Frustrated teams, agents unaware of the latest feature release, and inefficient processes are just some of the issues that can occur when product and support don’t talk to each other.
But lack of communication isn’t the only problem.
When updates get lost in translation, customers are the first to notice. Improving the flow of information between the two teams can turn your support team into a well-informed, empowered extension of your product team.
In this article, you’ll find ideas about how to turn that game of telephone into a clear, direct line of knowledge sharing.
Why Optimizing Product-Support Information Flow Matters
Say you are now sending invoices automatically for a specific use case in your business. With the new process, you’re reducing the time spent on creating invoices by 90%.
The only problem? If customer support agents have no idea how the new process works and keep creating manual invoices, then the new process benefits no one.
This is just an example of how important getting information from A to B is – but there are other reasons:
Avoiding wasted time due to miscommunication: Critical updates buried in Slack, teams missing important new features, agents confused about which process to use…without a clear knowledge-sharing process, valuable time is lost in back-and-forth and scrambling to get information.
Improving your customer experience: Having a process that allows the support team to understand and learn new updates as they happen is crucial to improving the customer experience. If a customer contacts support because of a problem, you want the agent to know the tools to resolve it (even if it was released just the prior day!).
Ensuring customers use your product to its full potential: If your customer support teams don’t know how to use your new feature, it’ll be very difficult for customers to do so. By having agents be up-to-date about product releases, you’ll ensure that information is passed on to customers as soon as it’s out.
Having confident CS and product teams: As you improve your processes and establish a solid communication flow between teams, you might notice something else: less frustrated teams. Product teams are confident that agents are familiar with new processes and features and that agents can offer better support, which makes their lives easier.
Ways to Improve Information Flow Between Product and Support Teams
The best way to improve communication between your Product and Customer Support teams depends on several factors, including your business size, the type of product or service you offer, and your budget.
It can help to have one person responsible within CS (such as the Support Operations Manager or Knowledge Manager) and one within the product team (often the Product Operations Manager) to act as a power duo and set the basis for the entire flow.
They’ll be in charge of getting everyone on board. It’s super important that these two parts work together, meeting as often as needed to make sure they are aligned!
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Prepare internal resources for support teams
While you might be tempted to use Slack to announce a new feature, the truth is that it’s not enough.
As useful as Slack is, you can’t ensure your entire support team gets the context and functionality. Plus, it’s hard to ensure that everyone has seen the update. Instead, use it as an added tool once you have prepared your knowledge base article.
I recommend having the KB article ready for the internal release so your client-facing teams can get up to speed.
Be sure to include screenshots and even recordings of your product or feature in action. Visual materials are handy for conveying information that can be difficult otherwise, and you’ll ensure that agents have a better understanding.
💡Tip: if you are using Zendesk, this blog post will help you optimize your Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) workflows to capture and reuse agent (and organizational) knowledge, thereby improving the quality of support a team provides.
When creating documentation, take into account who your audience is.
It’s not the same as creating a page explaining a new feature for other product managers than for agents. Agents will probably need step-by-step instructions, and other data, like KPIs related to the new feature, would be unnecessary.
The less time agents spend looking for information, the faster a ticket gets resolved and the better the customer experience.
Keep your knowledge base where agents can find it, and make sure it’s integrated with your help desk.
Sometimes, you will have to document the process somewhere and then duplicate that content for the agents to use. Nowadays, there are a huge number of AI tools that integrate with multiple sources to make that information accessible where you need it.
Schedule training (fixed or ad-hoc) or product walkthroughs
For complex feature or product updates, you should do more in-depth training. Depending on your organization, the product manager could train support agents. You can record your training sessions and store them to make your internal documentation even more effective.
Product walkthroughs are also a great way to provide teams with comprehensive information. If it’s a simple walkthrough, PMs can show the new feature to support leads, who would then pass on the information to agents.
For example, you can organize 30 to 60-minute sessions to show agents or leads how a certain feature works in a production or testing environment. You can also use slides showing relevant screenshots if that’s easier.
Be sure to leave time for them to ask questions. Often, agents have crucial questions that bring the customer's point of view into the meeting – which will improve your process or feature in the long run.
Lastly, have your documentation ready to share at the end of the meeting so agents know where to go if they need to revisit your new feature or process.
Encourage and be open to feedback
Communication goes both ways. It’s not just about product managers blasting information to support teams – support teams should be able to share feedback about what works well and what doesn’t to improve the process.
For example, you can establish a new process for users to pay for repairs via card instead of using the slower bank transfer.
Perhaps that new process impacts the ticket’s Time To Resolution (TTR), and even though the process is ultimately better for both support and customers, that metric would need to be adjusted.
A way to collect feedback is to set up a post-training meeting with your point of contact, who will have spoken to agents and collected their thoughts.
You could even have a dedicated Slack channel to collect comments from everyone using the new feature or process.
Communication with your point of contact doesn’t end once the feature or process is released–keep it always open (for example, by having a regular meeting or a dedicated Slack channel). Once you have the feedback, you can prioritize it using tools like Jira or Trello.
The communication flow between Product and Support: a practical information flow example
Curious about how this can work in practice? Here’s a real-life example from a SaaS company and how the flow of information from Product to Support works:
Product teams release new features and updates on a four-week cycle. At the beginning of the fourth week, Product Managers (PMs) hold product walkthrough meetings. Client-facing teams, such as support agents, do not attend these meetings.
Next, the Product Content Writer creates customer-facing content based on input from the PMs. And share it on the Help Center.
The PMs then prepare internal resources for the client-facing teams (if this is not the case, the Product Content Writer will send them a reminder).
All information is documented in Confluence, with meeting recordings available for reference. The Product Content Writer will release content for internal teams a week before the public rollouts, aiming to have the internal resources for the internal release so the support teams can get up to speed.
For larger or more complex updates, PMs will organize product training for support teams.
The Art of Pulling Information from Product to Support
While passing information from product to support may seem simple on the surface, doing it effectively requires careful strategy and execution. It’s a dynamic process that evolves with your business needs and team structure.
The key lies in leveraging multiple channels: in-depth documentation, Slack updates, and regular team meetings for training or Q&A. It also involves setting up an open communication channel between the right people on both teams, speaking as often as necessary.
By refining how information flows between teams, you’re setting the stage for success with more confident agents and happier customers.
Book a free demo today to see how Swifteq can help your team manage the information flow more efficiently and deliver top-notch customer service.
Larry Barker
Larry has been a CX expert and Senior Customer Experience and Operations Manager for almost a decade. He is mostly interested in delivering top-notch customer support and streamlining operations.