Question 1

How do you think about support quality vs. speed?

Accepted Answer

Both matter but quality matters more. A customer would rather wait an hour for the right answer than get a wrong answer immediately. I aim for: fast response (acknowledge within 30 minutes), quality solution (solve it right). For simple issues, speed is easier. For complex issues, I take time to solve properly. I also train team: get first-response time to 30 minutes, but take whatever time needed to solve. Some customers have SLAs (VIP get faster response), but everyone gets quality eventually. I measure both: response time and resolution quality.

Question 2

Tell me about your approach to ticket triage and prioritization

Accepted Answer

I triage by severity and impact. Severity: critical (service down, data loss—respond immediately), high (customer blocked—within 1 hour), medium (functionality limited—within 4 hours), low (question or nice-to-have—within 24 hours). I also consider: does this affect multiple customers? Then it's higher priority. For example: a bug affecting 1% of customers might be higher priority than a single customer blocked. I communicate clearly: this is severity 2, you'll see progress in 1 hour. Good triage gets right resources to right problems.

Question 3

How do you handle difficult or angry customers?

Accepted Answer

Angry customers usually have legitimate grievances. I listen without defending: they're upset, not listening to excuses. I validate: I understand why you're upset. I take ownership: this is my problem to solve, not yours. I don't blame: I don't say 'that's a known issue' or 'you could have done X.' I focus on solutions: here's what I'm doing to fix it, here's the timeline. I also escalate if needed: sometimes a manager's empathy helps. After resolution, I follow-up: are you satisfied? What can we do better? Angry customers often become loyal if you handle them well.

Question 4

Tell me about your approach to knowledge management and documentation

Accepted Answer

Great support reduces support volume through self-serve. I track: what are the top 10 support questions? I create FAQ and help articles. I also create walkthroughs and video tutorials. The goal: customers can answer 80% of questions without contacting support. I organize docs: clear navigation, search, categorized by topic. I also keep docs current: when product changes, docs change. I also involve product: if documentation can't solve the problem, it's a product issue. And I track: what % of customers use self-serve? As that grows, we handle more volume with smaller team.

Question 5

How do you measure and improve support performance?

Accepted Answer

I measure: response time (how fast do we respond?), resolution time (how long to solve?), CSAT (are customers satisfied?), resolution rate (do we solve it first contact?), escalation rate (how much goes to engineering?). I set standards: response within 1 hour, resolution within 24 hours for most issues, CSAT above 4.5/5. I track daily: we have a dashboard. And I improve: if response time is slipping, I look at volume, staffing, automation. If CSAT is low, I review tickets—what's going wrong? I also do quarterly reviews: trends over time, what changed?

Question 6

Tell me about your approach to escalation and engineering partnerships

Accepted Answer

Not everything is support's job. If it's a bug, it needs engineering. I triage: is this definitely a bug or maybe user error? I check known issues. If it's a new bug, I escalate with clear reproduction steps: here's what I did, here's what happened, here's what should happen. I also provide urgency: how many customers? How blocked are they? Then I loop back: I tell the customer 'we're investigating' and give timeline. I also follow-up with engineering: when will this be fixed? I keep the customer updated. Good engineering partnerships are critical for support success.

Question 7

How do you think about support scaling as the company grows?

Accepted Answer

Support needs to scale with growth. I track: tickets per month, support team size, tickets per person. As volume grows, I invest: better tools (ticketing system, knowledge base), automation (chatbot for common questions), self-serve resources. I also hire: when we hit the limit of what the team can handle. I'm careful about quality: adding people doesn't scale quality, culture does. I also think about cost: if support cost per customer increases, I need more efficiency or pricing changes. Scaling requires being intentional.

Question 8

Tell me about your approach to training the support team

Accepted Answer

Good support requires good people. I train rigorously: new hire gets 2 weeks of onboarding—product, systems, processes. I pair them with an experienced agent. I also do ongoing training: weekly calls on tricky issues, monthly on product updates. I empower: support should make decisions to delight customers. Refund? Give it. Extra help? Offer it. I also support learning: I fund certifications, I encourage side projects. And I create paths: strong support people can move to CS, product, or management. Support is often an entry point into tech; I want to develop people here.

Question 9

How do you handle support during outages or crises?

Accepted Answer

Crises happen. I'm prepared with playbooks: if service is down, here's what we do. We have a war room: engineering, product, leadership. Support floods customers with: service status page update, email to affected customers, response to support tickets. We're transparent: we admit the issue, we explain impact, we commit to timeline. We update frequently: customers prefer updates over silence. After resolution: we do a postmortem, we fix root cause, we offer compensation if warranted. Good crisis management maintains trust.

Question 10

How do you work with product on support insights?

Accepted Answer

Support hears everything. I collect: what are the top 10 support requests? What frustrates customers? What features do they ask for? I look for patterns: if 5 customers ask for the same thing, product should hear it. I document and communicate: monthly, I share trends with product. I also prioritize: is this a bug (product should fix), a documentation gap (support should improve), or a feature request (product to decide)? I also escalate: if customers are unhappy with how something works, I involve product in the resolution. Support is the voice of the customer inside the company.