S5: EP 007: Behind the Screens: The Real Impact of Customer Support

Speaker A: Hi. What the. Health tech listeners. I'm your host this week, Sophie Blackett. This is a podcast where we tackle some trending topics, ideas and best practice in health and social care. Uh, today we're chatting to George Musgrave, one of Radar Healthcare's brilliant support analysts, to lift the lid. And on what really goes on behind the scenes in customer support, from first line inquiries to complex technical escalations, George shares his journey through the company, the evolving role of support and how collaboration across teams ensures customers always feel heard and helped. So, welcome to the podcast, George.

Speaker B: Hi, Sophie.

Speaker A: All right? I'm, um, good, thank you. Nice to have you.

Speaker B: Good.

Speaker A: Um, so could you start by telling us a bit about your journey at Radar, uh, and your role as a support analyst?

Speaker B: Yeah, I can. Um, so I started Radar, uh, back in March 22nd. Started, um, on the first line support desk. Still on the first line support desk at the moment. Um, prior to that I worked in catering for a really large restaurant, um, chain. I'm not going to name the name. Worked, um, with them for about five years, um, whilst at university and then I moved to work in IT support, um, mainly telecom support, and then moved to doing sales, business administration and working in a, I would say a, a larger scale, B2, B, um, support desks.

Speaker A: So when did you start with Radar? Uh, how long ago was that now?

Speaker B: So three, three years, four, five months, something like that. It's nearly three and a half years. Yeah, it's been a while.

Speaker A: Yeah. Good. So you must have built up some, some quite good experience in that time. Um, so what does a typical day look? Support analysts then.

Speaker B: So, typical, um, day. Um, we have, um, different start times, uh, individually. Um, so we shift pattern to ensure that there's cover between the hours of support, which are 8 and 6. Um, so typical day is if you start at 8 o', clock, um, you would initially look at the ticket assignment, um, and do some ticket categorization. Um, we do some proactive support checks as well. Um, so we check and monitor, uh, the environments, um, that our customers use, uh, ensuring that they're working as they should in, you know, ensuring users can log in and access, um, relevant areas. M. If we identify anything, um, we would immediately raise that, um, and escalate accordingly. Um, so those are some of the proactive checks, um, that we do. Um, there are checks that we do carry out throughout the day on support. So we do check any voicemails. So if we've missed a call from a customer, uh, we would ensure that, you know, those voicemails are listened to, um, tickets created off the back or at least a callback request. As a team we work as collaboratively as possible, um, to ensure that people are allocated the correct work basically, um, that they can do.

Speaker A: Lovely. Sounds great. Um, so let's talk about first line support then. Why is it so ah, important and what are some of the common misconceptions about it?

