src=”https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1616531770192-6eaea74c2456?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDU5fHxtZWV0aW5nfGVufDB8fHx8MTY4Njc1MzQ4OHww&ixlib=rb-4.0.3&q=80&w=2000″ alt=”How We Connect Our Engineers Directly To Buffer Customers with Customer Engineering Days”>

Buffer has always placed a high priority on connecting our team with our customers. However, the waythe Buffer team connects with customers has evolved over the years.

When I joined Buffer, in 2015, we had a time set aside for everyone to spend an hour answering emails from customers at our annual retreat. Our Customer Advocates provided support to the entire Buffer Team as they answered emails from customers. The experience was a wonderful way to bond with everyone in the company, from the People Team to the Engineers, Designers, and Finance. Our remote team was all gathered together for the retreat. We were unable to provide our normal round-the-clock support to our customers, so extra hands answering their questions helped a lot!

We realized, after some reflection, that we shouldn’t restrict full-team communication to the annual company retreats. After evaluating how it would look in a remotely-hosted setting, we created our first iteration of Advocacy Day in 2019.

Iteration #1: One full day to reply to customers

The annual Advocacy Day is a day set aside for our team to interact with customers and respond to their emails. Our team is fully remote, and we are spread out across different time zones. We wanted to ensure that a solid support structure was in place for all members of the team, especially those new to customer service or who had never responded to an email.

During Advocacy Day our Customer Advocates were available in Slack, Zoom, and other communication channels to assist our engineers, product managers, and team members. In an open Zoom meeting, we took turns in which anyone could join to ask questions, receive support for difficult conversations, or simply have some company while they worked.

We also celebrated in Slack the first time someone replied to a client and shared meaningful interactions and learnings throughout the day.

Advocacy Days were also a great success from the perspective of customers. In the event that an Engineer or Designer learns about a bug from a conversation with a customer, they may jump in and fix the problem. They might also follow up on the same day to let the customer know the issue was resolved.

There were both benefits and challenges to connecting our entire team with customers. It was difficult for some team members who were not directly involved in the product to identify an issue, or determine if certain behaviors are bugs or expected.

Some team members also said that they felt intimidated by replying to our customers, as they did not feel like they understood the voice and tone of our brand. Some of our team members speak English as their second language, which makes it even more challenging.

We moved to a different model after taking all this into consideration.

Iteration 2: Customer support sessions

Customer Quality Time, our second version of remote full-team support days, will be launched in 2020.

In this model, unlike Advocacy Days we did not involve the entire team. Instead, each member of the non-support teams was paired with a Customer Advocacy buddy to tackle a customer-facing challenge or topic. Every team member was scheduled for at least one Customer Quality Time during the year, while our Design, Engineering, and Product Teams were assigned three to four.

Contrary to previous iterations of Customer Quality Time, the non-Advocate member was not required to respond directly to customers. The pairs read customer feedback and conversations to better understand how our customers use our products. They could also identify any UX confusion or challenges, as well as the tasks that our customers are requesting. The team could now focus on the customer experience without feeling intimidated. Our product-facing team met with Advocates more often, so they could enjoy a concierge-style service each time they researched a new feature of the product.

This chapter was not without its challenges. The Advocacy Team was in charge of the chapter and it had some challenges, including aligning schedules with the Product Team’s existing sprints and timelines. It also presented issues with ensuring that our customers were adequately covered. We did not track any learnings from Customer Quality Time. It was difficult to measure the success of our customers.

We went back to drawing boards after taking a break in 2021.

Iteration 3: Pairing Engineers and our Customers

Customer Engineering Days will be introduced in 2022. We wanted to design these days with great care, based on feedback from the past. We paired Advocates and Engineers instead of matching Advocates across the team. The Engineers were then asked to reach out to their Advocate to set up a time based on the team’s schedule. They could then use their day to collect customer insights from their engineering work.

Customer Engineering Days have been running for a year-and-a-half and are a huge success. So far, we’ve held 13 Customer Engineering Days in eight different time zones. Six more are scheduled. Engineers have fixed dozens bugs, identified UX improvements and gained a deeper understanding of how our customers use our products.

The Customer Engineering Days have been a great success. We’ve received feedback from pairs along the way, which has allowed us to continue to improve the process. Engineers also share their learnings and insights after each pair has completed their Customer Engineering Day with their team to inform their work.

What’s next?

Customer Engineering Days are a success so far. They allow Engineers to explore areas they would like to dig deeper into and our Customer Advocates can learn more about the insights that our engineers want.

We will stick to this iteration and look forward to more Engineer-to-Advocate connection.

Please let us know what you think about these and whether you would make any changes. Join the Buffer Community or tweet us.