The Happiness Hero Approach to Customer Service: A Bufferchat Recap

Sep 25, 2014 5 min readOpen

Director of People @ Buffer

On September 10th, with all of the Buffer team members gathered in New York for our working retreat, the team of Happiness Heroes joined forces to lead a #bufferchat discussion on customer service (and cute animal gifs).

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Connect with the dynamic individuals offering support and smiles to Buffer’s community every day: (in order of photo, left to right) Dave, Colin (the Happiness Engineer), Adam, Nicole (me!), Carolyn (Chief Happiness Officer), Patrik, Amanda, Octa,

Åsa

, Mary and Daniel. For a full recap of the chat, check out this Storify.

What does it mean to be a Happiness Hero?

A2: Hmm, I think I see it as my super power being customer feedback that I’m lucky to pass along and fight for! #BufferChat — Mary Jantsch (@marycjantsch) September 10, 2014

A2: The most amazing feeling is to work with a product that you love and deliver happiness to the best community around. #BufferChat — Åsa Nyström (@nystroms) September 10, 2014

A2: For me, being a Happiness Hero is about making sure that the amazing people who use Buffer have great experiences. #bufferchat — Patrik Sigmon Ward (@patrikward) September 10, 2014

A2: It’s an incredible privilege to be there for our wonderful customers and I never forget it :) #BufferChat — dave chapman (@davechapman) September 10, 2014

A2: It means having the opportunity of helping, learning and making others have a happier day :) #BufferChat — Octavio Aburto (@octabur) September 10, 2014

A2: To me it’s going above and beyond to provide the best possible experience for all Buffer users. #BufferChat — Daniel Feeney (@misterfeeney) September 10, 2014

A2: So much! Really translates into every aspect of life. Going the distance for happiness in every interaction! Flavors life! #BufferChat — Adam Farmer (@A_Farmer) September 10, 2014

How can freelancers or small businesses fill the role of Happiness Hero?

A3: customers teach us and inspire us and push us to be better. that’s a gift everyone should be able to share! #BufferChat — dave chapman (@davechapman) September 10, 2014

A3: Recently I stumbled upon the sentence “heroism is a state of mind.” I think this is true. Be a hero for your passion!! #BufferChat — Mary Jantsch (@marycjantsch) September 10, 2014

A3: Constantly re-evaluating my processes, tools and assumptions is something I’ve applied to all areas of my life. #bufferchat — Patrik Sigmon Ward (@patrikward) September 10, 2014

A3: Everyone can be a Happiness Hero any day and on any activity they do #BufferChat — Octavio Aburto (@octabur) September 10, 2014

A3: Any customer happiness team will offer invaluable insight from the people that matters the most, your customer. #BufferChat — Åsa Nyström (@nystroms) September 10, 2014

A3: I think all roles bring happiness into people’s day, whether building, supporting, or keeping things running smoothly! #bufferchat — Patrik Sigmon Ward (@patrikward) September 10, 2014

A3 I think tons of businesses strive to bring happiness and create a positive experience #BufferChat — Amanda Proo (@aprooful) September 10, 2014

A3: Happiness and smiles are universal! You can never go wrong looking to make each interaction a positive experience. #BufferChat — Adam Farmer (@A_Farmer) September 10, 2014

How do you strive to make each interaction memorable?

A4: The Buffer values are a huge inspiration here. Listen first, then listen again. And be quick, quick, quick! :) #bufferchat — Patrik Sigmon Ward (@patrikward) September 10, 2014

A4: Being able to empathize, respond quickly and always listen are three pretty key values in creating a memorable experience #BufferChat — Daniel Feeney (@misterfeeney) September 10, 2014

A4:By trying to identify the type of interaction the customer is looking for and learning the most possible about them. :) #BufferChat — Octavio Aburto (@octabur) September 10, 2014

A4: Making sure each customer knows how much I appreciate the opportunity to help them :) #BufferChat — dave chapman (@davechapman) September 10, 2014

A4: Make every email personal, finding a fix fast and hopefully chatting about some cool self improvements or sending a gif :) #BufferChat — Åsa Nyström (@nystroms) September 10, 2014

A4: Love finding commonalities and bringing those into the convo. We have amazing users and it is awesome to make connections. #BufferChat — Adam Farmer (@A_Farmer) September 10, 2014

A4 Personalizing and empathizing. It’s fun to peek at Twitter profiles and chat about their tweets/interests #BufferChat — Amanda Proo (@aprooful) September 10, 2014

What’s the best part of interacting with customers?

A5: Helping to make peoples’ days happier is a huge privilege and so much fun. :) #bufferchat — Patrik Sigmon Ward (@patrikward) September 10, 2014

A5 Making people happy and talking about anything and everything! I love the opportunity to chat with the amazing Buffer people #BufferChat — Amanda Proo (@aprooful) September 10, 2014

A5: I love that feeling you get when helping a customer. Fixing things and making their day a little bit better rocks! #BufferChat — Åsa Nyström (@nystroms) September 10, 2014

A5: Does making friends count? I honestly love making people smile and keeping things running smoothly. #BufferChat — Adam Farmer (@A_Farmer) September 10, 2014

A5: That’s a toughie! One of my favorite things is seeing the surprise folks have when we get back on weekends and holidays :) #BufferChat — Daniel Feeney (@misterfeeney) September 10, 2014

Whenever there are displays of affection, whether these are smiles, jokes, funny pics/gifs, etc. I love smiles :) #BufferChat — Octavio Aburto (@octabur) September 10, 2014

A5: How much I learn on my end! #bufferchat is a cool example of this, I feel lucky to get to take part in some cool convos. :) #BufferChat — Mary Jantsch (@marycjantsch) September 10, 2014

A5: We just get to engage with the most wonderful and interesting people! And this is the perfect example :) #BufferChat — dave chapman (@davechapman) September 10, 2014

What are your best Happiness Hero tips for customer service?

A6: Try to find out who they are, where they come from and relate to anything you have in common. #BufferChat — Octavio Aburto (@octabur) September 10, 2014

A6: As often as it’s said, I think always remembering the customer is always right is one key factor in all this. #BufferChat — Daniel Feeney (@misterfeeney) September 10, 2014

A6: Pretending that I’m sitting across from someone in real life. It changes my body language and reminds me to smile more :) #BufferChat — dave chapman (@davechapman) September 10, 2014

A6: Probably a bit simple, but I always try to keep in mind who I am writing to- real people. Oh, and writing with a smile. :) #BufferChat — Adam Farmer (@A_Farmer) September 10, 2014

A6 Personalizing and lots of smiley faces! I tend to say the sentence out loud if I want to show empathy #BufferChat — Amanda Proo (@aprooful) September 10, 2014

A6: Focus on treating every customer as a person and type as if you were chatting in person :) Grateful their our customer! #BufferChat — Åsa Nyström (@nystroms) September 10, 2014

A6: Hmm, I think I go back to Q4 here. Keep it real. :) I love the way customers respond when you treat them like pals. #BufferChat — Mary Jantsch (@marycjantsch) September 10, 2014

Catch more amazing tips and a collection of amazing gifs in the Storify recap. :) Thank you to everyone who joined in #Bufferchat and a special shout-out goes to the Happiness Hero team that so loyally strives to bring smiles to all customers!

Catch #Bufferchat each week at 9 am Pacific/noon Eastern/4 pm GMT with different guests and topics. Join the Google+ community to keep up on the latest news.