Speaker B: First line support is really important. I've always seen a first line support desk for any business as being the foundation, um, and the first line of defense, uh, for any company. But also it's the first point of contact that any customer or individual can reach out to, um, if they don't have that, you can't really communicate with your customers, um, on any level really. Um, you need to be able to know what's going on, you need to be able to support and nurture their growth, um, answering queries, dealing with issues and just making sure that they have a voice, um, and someone that they can reach out to that can, that can support them. Because not everybody in each team is able to sit there and support. They have different roles, different areas of expertise. So it's really important that you have um, a firstline support desk. The common misconceptions, there are quite a few. But the one off the top of my head that I can think of is I've worked on many support desks. Radar. Typically I will say, and I'm not just saying this because I work at Radar, but it is one of the best support desks I've worked on, um, so far during my um, my, my employment. Um, and the, the main stigma that, that people have in the misconception is that the person I'm speaking to on the first line team might not know as much as the person on the team above or their line manager for example. And I've had it where I've spoke with customers and you know, they might immediately say, or in the first instance say, oh, I've got this issue. And they believe they've told you all the information that you need to know in order to fix it. But then when you start then asking those further questions, they then might think, well I've already told you what the problem is, why do I need to answer more questions? And then they kind of have it in their head psychologically that they think, you know, I don't really want to speak to you anymore, I want to speak to the person above as they feel like they might get more out of that person. Um, and that's not always the case. So as a stigma from being on support, it's mainly the support side, you know what I mean? Like, you know, we work on a support desk. That's the stigma that we have. Whereas I can fully understand and appreciate that that person on the other end feels that they've gave as much information as they can. They might not be technical, they might not be able to answer your questions. So it's about building a relationship in the first instance with that person and understanding them. But it's the response that you give back to avoid that further frustration where they go, um, I want to speak to somebody else or I want to speak to your manager. Um, so the way I deal with that is, um, I apply an acronym that I've kind of adopted over the years from previous jobs and it's from the very first job I ever had. And the acronym is, is grasp. And it helps me every day and I use all the time, which is quite sad, I know, but still. Um, and what grasp means is, it's an acronym and it stands for different, different points. So the G in grasp, the first, the first letter is, is greeting. So you have to start with a strong greeting. Um, and that greeting has to, it can't just be basic, it has to be a nice greeting or an acknowledgement or at least you acknowledging, you know, I know you're frustrated. Here's what I can do to help. So it's how you greet that individual. It doesn't have to be in written format. It could be verbally, it could be over a team's call, it could be in person. But that ties in nicely with the second part of the acronym, which is the R part. And um, that is read. And I think that that is the most important part and a lot of the part that people get wrong.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: It takes many years to read someone's thoughts and their body language and their verbal tone. And the reading part is really important. If you get the reading part down, that greeting can then flow more clearly.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Because you might not really care about a flashy, lovely greeting that goes, hi, hello, how's your day, how's your week? You might just want thanks for your email.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And then straight to the point.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: So you're reading the tone of an email, you're reading the tone of voice, you're reading the tone of body language. You're not overbearing, you're not overpowering the, the conversation. You're. You're reading into exactly how that person acts and exactly what that person wants. That's really, really important. Um, the a is. The is. Is. Is a minor part. So that's attend. Attend is just means that you. How attentive you are to that person. Are you willing to continue to help them? Are you willing to continue to support them daily? If you speak to that person daily, or, you know, you might not, but how attentive are you to their needs? You know, what can you offer them? Um, the S is smile. And now that is a really, really minor thing. But being, being smiling is, Is really powerful. A lot of people take it for granted, but I don't. I'm always smiling. So smiling is really important. If you're happy, that person might have had a really tough day. Yeah, they might have had the worst day possible. They might have had problems at home, they might have had problems at work. They might have a heavy workload. If you're on the other end and you've got a SM face and you're chipper and, you know, you're a happy chappie or whatever you want to say, you know, it kind of psychologically makes you feel more at ease. I think a lot of people sometimes might, from the reading part, they might not want you to smile. They might want you to be at their level and m. Sad. Yeah, but that's just how they, they are acting to the situation. Yeah, they might not care about that. So reading that is important as to when to smile, when to not, how to show facial expressions is important. And then the P is prompt. So the attentive is kind of similar to attentive, but the prompt is like, how quick are you at, uh, getting to the point? How quick are you at, uh, resolving my problem? Or how quick are you at telling me what the next steps are? How quick are you at guiding me on what to do? So I think those are the general misconceptions. And using that acronym is how I deal with that misconception. Um, and I think it's a really powerful tool in any support desk. Whether you're first line, second line, third line, wherever you are, you could be management, you could be working on a project team, you could work for any team. If you apply those general principles to support, you'll start to see an increase in customer satisfaction, I think.

Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. So obviously, first line support definitely is really important, um, across, you know, not just Radar, but everywhere else. But what makes, uh, Radar's customer support team stand out? Basically, what's different about them?

Speaker B: The main thing for me is allowing people to be honest. Honesty is really, really powerful. If you have someone say I'm not happy and you say well I completely agree or this isn't working. And I go well that's not great. It's really not great. Radar lets you be honest. It uh, lets you say when something isn't right, it lets you agree with someone. And that's really, really important. For me I think in terms of building relationship, in terms of building that trust. You know, recently I've, I won't name the name but recently I've, I've been through a situation like that in my role, um, and I had a conversation with a customer and they've not been happy about something and I've kind of turned around and said look, I agree, I can't agree anymore and here's now what we're going to do. So that's so important is Radar lets you be honest. The second important thing for me is it's how we are able to collaborate. Radar Healthcare nurtures collaboration um, and team building. Um, so we're able to come together as ah, as a wider unit, um, as wider teams and we can kind of merge together and, and have conversations on, on, on really important topics that matter to us. So I think Radar Healthcare really does facilitate that. Um, it also nurtures creativity um, as well. So I think you know, you can be as creative as possible within reason of course, but you can be creative with how you improve the way Radar internally works and then in turn that has a positive impact on, on the customers and the people on the front line and we're all in it for, for a shared goal and reason and, and that is to facilitate um, and improve um, healthcare um, as a whole. So I think that's, those are the most important things um, that Radar lets you do.

Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. I think um, all those things sort of like you said, have a domino effect and in turn we all have one shared girl and it all counts towards that basically. And I know we touched on this a little bit before using like those acronyms and things but so any specific tools that you might use um, to help sort of customer issues be resolved more efficiently, um, that you can think of?

Speaker B: Yeah, there's quite a few. So um, M. The main ones that a lot of our customers use is the telephone support line. Um, and they have an email or they have a support portal, um, option which are ways and avenues straight into the support desk. Um, phone call, self explanatory. You call in, you tell the person on the line what their issue is and they create a support ticket for you off the Back of that conversation. Uh, you have email. So if you just email the support desk email, it'll create an automatic ticket in that person's name. Um, and then there's a support portal. If you've got access and you log in, you can create a ticket within that, within that support portal function. But the other tools, the ones that really do stand out um, for our customers are our Academy which are the training, uh, courses for Radar. So anyone with access that has that, they're able to sit and watch um, video tutorials and go through all, all of the more in depth training that Radar offers. Um, and that covers all the different topics, the modules, more um, in depth topics. So the administration functions, how you can use those functions to um, improve how the system works M for your company essentially and your staff. Um, and then the other one is um, our community forum. So anyone that is um, from one of our, one of our customers can sign up and register to the community. It kind of similar to the Academy but the Academy is more in depth and provides those really key core training, um, courses. Whereas the Community forum kind of if I go, how do I report a new event, you know, or how do I view an event? How do permissions work? You can kind of log into the community forum and you can search through keywords for a specific, specific article. Um, and that really sort of kind of gives power back. So rather than quickly reaching out someone on support, go, how do I do this, how do I do that? Go straight to the community, type in your keyword and you should find an article that facilitates what you, what you need. Um, we are looking at potentially implementing other things in the near future, other solutions such as live chat rooms and things like that. They're, they're not set in stone. I'm not going to announce anything at this point in time. It isn't my remit to do so. But we are looking at new ways um, and ideas of how we can better improve, um, how we support our customer base. Um, so there's really positive things there already. Um, and it can only become more positive in the future.

Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. I think as well, like with the community and the Academy. Although like you were saying, you work certain hours. The Academy and the community, they're there 24 7, you know, because I mean people in care will sometimes work um, round the clock. So that's really important as well. Yeah, um, so, yeah, thanks for mentioning that. Um, we offer different levels of support at Radar. Could you sort of walk us through what those levels, um, look like and how different they are and what sort of benefits they bring.

