🗞️ Empathy, Education, and Electrocution (Yes, Really)

Rolling up the CS podcasts of the week for you - in 5 minutes or more.

Author

Jen Weaver
September 05, 2025

Rolling up the CS podcasts of the week for you - in 5 minutes or more. I watch on 2x, search transcripts, and listen while walking my dog to curate clips for support leaders.

Containing:

  • TL;DR: three quick wins

  • The Podcasts: summaries + links from this week's podcasts

  • ICYMI on LI: curated posts from the week

  • And Now: meme of the week

TL;DR

If you only have a few minutes, check these out:

🦸 This newsletter is brought to you by Supportman.io, which connects Intercom to Slack with AI to give agents feedback and surface problems in real time.

Live Chat with Jen

Chloé Koers-Bourrat on her lean QA system.

  • CSAT moved from ~96–97% to sustained 97.5–98.9% after QA changes (Minute 13:40)

  • Peer-to-peer QA softens feedback and speeds adoption (Minute 22:25)

  • Start QA early—even with spreadsheets—to save time and money later (Minute 28:19)

âťť

“It’s cheaper to prevent issues than to apologize for them.”

Growth Support with Neal Travis 🌱

Alison Groves, Customer Education Lead at Help Scout on what customer education really is—and why it’s different from support or docs.

  • Split why vs how; publish “why” guides that link to step-by-step docs. (Minute 3:08)

  • Auto-invite new users to a “Getting Started” class for hires and trials. (Minute 11:19)

  • Leave space for relationships and don't overly rely on processes. (Minute 24:47)

  • "I consider myself a deep generalist." (Minute 26:14)

The Intuitive Customer

Morgan Ward, PhD on the science of customer behavior. I love how this episode makes scientific studies accessible.

  • You think you want more variety than you really do - a study about yogurt. (Minute 6:10)

  • People will electrocute themselves rather than be bored. (Minute 13)

  • Understanding when your customers like sameness and when they like variety. (Minute 17)

  • Takeaway: 3 minutes to understand the science of customer behavior (Minute 20:30)

The Human Protocol with Mykel Salomon

This episode explores why smaller, purpose-driven “campfire communities” like CX Accelerator and Support Driven are thriving in a time when big social feeds feel noisy and disconnected. Nate Brown , CX Accelerator co-founder, shares lessons from community-building that apply directly to support leaders trying to create stronger connections inside and outside their orgs.

  • Support leaders can borrow from CX communities: bring peers together around similar career milestones and use shared journeys to keep morale high. (Minute 10:23)

  • The Pepper Potts analogy: AI may speed up the “how” of service, but communities (and human connection) keep us anchored in the “why.” (Minute 16:01)

  • The best support orgs make quick parts quick with automation—and slow parts meaningful with real human care. (Minute 21:55)

  • Tribal Leadership levels. (Minute 28:24)

OneCX by Knoxx with Majida (Maya) Malik

Karen Lam on how to design VOC programs that actually influence roadmaps, align teams, and improve both customer and employee experience.

  • VOC fails when it’s surface-level—data gets reviewed once a year and goes stale before action can be taken (Minute 5:03)

  • Strong programs are cross-functional: product, engineering, success, and support must all join the table, not just a single owner (Minute 7:45)

  • Prioritize feedback with frameworks like RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) and tie decisions to north star company goals (Minute 15:30)

  • Closing the loop matters: even when you can’t ship every request, update customers so feedback feels valued (Minute 22:00)

Modern Customer Podcast with Blake Morgan

Dilip Bhatia, Lenovo’s Chief Experience Officer, on how they consolidated dozens of systems into a unified CX platform, infused AI into every stage of the customer journey, and tied employee bonuses directly to CX metrics.

  • At Lenovo, 95% of employees have a CX KPI, and 10% of bonuses are tied to CX targets—embedding accountability across the org (Minute 13:00)

  • CX results are tied to revenue trends: Lenovo tracks how promoters vs. detractors impact actual spend and sales opportunities (Minute 16:00)

  • Inclusive design is a core practice—product teams test with edge users (like students from a local school for the blind) to create better solutions for all (Minute 19:00)

Unf*cking Your CX with Zack Hamilton

Spotify | Apple | YouTube â€”

Claire Cunningham on empathy.

  • Make empathy non-optional: stand up a quarterly exec/frontline rotation (shadow calls, work a shift, store walks) and require every people leader to participate. Publish dates and owners. (Minute 9:00)

  • Tell better stories, not bigger decks: pair the weekly metrics with 3–4 verbatims or a 30-second clip; show scale (e.g., “1,037 comments on web crashes”), then the fix. (Minute 12:40)

  • Speak CFO: reframe customer frictions as P&L problems (lost revenue per sq ft, CAC, churn risk), then anchor with customer quotes. This is how you get budget. (Minute 14:20)

ICYMI on LI:

Some posts from the support creators this week that are worth stopping your scroll.

🦸 This newsletter is brought to you by Supportman.io, which connects Intercom to Slack with AI to give agents feedback and surface problems in real time.

And now, tHaNkS, Gemini...

See you next time,

Jen