Support for Supporters: Why Businesses Should Have People Experience Managers

Today, companies are in a constant race to deliver the best customer experience. But what about taking care of people who provide this experience? That’s where the role of People Experience Managers comes in. These managers are the backbone of SupportYourApp’s team. They ensure that each member feels heard, understood, and satisfied. In this article, we delve deeper into the functions of People Experience Managers, and find out why the presence of People Experience Managers in a team can be an important criterion for choosing a company to join. 

People Experience Managers: Who Are They, and Why Do We Need Them?

Kseniia (Chief Internal Operations Officer): At SupportYourApp, a People Experience Manager’s position appeared in 2019. The very first person to take it was Karina Naminas (currently — the CEO of Label Your Data). She was the one who shaped the vision of the People Experience Manager’s responsibilities and requirements. At that time, we realized that we needed someone to get in touch with our consultants, both regularly and on their request, and support them. 

Max (People Experience Manager): I would describe this position as “support for supporters.” We reach out to our team members regularly, to find out whether they are comfortable within the team and with their duties, and also respond to their requests. They can openly share any kind of issues and concerns, discuss different situations with customers or management, or just get a friendly ear if they are tired or lonely. 

Liudmyla (People Experience Manager): We have two main goals: people retention and ensuring that each member of our team feels heard, understood, and satisfied.  Our consultants reach out to us whenever they feel a lack of communication within the team, experience burnout, or face some misunderstandings with their supervisors. A People Experience Manager can act as a mediator between consultants and management, providing an unbiased view and ensuring team members’ opinion is always taken into account. 

Kseniia: For a People Experience Manager, soft skills are hard skills. A specialist must be a good listener, empathetic, and patient to fulfill these duties. Background in customer support is a great advantage here, and if a manager also has experience in Service Delivery — it’s a win-win situation. It means that a People Experience Manager can relate to most of our consultant’s issues and come up with great ideas of how to support them. At the same time, they can see a bigger picture, be aware of the company’s business processes, and explain how everything functions and why. 

To complete our perfect manager’s portrait, I would say, they should always deliver confidence, as it greatly helps build up trust. Besides, our managers should always be goal-oriented. There are a lot of people out there who can simply listen, but a People Experience Manager should aim to deliver the result and actually resolve issues that come up.

How Can People Experience Managers Help: Case Studies

Liudmyla: Some requests are relatively easy to resolve, as soon as I define an actual cause. It may be surprising, but sometimes people just need an extra reminder to take a day off or a vacation. Whenever I see our consultants feel emotionally exhausted, I always make sure they don’t forget to get enough rest. 

Sometimes I have more complicated cases. One time I got a request from a girl who was not excited about her project. The industry was totally out of her area of interest, so she didn’t feel her work was fulfilling. During our conversation, I suggested she do not make rushed decisions and just shift her focus from the project’s topic to helping customers. A year later, as we had a chance to communicate again, she told me that it worked, both for her personal satisfaction and productivity at the project. 

Max: Not everything we discuss with our consultants is business-related. We are always here to talk to our team members about anything important to them. I had some cases when our consultants reached out to me as they were stressed because of emigration, or their favorite pet passing away. People may not always have someone to share their feelings with, so I need to be there for them. We also often get calls from our consultants who are the only ones involved in their project, and just need to feel engaged and have a friendly conversation. 

How to Prevent Burnout?

Liudmyla: The customer support industry typically assumes a high risk of burnout. That risk is even higher if people are focused on their duties 24/7. That’s why I strongly advise our consultants to switch off any notifications after their shift, have a good rest, and pay attention to their hobbies or other activities. Another key to preventing burnout is open communication. We always encourage our team members to speak up if they are disturbed or unsatisfied with something. Talking to a direct manager or a People Experience Manager and sharing their concerns is the best way to prevent a critical situation and not find themselves at a point where they would want to quit. 

Max: We always need to define the root cause of burnout. Is it a person who got overwhelmed, or are there any actual issues with the project?

I know sometimes it can be objectively hard to cope with duties, for example, during a holiday season, when a workload in customer support grows drastically. In such cases, we know that if one team member experiences burnout, the whole team is at risk as well. It is a clear sign that both their direct management and us need to do whatever we can to make things easier for the team. 

Unfortunately, in most cases, people just struggle with distracting from their duties and having a proper rest. I have a personal life hack for such situations: creating two separate user accounts on a laptop and switching to a personal one after business hours. If people don’t do that, they may easily find themselves checking a corporate mailbox at midnight and end up being exhausted. 

Kseniia: Can People Experience Managers experience burnout themselves? Sure, for the very same reasons. Their duties involve a lot of communication, finding individual approaches to everyone, and being emotionally involved. It requires a lot of psychological resources. That’s why I always recommend our managers switch activities, alternate calls with routine tasks, and devote all their time after business hours to themselves to restore their resources. However, here I should also note that a People Experience Manager’s position is not really for introverts. People who “charge their batteries” during communication will do great here, otherwise, it may be challenging. 

Why Should People Join Companies That Offer People Experience Management?

Max: In companies that don’t have a People Experience Manager’s position or at least a proper HR department, team members are supposed to resolve any issues with their managers. A lot of companies are okay with that and don’t feel like they need to change something. But what are team members supposed to do if they have issues with their management? Or no one really wants to hear them out? At SupportYourApp, we know everyone will be heard and will always get the assistance or a piece of advice they need. If a company invests in People Experience — it actually invests in its team’s comfort. 

Kseniia: With People Experience, team members always have someone to talk to, someone focused not on a project’s success, but on the team’s wellbeing. Managers can both hear a consultant’s opinion and act in line with their interests, and show them some other perspective they may not see yet. People Experience Managers know a lot about business processes, can properly deliver information about them, and explain why things are done a certain way.

At the SupportYourApp Internal Operations department, we regularly collect team feedback, conduct well-being surveys, and get a lot of positive reviews on our People Experience Managers’ performance. A lot of team members are grateful to them for the assistance and support they provide. This is how I know we’re doing the right thing.

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