Hark

Kicked off Customer Service Week in the best way possible — surrounded by some of the brightest CX minds in e-commerce at the Heart of E-Commerce Dinner in San Diego 💙 🌴 We gathered an incredible crew of merchants — from Athena Care, OLIPOP PBC, MANSCAPED, RYZE, Koi CBD, Uqora, Sun Bum, Calming Co., Cymbiotika, ButcherBox, and Sozy — to slow down, break bread, and talk shop. Everyone shared their superpower (what they’re badass at 💪) and a recent CX highlight that wasn’t their own — because celebrating great customer experiences outside your own brand is sometimes where the best learning happens. Yes, I fully leaned into my 5th-grade teaching roots: there were name tags, show-and-tell, and maybe even a pop quiz (kidding… mostly). I can’t help it — structure and creative play are my love languages when it comes to bringing people together. 😺 But most importantly, everyone left with new friends, new tactics, and a renewed sense of why we do what we do — to connect, to care, and to keep making customers’ days a little brighter as we head into the busiest season of the year. Huge thanks to my co-hosts Dan Brady and Anne Dyer, and to the SaaS dream team that helps us deliver excellence, my two favorite CX tools at the top of our tech stack —Gorgias and Hark, the sponsors. And of course, a special shout-out to Preston Ames, now officially an honorary member of the CX cult 🔥

Every year I say that BFCM is my Super Bowl…because it IS...and you know exactly what I mean if you’ve actually survived one. Peak season can get messy FAST if you don’t have the right tools in place. Over the years I've learned that having a solid tech stack is truly make or break! I’ve built my go-to stack 🤝 and this year that includes.... KODIF: AI that actually helps, not just deflects. Containment + personalization is a life-saver during peak season. (s/o Kelsey Moburg for being the inspiration behind naming our AI agent, Kelsey ✨ ) Hark: gives customers the ability to submit video and audio requests and allows our team to have real-time visibility into ALL issues! Think fewer WISMO tickets! 😉 Skio:  seamless subscription management and easy skips + edits are clutch during peak. (We couldn't do the damn thang without the support of our friends at Skio) Order Editing: when a customer inevitably mistypes their address in the frenzy, they can fix it without chaos. + easy order cancels, product adds, and a beautiful UI! NoFraud: fraud prevention that works quietly in the background while we focus on our lovely customers. Passport: global shipping without the headache and a beautiful tracking page for your customers to follow along as their order makes its way to them. BFCM can be intense, but the right tools make it not only manageable but can help your business and team THRIVE during peak times. I have to know-what’s in YOUR survival stack—what’s the tool you won’t face BFCM without? 👇 #CX #Ecommerce #BFCM #CustomerExperience #AI

🥳THIS FRIDAY! I get to hop on camera with some of my favorite people: Craig Stoss (AI Supreme Guru), Fran Brzyski (Customer Journey Maestro) and Suki Abdulla (Product Powerhouse)! #BFCM is scarily close, so come spend some time learning the fastest, easiest ways you can implement some adds to maximize your tech stack in Q4. Link in ye olde comments...

Getting a company off the ground isn’t always a solo leap... for me? It was a family jump. LinkedIn often makes the journey look glamorous. My reality? 6 a.m. breakfast and making lunches, a 7 a.m. sprint for the train, missed events, and back to work once the house is quiet. I wouldn't have it any other way - this is what I signed up for. I’m absurdly fortunate. When I told my wife we’d need a second mortgage to get Hark off the ground, she simply said, “Let’s do it.” Her belief in me, our team, and vision is a huge reason we are where we are. That’s why Episode 3 of our docu-series INNOVATE OR DIE feels so personal. It’s an unfiltered Day-in-the-Life as we continue to build. Inside the episode: • Sunrise time with the family before heading out ☕️ • Back-to-back investor & customer meetings in NYC 🚆 • Rapid-fire stand-ups, roadmap pivots, recruiting chats & maybe even finger guns... (embarrassing) 📈 • A sprint home to try and catch the kids before bed 📚 It’s messy, exhilarating, and if you’re wired like me... exactly where you want to be. 🎥 Episode 3 is live! If you’re building, thinking about building, or just curious what real startup life looks like, hit play. To all those in our corner, thank you for support and being a part of our journey! Hope you enjoy it.

Why do VoC programs fail? Collecting feedback isn't the problem. Knowing what to do with it... that's really hard. We want to help. So, we built this for CX, Operations, Product & Marketing leaders who are tired of collecting feedback that goes... nowhere. We believe customer insights are one of the most important levers in driving real business change. Not to sit in a dashboard that no one looks at. We're fortunate to have some of the best in the industry share their thoughts and help us put together a practical & actionable guide to building a VoC program that moves the needle. Here's some of what to expect: ✅ How to get teams to act on insights ✅ Smart ways to structure qualitative feedback ✅ The right tools + tech to scale your program ✅ Frameworks for turning trends into action ✅ Real stories from teams doing this well Thank you to our contributors Michael Bair, Lauren Schorr, Cate Marques, Emily McArthur, Joe Gilgoff & Colin Crowley!! I'll post a link to where you can download it in the comments. Some REALLY great advice in here... hope you enjoy it!

“If you’ve got room to improve, it’s a no-brainer.” – Bailey Hillman, Zulay Kitchen. We recently partnered with Bailey and his team, so I caught up with him last week to go through his experience with Hark. A few things stood out during our convo: 1. Time to Insight. This is a huge one... he (and many others in CX) are constantly asked for customer data by various departments. -In the past, Bailey had to comb through a brutal Help Desk search and comb through other data manually. Now, he's able to get the insight in minutes. 2. Sharing the insight. Compiling and sharing an ugly report mutes the customer voice in a way. He said that with our platform, he's seeing much more engagement across departments because of how we bring the voice to life. 3. Clarity. This is the unlock. The org is able to make more customer-centric decisions faster by taking advantage of customer feedback. This is always the goal and I love being able to play a part in helping teams hit it!