Dear DAO community,
My name is Megan (@cryptohmeg in Discord), and I’m the current Director of Customer Support at ShapeShift, Inc. I have been leading our support teams for over 5 years and in total have spent almost 9 years in the crypto space. I’ve come to understand the ebb and flow of customers that flock to crypto. It’s always either mountains of new users or none (I’m being slightly hyperbolic). I’m suspecting the new DeFi experience will be the same as it becomes more mainstream. Until then, the old customers of ShapeShift still want a basic crypto experience with their wallets and trading (although little do they know what’s going on under the hood) as we usher in a new kind of user that’s more savvy and drooling for the next high-yield, DeFi offering.
This means the customer support teams need to remain agile…one foot in the old, one foot in the new. That’s something my current team has excelled at, mostly because there’s been no other way to push through the quickly evolving environment.
I currently have a talented group of global agents working through the traditional support path of a ticketing system. We also curate helpdesk articles weekly to help guide people through the product experience and answer common questions - with the goal of self-service and empowering the user (ultimately hoping for less 1:1 support interactions as our helpdesk improves and grows).
As we near the end of the old ShapeShift, Inc and shift to our new life in the DAO, I’d like to offer this same model of care for the customer. So here’s a quick glance at the pre-plan plan I’m working on to ensure there is high quality support during the transition. As with all things in this new world of flexibility, I’m eager to see how the community improves upon this model in the coming months.
Mission: Delight and educate customers as they navigate and experience The ShapeShift DAO.
Goals
- :
Create and maintain a self-service helpdesk.
- Provide a streamlined ticketing system - continue using Zendesk.
Sustain a 48 hour first response time for all user inquiries - try getting something < 48 in most
- crypto firms. We’ve discovered the 24-48 hour mark is ideal and balances well with staffing management.
- Maintain a presence in Discord and other social channels to funnel all high-level support needs to the formal ticketing system. - note, this does not mean “manage” social channels, but instead have a supporting presence.
- Data reporting on customer support interactions, satisfaction, feedback, and bug reports. - this should help the product teams and engineers ensure they are focusing on what matters most to users.
- Create ShapeShift DAO-focused educational articles. - stretch goal and will require some bounty-based writing opportunities.
I’m currently working on the job descriptions for the 6 roles required to fulfill the above goals. Which brings me to my next point on why I’m even sharing a pre-plan…
…LIFE. Just because there are no faces and an office to congregate at in a DAO, let’s not forget, we are humans dealing with life! As the leader of this team, I’m a new mom to a beautiful 8 month old boy, moving across the country in 2 weeks, and taking care of the myriad of items to manage as the company ceases to exist on Jan 1st (WOW). With that being said, I’m moving a little slower than my DAO counterparts, but moving nonetheless.
I plan to have a proposal for a transitional customer support solution by end of Sept/early Oct. (however, the Forum stage of idea refining will likely take place sooner). In the meantime, I can not ask for my seat to be saved, but I can assure you a pre-plan plan is in the works 1f601
In the meantime, if you are interested in being a Workstream Leader for the Support Stream (I’m offering my leadership only temporarily), being an Educational Writer, or an agent, please start chatting in the comments below.
Thanks for your time and I look forward to continuing this presentation and plan for delighting and educating our customers in the future.