Speaker B: Yes. So realistically the first level is the team that I work on which is the first line support desk. So that's the first port of call for, for any customer that's reaching out to Radar that either has a query problem or a specific like niche question about something really technical. Um, so the levels that kind of go from first line, um, and then it's our second uh, line which is our application support desk now technical consultants, um, they are the second line of defense. Um, now the way it works is if for example um, there is a more technically pressing issue that requires someone with a more technical mind and have access to relevant backend tools, it would kind of go from initially investigating the problem on the first line desk, gathering all the evidence, collecting all that into something meaningful that can then be passed on using the same support ticket to the next team. So the way that works is when it kind of goes from first line to second line, the second line communicate with the customer from that point on and then the first line team can then focus on anything new or anything existing that's that still requires attention. So within the second line team they look at the back end stuff, they look at whether there's a system bug. Um, they look to try and actively resolve the underlying root cause of the issue that's being reported. If that issue is a lot more technical, out of their scope and requires development or requires a developer to review something, then it would go further than that which would then essentially within Radar would be classed as third line. Um, and then the developers would apply their skills and expertise to support and facilitate the second line desk and they would work collaboratively together to understand what's going on and um, do what it is that they, they do from a technical perspective to resolve something um, in essence, um, and then we have other teams that are kind of alongside those so we'll forget about how issues are escalated. There are other teams that collaboratively work with the first line support desk as well as our development and our second line support team throughout that ticket journey or throughout that queries journey. And they are the partnership management team, uh, partnership account managers, project um, managers, um, and we have product consultants, uh, as well as analytic consultants as well. Now um, and how we work collaborative with those is it really, really is based on what we've received from the customer. So if it's um, I don't know, um, I want help building a new analytics dashboard in the builder. Um, but it has so many different facets and technicalities to it that the firstline team wouldn't be able to sit down and have that really in depth conversation to support with the building of something quite unique. So the way the support desk would work is they would ask all the relevant questions and do the same process that they would do from first line to second line, but it would go across to another team that's skilled and expertise in the right way to make sure that the support that's being received by that customer is exactly what they require and when they need it. And then alongside that to watch all of that happen and unfold are the partnership account managers. Now the partnership account manager's role is managing the account, ensuring that everything is, is working as it should, um, for each of our customers. And it's vitally important that they're there on hand to ensure that everything is running as smoothly as it should. And if it's not, making sure that things are escalated accordingly and the right people are involved in the right topics and the right discussions. So that's vitally important as well. And then above, uh, that is the project management team. Now project management, um, do work collaborative with the support desk. If there are things that they need support with, they would raise a ticket internally to us and we would support and facilitate them, uh, individually. But they're really, really important as if we have a new project come in and it requires someone to manage that and oversee it through timescales. Um, managing each point of that project to ensure that it's well structured and it's well rounded and it comes to a conclusion a lot quicker. Um, so it's really, really important that how all these teams gel and collaborate. It's just, we kind of have it quite lucky compared to some companies where it's quite seamless at the minute and it's only going to become more seamless as we grow and expand the business and start to have really skilled individuals in the right places. Like, it's kind of like a jigsaw puzzle really, isn't it? It's kind of like how any company works. As long as you have the right skilled individuals where you need them. And if there's a gap for it, it's good to find that gap and fill it. Because you're only going to make things better, you're not going to make things any worse. You can only make things better by doing that. And that at the moment is, is, is what we're seeing, you know, with the new consultancy team that we implemented some time ago and you know, we're starting to see how that's working and how that team collaborates with customers, uh, and how it manages those types of really complex requests that I know you deal with on a daily basis.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's always. From what you said then, it's not sort of a linear approach to support. There's lots of different teams involved, um, internally and um, yeah, like I said, product consultants like myself, we do deal with um, quite complex queries in relation to the product itself. We're more like specialists within the product. We aim to get solutions that are really unique. Um, yeah, like you said, so we've established it's really important that the customer's voice is heard. Um, and if they, how do we feed that back to development teams and things when they, when they want service improvements and do they come to you?

Speaker B: I mean they can come to us. Um, and we're m. More than, more than willing to pass that, that information on. Um, but we, we kind of give the power to our customers to kind of go back to the tools that we, we discussed earlier on about the Academy and the community. So our community forum, we, we have a specific page in there which allows um, anyone to suggest an idea about um, further improvements to the, to the product or to even um, suggest an idea that might, you know, eventually become implemented. Um, and we do implement a lot of those ideas. Um, and we do like to share um, that with everyone. Um, and I think that's an achievement in itself that, you know, we can kind of give that power to someone and say you have this power. You can go here and you can ask us yourself, you can ask the wider business and the wider business that deal with that are really closely tied with our development team. You know, you've got the consultancy team but then you've got your product development team as well. And the product development team are the ones that review those ideas, um, and see them through. So you can come to the firstline team and ask us, um, and suggest these things, but we would always suggest, you know, you using the tools that are available to you. That gives you more power than coming to me. I'm m happy to do what it is that you need because that's what I do on a daily basis and so are my colleagues on all of the other teams. But we're giving that power and you can't buy that power. It's really, really cool how that works.

