The Front support team recently took a fun internal quiz, asking everyone to vote on their favorite Front AI feature. Each of Front’s features offers a different kind of efficiency boost while we tackle customer tickets in the queue. Surprisingly enough, we couldn’t agree on a favorite — there was an almost even split in answers.
The range of responses got us thinking, if we all do the same job, why can’t we agree on which AI feature is the most helpful? What we realized: while we tackle the same challenges in the queue, each teammate brings different strengths and preferences. These traits shape our working style significantly, from the automations we’re most eager to adopt, to how we collaborate internally or interact with customers.
To learn more about how we each prefer to work, we created a framework of support teammate archetypes. By understanding these archetypes, support teams can identify and understand skill sets, maximize individual contributions, and maintain a balanced skill mix.
So what are the top support team archetypes, and why should your support team get to know its unique blend? Let’s break it down 💡
The four support archetypes
Defining the top four support personas allows us to recognize team members’ strengths and build a balanced team. While individuals may embody multiple archetypes (and that’s totally fine!), we’ve observed many team members tend to resonate most strongly with one persona.
Here are the four archetypes we’ve identified:
1. The Speed Racer
This teammate is a total “queue-crusher,” flying through a high volume of cases each day. Their metrics reflect quick reply times and handle times, and a high number of messages sent. Speed Racers keep the queue moving and ensure customer issues are resolved swiftly.
2. The Empathy Expert
Empathy Experts are pros at building rapport and handling tricky customer situations. Their communication is always spot-on, and they excel in managing customer emotions. With consistently high customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores, these teammates are often the go-to for handling delicate situations or assisting upset customers.
3. The Knowledge Guru
The Knowledge Guru is someone who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the product. Since this teammate knows the features inside and out, they’re great at working with customers who are “super-users” and who come to us with more detailed product questions. At Front, this usually comes in the form of integration questions or complex workflow questions.
4. The Deep Diver
Deep Divers excel at troubleshooting, especially when cases stump the rest of the team. They’re detail-oriented, patient, and skilled at finding solutions others may have missed. These teammates often tackle longer, more involved cases and involve collaboration with other teams, usually product and engineering.
Think of these personas as quadrants on an alignment grid, with each teammate landing somewhere between them, depending on their unique skill set and working style.
For example, I’m a Speed Racer/Empathy Expert. I’m extremely fast, but for more complex cases, I often have to loop in a Knowledge Guru to help confirm information for me, or a Deep Diver to help me run tests or double check my troubleshooting. As an Empathy Expert, I’m often asked to take over cases when a customer is confused or frustrated and we need to make sure they feel heard.
Why should you calibrate against archetypes on your existing team?
Understanding archetypes within your support team will offer benefits spanning daily team operations (like ease of task assignment) and long-term team growth (like hiring). Here are our top reasons for using them:
Archetypes enable better collaboration and task delegation.
Knowing your team’s archetypes means leaders can assign tasks based on each individual’s strengths. This kind of thoughtful delegation improves team efficiency and helps resolve customer inquiries faster (while also ensuring everyone works on what they enjoy most!)
Say a case involves an upset customer who feels frustrated about a delayed order and has sent multiple angry emails. An Empathy Expert could skillfully de-escalate the situation by addressing concerns and offering a solution with a reassuring tone. On the other hand, a complex technical issue involving an integration failure between two software platforms would go to a Deep Diver. This teammate can thoughtfully troubleshoot and work with product and engineering to identify the root of the problem.
Archetypes help with support team staffing.
Put simply, when you have a well-rounded team, you can deliver comprehensive support. Ideally, you want a mix of all archetypes on your team, because each one brings a unique perspective and skill set. No one ever won the World Cup with a team full of goalies!
Similarly, a support team that skews too heavily in any direction on the grid will suffer. For example, say your team is heavy on Speed Racers but light on Knowledge Gurus — you’ll struggle to efficiently address complex product inquiries. A team without enough Empathy Experts could find it tough to manage those very sensitive customer interactions.
Once you understand your team’s current archetype distribution, you can more easily identify gaps and hire strategically.
Archetypes can increase adoption of new workflows.
When introducing new workflows on your support team — especially those involving AI, which can be complex — it helps to understand how different archetypes might respond. Tools and workflows evolve quickly in the support space, and knowing your team members’ strengths and weaknesses in workflow adaptation can help with thoughtful integration.
While a Speed Racer might fully embrace AI features, for example, because they promise faster results, they might also become impatient with any lag, slow loading times, or poor outputs requiring additional fixes. The Empathy Expert, a master of tone, will be critical of AI features that impact the wording they use.
When you think through how each archetype might interact with new tools, you can facilitate a smoother adoption process so all team members feel supported and empowered.
Archetypes offer a roadmap for personal development.
Front has always been big on professional development — retention on our support team is incredibly strong, and a big reason for this is our emphasis on skill development and career pathing. Knowing your archetype makes it easier to find areas for growth and improvement and also start conversations on goals and progress. It’s the first step towards helping team members reach their full potential 🚀 For example, one of our resident Knowledge Gurus went on to lead Front’s education team and create resources like Front Academy.
So…where does your team fall?
Our team brings a variety of skills to every customer interaction, making each role both unique and essential. If you’re curious — here’s how our team of 26 breaks down:
We’re a team of four managers, six Tier 2 agents, two operations teammates, and 14 Tier 1 agents.
Your unique balance will depend on a number of factors, including the type of product you have — for example, financial apps with tough billing questions might require more Empathy Experts, whereas Front, a complex product, needs a good number of Deep Divers. The stage your company is at also matters; two-person support teams will probably include only speed racers, because they won’t have the time or bandwidth yet to dig really deep into every case.
As you learn your mix and integrate these archetypes into your daily operations, you’ll find a more balanced and dynamic support environment where everyone thrives. Understanding archetypes allows support teams to tailor their approach based on individual strengths, leading to more efficient problem-solving and service that resonates. Embrace the strengths of each archetype and watch your team transform from the minor leagues to a World Cup-winning squad.
And you’ll boost support team performance as a result — just take it from us!
Ready to level up?
Looking for more resources on delivering stand-out service? Check out:
Written by Phoebe Killick
Originally Published: 28 October 2024