written sometime in 2019
This book caught my attention because it framed one of the big customer support challenges from an angle we don't usually think about it from: leveling users up (rather than improving support processes or the software/service). What I found was that the techniques described are for everyone who wants to be more engaging and more engaged - in teaching and in learning. It's spun in the direction of the technology world, but examples from photography and skiing abound and make this a truly accessible guidebook to turning the users of your product into experts.
To step back, this book is actually talking about the lifecycle of a product user. However, in it there are a hundred well-made points and another 50 references to additional reading on topics like effective assimilation of knowledge, user experience and design, and expertise itself. It's maybe a little more about psychology than Support, but it turns out that customer service has a lot of psychology in it. Combatting frustration and enhancing user smiles per hour should be deeply integrated with your organization's Support interactions anyway.
The transformation from beginner to expert is the first two thirds of this book. In it we are shown how expertise is developed and maintained - specifically, how product users might advance overall (TL;DR: it's about allowing and encouraging development of individual smaller skills at their own pace) and how we can show a clear path for the fastest knowledge uptake. Regarding the learning process, there are many tips, several of which are very relevant to customer support:
The book walks through a flowchart of things that go into happy, productive users of a generic product. It is phrased a bit broadly - but the suggestions for improvement are specific and actionable. There is without doubt something *you* can do tomorrow with this information - even if you don't have the power to update your product's FAQ or UI. But if you have the ear of those who can make wider changes, well, you have at least 3 things to do tomorrow after reading it. The concrete examples in the book (generic explanation of topic is always followed by specific examples for sample products like a camera or snowboard) will easily drive discussion across your organization, and you get to be the champion your users need.
Probably my favorite overall takeaway is about engagement. The book clearly spells out the best practices as well as the pitfalls for engaging novice users (give them obvious, small victories to keep them motivated since motivated learners retain more, faster) as well as experts (encourage honing of "already mastered" skills to keep them engaged in learning new ones).