The enduring and evolving ‘craft’ of customer support - Interview with Nick Francis

The enduring and evolving ‘craft’ of customer support - Interview with Nick Francis

Author: Adrian Swinscoe | Customer Experience Strategy Expert March 19, 2026 Duration: 42:05

Today’s episode of the Punk CX podcast features Nick Francis, one of the co-founders of Help Scout, a leading customer support platform, who after operating as the CEO for the last 15 years stepped back from the position in late 2025 and has now moved into the Chairman role. I first talked to Nick on the podcast back in 2017 and he joins me today to talk about his time as CEO at Help Scout, some of the biggest challenges he faced during his tenure, the lessons he learned, the ‘craft’ of customer support, and with the emergence and rapid evolution of AI-powered technology, how he sees support evolving in the coming years.

This interview follows on from my recent interview – How executives can turn fragmented CX efforts into enterprise-wide customer obsession – Interview with Ray Gerber – and is number 578 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.


There’s a lot of noise around customer experience, but Punk CX: Customer Experience Insights with Adrian Swinscoe cuts through it with conversations that feel more like a strategic workshop than a standard interview. Host Adrian Swinscoe, a customer experience strategy expert, brings a distinctively pragmatic and often contrarian perspective to each discussion. He sits down with a wide range of industry leaders, from entrepreneurs to seasoned executives, to unpack what it really takes to build an organization that people genuinely want to engage with. You’ll hear them delve into the interconnected mechanics of customer service, customer engagement, and the often-overlooked driver of it all: employee experience and engagement. The dialogue naturally explores how technology, from AI to broader digital transformation, can be leveraged practically rather than just hyped, and what it means to build adaptable, responsive organizations with high-performing teams at their core. This podcast moves beyond theory, focusing on the actionable insights and sometimes uncomfortable truths that define modern customer and business strategy. Each episode is designed to give you a tangible takeaway, whether you’re refining your own approach or challenging the status quo within your company.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Punk CX: Customer Experience Insights with Adrian Swinscoe
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