerce companies and remote services can find opportunities to get in front of customers – even if it means having a Skype call.

You don’t need all six of these channels in order to maintain strong communication with your customers, but it would be wise to have at least three or four of them at your disposal.
The more opportunities you have to speak with your customers – and vice versa – the stronger your relationships will be.

8 Quotes to Help You Build an Amazing Company Culture

Posted on by Nathan Harrison

1. “Be cognizant of your culture”

Karlgaard urges organizations to stop thinking about the size of their companies, or the number of people on their payrolls. “If companies today have to org chart every little decision, they’re not moving fast enough,” said Karlgaard. “Instead, be cognizant of your culture. Write it down and set a precedent. Rally your company around that.”

2. “Be cognizant regardless of your company size”

Karlgaard discussed the impact of today’s global economy, and urges businesses to be mindfully aware of the circumstances in which they live, where there are problems, and where there are opportunities. “Don’t panic or get stressed about it, but come together as a team to be able to pursue these opportunities or solve these problems,” said Karlgaard. The good news is that organizations can be “cognizant regardless of your company size.”

3. “Immune system things”

“My thesis is that the best model is living organisms. We have immune systems,” noted Karlgaard. “You have this immune system that takes care of you, but imagine what it would look like for an organization to have a really good immune system.” For Karlgaard, that gets to the culture of an organization. Companies with an immune system will have a high level of trust, great teamwork, great appreciation for diversity, and unique talents that their employees bring to the organization.

4. “Hope-balance characteristics”

Business to business is truly person to person. We work with human beings in business. If the goal is to obtain a customer, hold onto a customer, and satisfy a customer, then the rational and emotional side is crucial. “Customers think rationally, and they also think emotionally. So you better bring that into your product or service,” advised Karlgaard. The people delivering your product or service must have those “hope balance-characteristics.”

5. “Build whole-brain teams”

In order to create high levels of trust and personal empowerment within an organization, Karlgaard recommends developing teams that spontaneously form to solve a problem or to pursue an opportunity on a day-to-day basis. “Establish steering teams to create whole-brain teams, which means cognitive diversity, introverts, extroverts, left-brain thinkers, right-brain thinkers who can see the big picture. Analytical people, highly analytical people, and highly intuitive people,” Karlgaard recommended.

6. “Have a highly adaptive culture”

In today’s global economy, Karlgaard feels it’s crucial to have a “highly adaptive culture based around small autonomous teams where people love and respect each other and can therefore rise spontaneously to solve problems or pursue opportunities.” He goes on to share, “People who are happy and feel good about what they’re doing is going to matter. It improves how companies impact their customers.”

7. “A degree of paranoia is appropriate”

According to Karlgaard, it’s appropriate to be fearful, but it’s not appropriate to be paralyzed with fear. “Andy Grove of Intel, said ‘Only the paranoid survive,’ and I think that’s good,” said Karlgaard. “A useful amount of paranoia and fear is needed to think about the future, but also look at it in an optimistic way. ” Good managers will make sure that there is that balance, because according to Karlgaard, that’s the creative spur.

8. “Mobilize around trends”

Many companies are doing a great job of preparing for the short-term, but might not be looking five years ahead, according to Karlgaard. ‘The two-to-five year time frame is really critical,” said Karlgaard. “The global integrated economy has offered great opportunity for organizations to mobilize their companies around technology and other trends.” Focus on how to stay competitive as a company in an era where technology is evolving as fast as it is. “There are trillion dollar opportunities out there for companies to figure out based on these trends,” advised Karlgaard.