Ever joined a support team and found yourself hunting down three different Slack threads just to answer one user question? Or worse, maybe you inherited a support inbox so tangled you couldn't tell what was urgent and what was three days old?

Most teams, especially those in early growth stages, don't start with a playbook. They start with just get back to the user fast. But as we all have figured out at some point or another, speed without clarity often just creates chaos – and chaos doesn't scale very well.

Building a support org isn't just about hiring more agents and turning on your Zendesk or Intercom chat. It's really about crafting the backbone of how your business learns, adapts, and shows up for customers.

Most support orgs grow reactively. They add tools or people as volume increases, but never step back to design the system end-to-end. Teams burn through agents, and typically just chalk it up to the nature of the business. But what if there was a better way?

What a lot of these teams miss is that a good support system isn't just a function of the company – it's a flywheel. Done well, it informs your product team, increases your retention rates, and earns your customers trust daily.

The hardest part with all of this? Starting from scratch forces you to make foundational decisions about what kind of experience you want users to have, and what kind of culture you want your team to embody.

If I were building a support org today, here are the things I'd take into consideration as the team and I got started.

Start With Philosophy, Not Process

Before a single tool or hire you really need to answer a fundamental question... What is the role of support in your company? Is it a cost center, a learning hub, a relationship builder? These questions will help inform the way your decisions along the way get made.

At Shepherd, the team and I anchored our support build on two things:

1. Fast, human help. We set our sites on being the fastest team in the industry. Speed to customers is often the differentiator when all other things are equal.
2. Systems that scale with empathy. Despite knowing we'd introduce AI into the workflows, we were mindful of how those interactions scaled so we didn't lose the human connection.

That clarity up front shaped every decision that followed. From how we structured our team to how we measured success.

Design the Tiers Like You Mean It

Most teams throw everything at everyone and wonder why nothing gets resolved or prioritized that well. I recommend building out tiers intentionally, and for my teams often looks something like this...

Tier 1: Smart AI that can handle routine questions as well as be baked into some of your customer segments that don't require as much human interaction. It's fast, branded, and always improving.

Tier 2: Trained humans to solve escalations with care, context, and clarity. My teams always understand that if a conversation lands in Tier 2, there is a good chance that the customers interaction with Tier 1 didn't go as planned – this means we go into the conversation with empathy at the forefront.

Tier 3: Specialists (often in Product) who own true edge cases and complex bugs. Quality is more important at this tier than speed. Measure twice, cut once as the old saying goes.

Pro Tip: Don't mix these too early. Let each tier master its role before you start blending responsibilities.

The Inbox Is Your Daily Rhythm

Before hiring anyone, map out the inbox flows. What's urgent? What gets triaged where? Use distinct inboxes like Urgent, General, Bugs, or Voicemails to match your team's behaviors to user needs.

A good inbox & routing system becomes your team's daily rhythm. Get this wrong, and everything feels reactive forever and I promise you will cause not just your team a headache, but your customers will feel this with inconsistent SLAs (more on those below).

Train for Judgment, Not Just Tools

Every support hire should learn not just the tool (Intercom, etc.), but your companies brand tone, judgment calls, and troubleshooting frameworks.

I don't train my teams to memorize answers. They are trained to think like our users, use resources like Copilot, and escalate with clarity.

Therefore, the goal isn't a perfect recall. It's about building confident problem-solving skills and leading with empathy.

Make Your SLAs Mean Something

Your SLAs are more than just a timer in your queue... they are a signal of your values and commitment to delivering a consistent experience for your customers. Five minutes for Urgent, one hour for General – those weren't arbitrary statements our marketing team used at Shepherd. They reinforced to our users that "You matter" and we took that seriously.

To make this stick, I recommend setting up some form of a pooled coverage model and a real handoff process at shift end. Promises without systems are just hope.

AI That Empowers, Not Replaces

Our AI at Shepherd wasn't just a chatbot solving routine questions. It was a teammate that was handling 60% of our volume, which freed humans to focus on nuance with key issues and VIP customers. Your AI should reflect your brand voice, respect context, and escalate gracefully when it hits its limits.

The magic happens when AI and humans work as a team, not when one tries to replace the other.

Protect Admin Time Like It's Sacred

Give reps one hour a day to train, organize, and reflect. It's how you prevent burnout and build true expertise. Use it for callbacks, Help Center improvements, or recording Looms for new features.

Most teams think this is luxury time. I see it as the foundation for sustainable excellence.

Build Trust Through Follow-Through

Teach your team to acknowledge feedback without overpromising. Route it, log it, and follow up when real movement happens. This builds long-term trust more than "we'll pass this along" ever could.

Users don't need false hope. They need honest communication and genuine follow-through.

What It Really Takes

You don't need 10 tools and a 40-person team to build great support. You need clarity, care, and a commitment to doing the simple things really well. Support is the frontline heartbeat of your customers trust. Design it like you'd design your product... with intention and empathy.

If I had to start again tomorrow, I wouldn't copy what others are doing. I'd build what users actually need and what a great team deserves.

The best support orgs aren't built to answer questions. They're built to earn your customers confidence.

The thoughts and opinions in this article are my own and don't represent the views of any organization or employer. If this perspective resonated with you, I'd love to have you along for more conversations about building better customer and employee experiences.

If you are interested in exploring a partnership with Customer Korner to assist your organization, please reach out to mike@customerkorner.com