My journey in customer support began as a tour guide — guiding users through a complex product landscape I didn’t design. I learned the standard routes, flagged common pitfalls, and built workarounds for the roadblocks. For a long time, I saw my role as helping customers navigate around obstacles — until I realized I could help remove them altogether.
Product teams see the forest: the big-picture vision and evolving ecosystem. Support teams see the trees — every snag, stumble, and workaround customers face. When these views stay siloed, the same issues persist, and valuable insights never make it to product decision-makers.
As a Support Operations Analyst at Front, I now bridge that gap. With four years of firsthand experience, I’ve learned how to spot patterns, triage issues, and drive process improvements. Over time, I realized the gap between product and support wasn’t just a challenge, it was an opportunity.
By tightening our feedback loop, we’ve improved the product, made support more efficient, and created a system where both teams — and customers — benefit. One of the most effective tools we’ve built for this is the Support Fix meeting: a quarterly sync that brings product and support together with a shared focus. Here’s how we built it and why it works.
Check out the template we use in these syncs below ⬇️
worksheet: Support Fix meeting template
Create a stronger connection between your support and product teams using the Support Fix template, a proven system for aligning on, keeping track of, and addressing customer pain points.
The case for Support Fix Meetings
How do we make sure the right insights make it to the right people? Support will often hear the same issues, over and over again. Some are quick fixes, while others — like broken workflows or complex product gaps — would benefit from dedicated product updates.
To address this, we introduced Support Fix meetings to discuss the top recurring issues and identify actionable steps. These meetings have become a cornerstone of our process for bridging the gap between customer needs and product development.
Why we started these meetings, and why they work
Our previous process left support specialists constantly chasing bug updates while facing difficult conversations with customers who deserved more than vague timelines and empty promises. This disconnect created a frustrating cycle where support teams couldn’t effectively advocate for critical fixes, while product remained unaware to which issues were truly degrading the customer experience.
Support didn’t feel heard, and product didn’t always understand the urgency of fixing certain things. We needed a platform to voice feedback with two goals in mind: 1) to be heard, and 2) to flag critical issues that might not affect everyone but are vital for our support team.
Each quarter, we meet to share insights and collaborate on solving product problems that affect support. We keep it super efficient. Here’s how the meeting agenda is broken down:
First half (customer trends):
In the first 10 minutes of the meeting, the Support Ops Analyst presents a summary of the overall trends we’re seeing in customer support, from the top pain points to emerging issues. This is a chance to identify recurring issues that could indicate a deeper problem with the product. It’s a broad review that benefits the entire product and support teams.
Second half (support team trends):
The remaining time (usually about 20 minutes) is focused on specific issues our support team is facing internally. These are often more nuanced problems that might not be immediately visible to product teams because they may not have a wide-reaching impact on all customers.
Why it works:
This meeting is now an essential communication channel. Support teams now have a direct line of communication to product, giving us the chance to advocate for customer pain points and ensure that feature updates reflect these real-world concerns. It’s become a two-way conversation that leads to measurable improvements. Scheduled time for feedback means important issues are not forgotten or lost in the noise.
A real world example: solving a workflow inefficiency
One major issue we flagged in a recent Support Fix meeting was related to customers contacting support to transfer inbox ownership from one teammate to another.
This resulted in a manual workflow where our team had to run a plugin in our internal systems. While this process was necessary, there was an 85% increase in these types of requests in just one quarter, and it wasn’t the most efficient use of our support team’s time.
The proposal:
We proposed allowing users to self-serve this request through Front’s UI, thereby reducing the need for support involvement. This would save our team anywhere from $30,000 to $57,000 annually in support costs, while also freeing up time to focus on more complex issues.
The result:
Our product team responded, and the feature launched the following year. This not only reduced inbound requests and saved our support team’s time, it also gave our customers a quicker, more efficient way to handle this issue. The result? A major improvement in efficiency, both for our team and the customers we serve.
The system behind the sync: tools that power our feedback process
In order to make these meetings effective, we use a variety of tools to track customer issues and product decisions. One of our key tools is the Support Fix spreadsheet, where we document recurring customer issues, their severity, and the status of each fix. This spreadsheet serves as a shared resource that both the support and product teams can refer to during meetings and throughout the quarter.
The template helps track the progress of each issue and ensures that nothing gets lost in the shuffle. You can adapt this approach to fit your team’s needs. Download the sample template for your team below.
worksheet: Support Fix meeting template
Create a stronger connection between your support and product teams using the Support Fix template, a proven system for aligning on, keeping track of, and addressing customer pain points.
Building a bridge between support and product
Support Fix meetings have become an invaluable part of our process. Our feedback loop helps ensure that our product evolves in a way that truly benefits both our customers and our team. This collaboration isn’t just about fixing bugs or closing tickets — it’s about improving the entire landscape for both teams and customers.
If you’re a support leader or product manager, I encourage you to consider creating a similar feedback loop in your organization. It doesn’t have to be complicated; it’s about fostering a relationship where both teams work together as co-gardeners of the product ecosystem. With an open, honest space where ideas can grow, you’ll create a more efficient, aligned, and sustainable product journey.
The results speak for themselves: happier customers, a more efficient team, and a stronger, more harmonious product roadmap.
Written by Lemuel Chan
Originally Published: 11 April 2025