Welcome to In The Queue! This episode was super fun for me, if only for selfish reasons. I talk to Mercer pretty regularly, but I never get to just talk to her about herself! We spent well over an hour talking about her career journey, her support philosophy, building teams with empathy and and where we’re seeing support go in this era of AI.

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My Big Take Away: Mercer is a gem. AI (should) exist to support us, not just to do more work, but to make our experiences as humans better. Erasing human connection from our day to day, especially our work, is going to make us miserable.

0:00 Early Days in Tech Support
9:42 Career Path and Building Support Teams
17:47 Leadership Philosophy and Hiring Approach
25:29 The Evolution of Support Roles with AI
34:12 Customer Experience Economics
42:36 The Value of Human Connection

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We talked about a lot of everything. From Mercer’s start in high school tech support, to figuring out how to balance using AI in our daily lives while maintaining our humanity. Here are the TL;DR snapshots of those conversations.

The journey into customer support often begins unexpectedly. For many leaders in the space, their introduction came through formative experiences that seemed trivial at the time but laid the groundwork for our future careers. Starting with basic technical assistance roles - helping peers with computer issues, working help desks, or troubleshooting problems in retail environments - these early experiences cultivate the fundamental skill that defines exceptional support professionals: a genuine desire to help others. This baseline motivation becomes the foundation for the technical skills and strategic thinking that can be built later in our careers.

Takeaway: Hire people who care and love to help, already. They will learn the skills to build later.

Career progression in customer experience often reveals somme interesting patterns about what actually drives folks in this field to succeed. Conventional wisdom suggests that climbing the corporate ladder is the universal goal, but many support leaders share a surprising sentiment: they often miss the direct connection with customers that drew them to the field initially. The satisfaction we get from solving problems directly, experiencing immediate feedback loops, and creating positive interactions is deeply fulfilling. As we advance to director-level and above, many of us find ourselves nostalgic for our days "in the queue," highlighting an important tension between advancement and purpose.

Takeaway: Believe support people when they say they’re interested in the senior manager role, despite their years of experience. We love the work and aren’t chasing titles or power.

The rise of AI has created a significant bifurcation in how organizations approach customer support. Two distinct motivations emerge when implementing AI solutions: cost reduction vs agent empowerment.

Companies motivated primarily by cost-cutting often implement solutions that may worsen the customer experience while temporarily improving their cute finance charts. On the other hand, organizations that view AI as a tool to enhance human capabilities can improve the quality of support provided while still achieving operational efficiencies. This divergence requires support leaders to clearly articulate the long-term business impact of customer experience investments regularly.

Takeaway: Assess whether or not implementing AI for the sake of reducing costs is solving a longterm problem, or possible producing a new one.

Support Ops roles have emerged as a critical function that bridges the gap between the tools we use to do our work and the human experience - both agent and customer. What was once a niche specialization has become essential as companies navigate multiple support channels, knowledge management systems, and now AI implementation. This evolution creates new career paths for support pros who enjoy process optimization and systems thinking, offering an alternative trajectory for those who excel at operational improvements but may not wish to pursue traditional people management roles.

Takeaways: Job hunters! Look for those emerging support ops roles if you love building systems - they’re hidden and poorly labeled, but they’re there.

The fundamental challenge facing customer experience leaders today centers on a core belief: human connection matters more than ever in an increasingly digital world. While tech advancement offers huge opportunities for efficiency and scale, the companies that will truly excel are those that use technology to enhance rather than replace meaningful human interactions. The ability to balance technological innovation with authentic human connection will define the next generation of customer experience, requiring leaders (support, product, everyone) who can navigate both the technical and deeply human aspects of support with equal skill and conviction.

Takeaway: Learn from the backlash companies like Klarna and Duolingo experienced. Disconnecting your customer base from the humans who build and support your products isn’t a win. And let’s hope the next wave of AI enhanced whatevers helps us connect with other people MORE.

I hope you enjoyed listening to our meandering support word vomit as much as we enjoyed having this conversation. And I hope you got to know Mercer better and get to interact with her outside of watching her lead panels because she is, in fact, a gem 💌

🤔 What’s On Your Mind?

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