Before Column, a local newspaper editor in Ohio might spend hours sorting through emails, faxes, and paperwork to process legal notices (like public hearings, foreclosures, or water safety updates). Now they can review, approve, and publish in minutes, all on one streamlined platform.
As the first collaborative public notice platform, Column partners with media companies, governments, and legal professionals to bring innovation to a space that has remained largely unchanged since before the U.S. was founded. “We ensure the public has easy access to learn what’s vitally important to their communities,” says Deidre Stevens-DiGiovanni, Customer Support Team Manager at Column.
Column has been with Front since their beginning. They needed software that could support their growth, not just in handling external communications, but in evolving alongside their expanding products and services. Now, five years in and with a fully remote team of around 50, Column relies on Front as a central hub for nearly all external communication outside marketing.
“If I had to, I’d fight to keep Front as my hill to die on,” says Deidre. “Front’s reliability and unprecedented level of support makes it critical to our operations.”
Our key teams — customer success, sales, support, and services — operate within Front. Everything stays in one place, allowing us to collaborate and resolve issues efficiently. It’s incredibly valuable.
Challenges
Early-stage growing pains from multiple platforms
In their early days, Column operated like many small startups: lean, flexible, and making do with available tools. They coordinated through email, using Front for drafting and managing communications. As they introduced new services, it became clear that email alone wasn’t enough to keep up with increasing complexity. “We were managing order capacity and handling a variety of customer requirements across different order flows,” says Deidre. “The question was: How do we streamline all this?”
Overflowing support queue
As a fast-growing team establishing their approach to customer success, Column ended up managing multiple software platforms daily — which only added frustration to an already demanding workflow. The support team faced significant challenges, often struggling to work down a consistent backlog of more than 100 requests. “We constantly missed SLAs and lost track of emails, which made managing support a real struggle,” says Deidre.
Solutions
Centralizing workflows for a faster, more reliable process
As Column expanded their services it became clear they needed a single, reliable workflow and communication tool. Rather than adopting something new, they chose to deepen their investment in Front. “Since services, sales, and customer success were already operating within Front, it made sense to integrate support there as well,” says Deidre. “The result was a dramatic increase in efficiency.”
Unlike platforms that are either too rigid or overwhelming, Front offered the right level of customization for Column. “What sets Front apart is its balance between flexibility and usability. It allows both technical and non-technical team members to build complex, nuanced workflows without losing clarity,” says Deidre.
The fact that we can meet 80% of our needs across 80% of our teams in a single place — and build technical and non-technical nuance and complexity within the platform — made Front a really easy decision.
To keep operations running smoothly, Column has integrated Front with key tools: Whether it’s a sales inquiry in HubSpot, a technical request escalated to Jira, or a phone call logged in Aircall, everything stays in sync—eliminating silos and improving collaboration across teams. Column has also built custom technical integrations between its internal systems and Front, streamlining processes that were previously manual and fragmented. “In just a few months, we expect to manage the entire order process — including placing orders, invoicing, and confirmations — through Front, without needing to access our internal system at all,” says Deidre.
"Turning services into software is in Column’s DNA, and Front macros are the single most effective UX pattern we use in service of that strategy," adds Column CTO, Leo Hentschker. "We have a very tight feedback loop of turning new email-based processes into Front macros, and I’ve lost track of the number of times this has driven order-of-magnitude speedups in our workflow. I would recommend using Front macros to anyone whose business touches an email inbox."
Streamlining across customer success, services, and support
Column’s customer success team now relies on Front to keep sales and post-sales teams aligned. Threaded comments keep discussions organized, so everyone stays on the same page as they guide clients through implementation and ongoing services.
To streamline service operations, Column set up 32 bespoke inboxes, each dedicated to specific customers. “These inboxes feed into a centralized system using Front’s automation rules, ensuring that order entries are organized and easy to navigate,” says Deidre. “This eliminates the need for team members to constantly reorient themselves with each new request, saving valuable time and reducing friction.” The services team alone processes between 400 and 500 orders per day, entirely through Front.
Meanwhile, Column’s support team uses Front’s general inbox to manage inquiries and coordinate with other departments, using role-based permissions and automated workflows to streamline handoffs. For instance, support can escalate items to the finance team, and move them back as needed. “Feedback flows effortlessly in Front, enabling more efficient problem-solving,” says Deidre.
By integrating structured processes within Front, Column optimizes internal collaboration, ensuring that customer inquiries are handled swiftly and accurately, no matter how complex.
Streamlining processes with AI-assisted communication and automation
Instead of manually sorting through inboxes, the team uses rules to automatically triage messages by subject, creating filtered views that give instant clarity on workload distribution. “One of the biggest advantages of Front Enterprise is shareable views,” says Deidre. For example, someone handling payment-related inquiries can jump into a dedicated view and immediately focus on relevant messages. “The ability to triage and filter tasks is a major value-add.”
Automation also plays a major role: 400 custom rules manage workflows for 700 customers. “There’s a lot of nuance with customers, but we don’t need 700 inboxes,” says Deidre. To maintain consistency, Column leverages Front Intelligence. “Instead of trying to rewrite your whole email from scratch, Front can help you achieve a professional, approachable tone.”
With Front’s rules and automations, we’ve tripled our output per employee and significantly increased efficiency. Some of the automations are so seamless that they feel magical.
Flexible analytics help teams stay on top of support metrics
Column focuses on support performance, specifically around Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Service Level Agreements (SLA). To better track these metrics, they’ve leaned into Front analytics. “Front’s built-in functionality significantly reduces manual effort and provides real-time insights,” says Deidre.
Through tags and nuanced views, the team also monitors pace expectations, understanding that certain issues, like order edits, are easier to resolve than more complex issues, like payment. With the ability to filter and track these metrics, team members can quickly spot areas for improvement, dive into individual emails that contribute to specific analytics, and assess whether their understanding of certain challenges is accurate.
“While we still manually define certain goals and expectations, the flexibility of Front’s analytics allows us to gather the data we need without getting lost in unnecessary complexity,” says Deidre. “This balance of customization and simplicity has made performance-tracking more intuitive and actionable, helping the team continuously improve.”
It’s just night and day before Front and after Front. We now have a single platform that allows us to sustainably scale.
Results
Consolidating five platforms into one to triple employee efficiency
Instead of bouncing between Slack and third-party tools, Column now manages customer conversations and operational workflows in one place. “We’ve streamlined our operations by consolidating five different software tools into one platform, bringing multiple teams together in the process and tripling employee efficiency,” says Deidre.
Achieving greater efficiency without extra resources
“Front is a game-changer for our team’s performance,” says Deidre. “We’ve gone eight months without backlog issues — something we’ve never experienced before Front.” And this isn’t because they added more people. Deidre attributes this success to Front. “Our team has matured and improved, and now we have a much better system to organize our work and operate more efficiently.”
Exceptional customer support begets exceptional customer support
Column’s commitment to customer success extends beyond functionality and analytics; it’s about the partnership they’ve built with the Front team. One of the key reasons Column doubled down on Front was the relationship with their customer success manager (CSM). Having the same CSM for an extended period allowed them to understand Column’s evolving needs and consistently provide valuable, tailored advice.
When choosing to increase organizational complexity and reliance on a single software, Front was at the top of our list. And that dependability isn’t just about uptime or technical performance: It’s about having a team of reliable, communicative people who consistently deliver.
“Front’s ongoing support has made all the difference, from providing suggestions for optimization to ensuring the platform continues to evolve with our business,” says Deidre. “Front’s customer service truly feels like a partnership, and Column’s success is a direct result of this strong relationship.”
