Support That Sells: Transforming Customer Support from Cost Center to Revenue Driver

Key Insights:

• Why excellent customer support is actually excellent sales and marketing
• How to identify expansion opportunities without being pushy
• The metrics that matter more than first response time
• Why treating people like people creates better business outcomes

The customer support industry has a perception problem. Too often viewed as a necessary cost center, support teams are undervalued despite being the frontline of customer relationships. Matt Mongold, Customer Support Coach with 12+ years in SaaS, challenges this thinking with his revolutionary "Support That Sells" approach—proving that exceptional customer service isn't just about solving problems, it's about driving revenue.

In an industry where most professionals treat customer support as a stepping stone to sales or other roles, Matt's journey is refreshingly different. After successful stints in sales management and account development, he made a conscious choice to return to support.

"I know support is where I belong. It's what I do best. I fall more on the problem-solving side. I like the technical and breaking things down."

This decision reflects a growing understanding: customer support isn't a lesser role—it's a specialized, strategic function that requires unique skills and offers significant career growth for those who excel at it.

Support That Sells: Where Empathy Meets Revenue

Matt's "Support That Sells" philosophy transforms how we think about customer service interactions. Rather than viewing support as purely reactive, his approach recognizes that support teams have unparalleled access to customer insights.

"In support, you're hearing everyday problems from clients. You're getting their actual experiences, not what they heard on the demo. You can listen for opportunities and come to them from a point of 'here's my recommendation knowing our service well.'"

Key signals that indicate expansion opportunities:

• "We've been doing this manually" - Indicates potential for automation features
• "We've been growing recently"- Suggests need for additional capacity or features
• "This process is frustrating"- Points to areas where additional products could help
• Repeated tickets on similar issues- Shows systematic problems that advanced features could solve

The key difference: Sales hears aspirations; customer support hears reality.

Beyond First Response Time: Metrics That Actually Matter

The customer support industry's obsession with first response time creates a false sense of performance. Matt advocates for a more holistic approach:

"I don't want to use first response time as the only metric because there's so many variables. If someone's really far behind, it could be they're doing research and grabbing trickier tickets."

Problems with first response time focus:

• Encourages cherry-picking simple tickets
• Penalizes thorough problem-solving
• Ignores customer satisfaction outcomes
• Creates gaming behaviors that hurt quality

Better metrics to track:

• Total resolution time -Complete problem-solving cycle
• Customer satisfaction scores- Actual customer experience
• First-call resolution rates- Efficiency and effectiveness combined
• Ticket volume trends -Leading indicator of customer health

Matt's philosophy: "You want to compete with yourself—always try to be better than yesterday."

The Grandmother Rule: Building Empathy at Scale

One of Matt's most powerful insights comes from simple advice that transforms customer service Interactions:

"Imagine that every person on the end of that phone call or chat is your grandmother who struggles with tech. Just have patience, understand they want the system to work, they're coming to you because they need help."

This approach works because it:

• Creates instant empathy -Removes defensive reactions
• Focuses on helping -Rather than defending company processes
• Humanizes interactions -Treats customers as people, not tickets
• Builds genuine relationships- Foundation for long-term loyalty

Scaling Support Through People-First Leadership

Matt's management philosophy centers on treating team members as individuals, not resources:

"You can't manage every person the same. When I start working with a team, I want to get to know someone—not even work stuff. Tell me about things you're passionate about outside of work."

Effective support leadership principles:

• Individual recognition -Understanding what motivates each team member
• Foundation over numbers -Focus on skills and processes, not just metrics
• Actionable feedback -Giving specific steps for improvement
• Continuous follow-up -Regular check-ins on progress and challenges

The philosophy: "Treat your team like the most important people in the room because they are. Then they'll pass that treatment on to customers."

Building Support Teams That Scale with Empathy

As customer support operations grow, maintaining quality becomes challenging. Matt recommends a structured approach:

Two-Tier Structure:

1. Triage Team - Specialists at quickly     categorizing and routing issues
2. Subject Matter Experts - Deep specialists     in specific product areas with backup support

The 80/20 Training Approach

• Focus on 80% of tickets first- Master the most common issues
• Build subject matter expertise- Create go-to people for complex areas
• Encourage exploration -Let new team members "break things" to learn the system

"Go into the system and try to break stuff. Go in and say what happens if I do this? Try to put yourself in that spot of 'I'm new to this, I just bought this software. How do I do this?'"

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The AI Enhancement Opportunity

Matt sees AI as an amplifier for customer support teams, not a replacement:

"AI is such a huge advantage when you use it as an additional step to cut out tedious things. Have AI do that stuff so you can focus on the creative things, the things that require empathy."

AI excels at:

• Summarizing ticket context for escalations
• Drafting initial responses for review
• Analyzing patterns across support interactions
• Automating routine administrative tasks

Humans remain essential for:

• Building genuine customer relationships
• Handling complex, nuanced situations
• Showing authentic empathy and understanding
• Identifying strategic opportunities

Support as Marketing: The Word-of-Mouth Effect

Excellent customer support functions as powerful marketing, while poor support becomes a significant liability:

"An excellent support team is an excellent marketing tool. A subpar support team is a really rough marketing tool because people are going to talk."

The marketing impact:

• Positive experiences drive referrals and reduce acquisition costs
• Problem resolution builds customer loyalty and lifetime value
• Product insights inform marketing messaging and positioning
• Customer language provides authentic voice for marketing content

Handling Escalations: Turning Problems into Opportunities

Matt views escalations as opportunities rather than problems:

"A disaster or nightmare ticket doesn't have to be a nightmare. You can look at it as an opportunity because if you can turn that around and get this fixed efficiently, it can be a really good thing."

Escalation best practices:

• Stay calm - Emotions arecontagious; calm leadership de-escalates situations
• Over-communicate - Keepcustomers informed throughout the resolution process
• Own the issue - One pointof contact from start to finish
• Show genuine empathy -Acknowledge customer frustration authentically

Critical principle: Escalation is not a handoff—it's team support while maintaining customer relationship continuity.

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The Future of Customer Support

Looking ahead, successful customer support operations will need to:

1. Embrace Revenue Responsibility

Support teams must demonstrate clear business impact through expansion, retention, and customer satisfaction metrics.

2. Leverage AI for Efficiency

Use automation for routine tasks while focusing human energy on relationship building and complex problem-solving.

3. Develop Strategic Partnerships

Transform from reactive issue resolution to proactive customer success and business growth partnerships.

4. Build Empathy at Scale

Maintain human connection and personalized service even as operations grow and technology advances.

Matt's approach to customer support proves that the best support teams don't just solve problems—they build relationships, drive revenue, and create competitive advantages through superior customer experience. By treating customers like people, empowering support teams with growth opportunities, and leveraging technology to enhance human capabilities, organizations can transform support from a necessary expense into a strategic asset.

The companies that understand this transformation will not only retain more customers and solve more problems—they'll build the kind of customer relationships that drive sustainable business growth in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Watch the full episode above for more insights on building customer support teams that drive business growth.

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