An ongoing list of interesting customer experience articles, company culture, team collaboration, design, and other topics.

More than common best practices, they contain invaluable knowledge in regards to elevating our service standards. As the saying goes, customer service is a feature.

If you’re into podcasts, NiceReply has an excellent list with some of the best customer support podcasts, as well as a list of must-read books related to customer service.

A special thanks to the Support Driven community.

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Table of contents (click to page jump)

• Addressing your users
• Internal practices
• Other topics

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Addressing your users

Customer experience (CX)

• The Next Frontier in Customer Support – HelpScout
• Creating a Customer Service Definition – Zendesk
• Support Kit: a step-by-step guide for creating your customer support experience – Chase Clemons
• 5 Best Practices for Delivering Excellent Customer Service – GrooveHQ
• A Brief Guide to a Better Email – HelpScout
• Voice and Tone – The Rocket Science Group / MailChimp
• How to Talk to Your Customers – HelpScout
• Cross-Cultural Customer Support – HelpScout
• Supporting Customers in a Foreign Language – HelpScout
• An Incomplete Guide to Inclusive Language for Startups and Tech – Buffer
• A Brief Guide to a Better Email – HelpScout
• 10 Tips for Sending Better Customer Service Emails – GrooveHQ
• Chatbots Deliver the Worst Customer Service – Rafal Cymerys, Late Night Coding
• Smooth Moves: Migrating a Customer Query Between Support Channels – Helpscout

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Internal practices

Customer experience: support and success

• Four Examples of Good Customer Service – Zendesk
• The 5 Crucial Elements That Define Your Customer Support Style – GrooveHQ
• Writing the perfect support email – NiceReply
• How SaaS Companies Can Structure Customer Facing Teams for Support and Success – HelpScout
• A 3 Phase Approach to Customer-Centric Product Support – NiceReply
• 15 Customer Service Skills that Every Employee Needs – HelpScout
• 4 Twitter Features You Can Leverage To Provide Great Customer Service – Freshdesk
• Implicit gender bias in customer service: What the data tells us – Olark
  • Its follow-up: Gender Bias is Still Real, And You Can Help
• How To Move Your Support Team From Cherry Picking To Queue Crushing – NiceReply
• 5 Habits to Rethink When You Become a Support Manager – HelpScout
• Customer service examples – HelpScout

Team collaboration

• Giving customer support a seat at the product table – Intercom
• Customer Service + Marketing = Improved Customer Experience – HelpScout
• The Good Way to File a Bad Bug – InterCom
• The QA Mindset – Rands

Knowledge bases and FAQ sections

• Building a Knowledge Base – GrooveHQ
• 7 Tips for creating a Knowledge Base – HelpScout
• Design Your Knowledge Base Like a Product – HelpScout
• How to Write an Effective Knowledge Base Article – HelpScout

Customer feedback

• Customer feedback: how to hear the voice of the customer – Zendesk / Typeform
• Should you delete irrelevant CSAT ratings? – NiceReply
• Cleaning up Oil Spills — How to Turn a Negative Customer Experience into a Positive One – Active Collab
• What to do with negative customer feedback – Zendesk

Data: reporting, case studies

• 22 Customer Support Statistics You Should Know (infographic) – GrooveHQ
• Customer Success report – Hubspot

Company culture and values

• How To Rock Communication With Your Customer Success Team – Tia Fomenoff
• A quick guide to Stripe’s culture – Stripe
• The 10 Slack Agreements – Buffer
• 51 Questions to Ask in 1-on-1 with a Manager – Lighthouse
• Language and tone – Buffer

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Assorted topics

Design, UI

• The ELI4 Technique – GrooveHQ
• Sentence length: why 25 words is our limit – Sara Vicent / GOV.UK
• Styleguide – MailChimp
• UI Text: Simplicity is Difficult (slideshow) – Mike Jang
• User Interface text – Microsoft
• Creating a Successful Style Guide for Your Brand – HelpScout
• UI Style and Tone – Microsoft

GDPR

• EU / GDPR – official EU website
• Preparing for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): 12 steps to take now – ICO
• GDPR infographic (PDF) – Balabit (security firm)
• Getting ready for the GDPR – ICO (includes checklists for data controllers and data processors)
• Guide to the General Data Protection Regulation – Bird & Bird (law firm)

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Cover photo by Meriç Dağlı