Speaker A: I agree. Yeah, it's definitely an important one to mention as well because the community, if you have an idea about the way radar can improve, um, that can build traction and if it's a forum, so everyone's joined, other customers join in and things like that, and they'll vote, uh, on what's most important. So, you know, it is a really good one. Um, and like I said, the community is available all the time. So, yeah, we're making improvements in the customer's best interest, essentially. Um, so then, is there any standout feedback or success you've had in the support team that you'd like to share?

Speaker B: Personally, I don't like to talk about my own personal successes as such. Um, I'm always happy to share them when, when someone asks. And I believe I've had quite a few successful, um, stories. But mainly the success of the support team for us is more of a personal success. It's more one where I've helped very. I would say I've helped hundreds, if not thousands of people since working at Radar. And I've dealt with a lot of different difficult situations. And when you resolve something or you see something through, you find achievement and success in that, personally. Because at the end of the day, the mission of Radar is to support healthcare as a whole. So that just doesn't mean supporting the person that's raised the ticket, who, you know, might be an administrator and might not be that person on the front line, but that administrator is the voice of that person within that business to say, this person's got this problem. So when we see that through, we're not just helping the admin, we're helping the user affected. And that user affected has a job to do. They've got to care for patients or they've got to care for someone and they're losing that time of care due to something that they might be experiencing or a query that they, they don't know what to do and the person above them doesn't know how to answer that. And that's what we're there for. So the, the success is when I switch off at 5 o', clock, I know that I've done all that I can throughout my day of work. Like you said earlier on, it's domino, isn't it?

Speaker A: Yeah, domino.

Speaker B: So I, uh, feel comfort in the fact that I've helped so many people every day, that I've made a positive impact where it doesn't necessarily mean that that impact might have done anything, because I believe it has. And that's, that's what matters to me. I believe I've made the best impact possible. And I don't know how your guys on your team feel Whether you, you guys have specific larger success stories. But for the support desk guys, we always talk about, you know, when we switch off, we know that we've done all that we can.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And that's super important to me.

Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. I think that's a good point to mention as well. We're all working towards one shared goal, like you said, to support healthcare in general. Um, and yeah, we feel better about like the work that we've done. We know it's important to us and we also know it's important to everyone else. Um, so yeah, I do agree that's a really good one to share. Um, so before we end the episode, is that one thing you would like our listeners to take from today's episode?

Speaker B: I personally think I'm going to aim this at people that work on support esque functions.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Because I've, I've worked on them now for, I would say about eight, nine years now, something like that. And I would like to say that no matter how difficult and how busy it can get, if you do work in a really, really busy support function, always remember to try to remain as positive as you can. Try to not burden yourself with too much, try to say no as much as you can, but also try to collaborate and help others where you can as well. But try to use the acronym that uh, I mentioned earlier on grasp to help you build relationships with your customers and with the people that you speak to on a daily basis. Because I've got a good feeling that using that will help you within your employment in your career. Especially if you're coming out of university like I did. You know, you, you kind of have to start at the very bottom and start to learn and pick these things up. I'm quite fortunate that I was able to, to work in ca, have that nurtured into me and then use that. Whereas some people don't have that luxury. They, they kind of go from um, university or college straight into work and they have to kind of learn on the job and they have to kind of learn these skills. So if you can use that to your advantage, you'll start to see a return on everything that you do and then you'll start to feel more passionate about what you do as well because you'll start to, you'll be using it every day and you'll, you'll be like, actually um, this, this might, it might not work for everyone, but I think it will, will benefit most people. I um, know it's benefited me. So I think people should take that, take that away. And, um, the final takeaway as well is don't be afraid to challenge something. If you don't think something's right or you don't agree with something, challenge it. You know, talk, collaborate. Get yourself as involved as you possibly can. It's really important that everyone is in line and has that shared goal at the end of the day. Yeah, um, I know that's. That's kind of what I wanted to share to round off, but, yeah, I think that's really strong.

Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. Thanks for sharing that and some great advice as well for others, uh, maybe who people are starting out in support and things. We've, you know, established how important it really is. So. Josh, thank you so much for joining today and sharing insights into Radar Healthcare's customer support. Join us next time for another episode. And don't forget to rate and subscribe. And if you have any questions for us or our guests, please email. What the healthtechadarhealthcare uh.com.

Speaker B: Sam.