# Ep. 29 - Managing Customer Support

- Show: [Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/open-hardware-manufacturing-podcast)
- Published: 2024-09-26
- Length: 57m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/open-hardware-manufacturing-podcast/2024-09-26-ep-29-managing-customer-support
- Listen: https://opulo.io

## Summary

Steven Shapar and Mitchell from Opulo discuss building a customer support infrastructure for their open-source hardware company, LumenPnP. They detail their transition from solo support to a team, emphasizing the use of HubSpot for ticket management, text expanders for efficiency, and Guru for maintaining a living knowledge base. The hosts highlight the importance of hiring technical agents, providing them with test benches, and holding daily escalation meetings to feed field insights back into product design and documentation.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/open-hardware-manufacturing-podcast/2024-09-26-ep-29-managing-customer-support#t=0) Introduction: Post-Launch Reflections and Support Mission
- [1:59](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/open-hardware-manufacturing-podcast/2024-09-26-ep-29-managing-customer-support#t=119) The Scale of Support and CRM Tool Selection
- [7:06](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/open-hardware-manufacturing-podcast/2024-09-26-ep-29-managing-customer-support#t=426) CRM Software: HubSpot, Zendesk, and Open Source Options
- [14:10](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/open-hardware-manufacturing-podcast/2024-09-26-ep-29-managing-customer-support#t=850) Text Expanders and Efficiency Tools
- [19:40](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/open-hardware-manufacturing-podcast/2024-09-26-ep-29-managing-customer-support#t=1180) Knowledge Management with Guru and Expiring Cards
- [27:26](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/open-hardware-manufacturing-podcast/2024-09-26-ep-29-managing-customer-support#t=1646) Hiring Technical Agents and Onboarding Practices
- [34:50](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/open-hardware-manufacturing-podcast/2024-09-26-ep-29-managing-customer-support#t=2090) Test Benches and Replicating Customer Issues
- [38:13](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/open-hardware-manufacturing-podcast/2024-09-26-ep-29-managing-customer-support#t=2293) Escalation Meetings and Feedback Loops to Engineering
- [48:19](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/open-hardware-manufacturing-podcast/2024-09-26-ep-29-managing-customer-support#t=2899) Warranty Philosophy and Customer Success

## Topics

- [Direct-to-consumer & e-commerce](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/direct-to-consumer)
- [EDA & CAD tools](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/eda-and-cad-tools)
- [Scaling production](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/scaling-production)
- [Hiring & workforce](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/hiring-and-workforce)

## Most relevant to

companies scaling up

## Mentioned

- Opulo (company)
- LumenPnP (product)
- HubSpot (tool)
- Zendesk (tool)
- Salesforce (tool)
- Guru (tool)
- Text Expander (tool)
- Espanso (tool)
- Formlabs (company)
- V1 Engineering (company)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [176: Let's Go Light It Up](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2016-11-16-176-lets-go-light-it-up) (Embedded.fm)
- [The Sims for Founders: What Agent-First Companies Actually Look Like](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/built-2-scale/2026-03-31-the-sims-for-founders-what-agent-first-companies-actually-look-like) (Built 2 Scale)
- [T-25-007 : Valentina Ratner - Mechanical Engineer to SaaS for Hardware CEO](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/tradeoffs/2025-03-21-t-25-007-valentina-ratner-mechanical-engineer-to-saas-for-hardware-ceo) (TRADEOFFS)
- [#107 How to Turbocharge Your CX: DTC Marketing Learnings from Mr. Beast's Feastables on Chatbots, SMS, & Retention with Jess Cervellon](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-startup-cpg-podcast/2023-09-12-107-how-to-turbocharge-your-cx-dtc-marketing-learnings-from-mr-beasts-feastables) (The Startup CPG Podcast)
- [#062 - How a hardware SaaS company wants to help you not get lost in your data during product development, with Michael Corr of Duro Labs, USA](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-hardware-entrepreneur/2018-09-26-062-how-a-hardware-saas-company-wants-to-help-you-not-get-lost-in-your-data-duri) (The Hardware Entrepreneur)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/open-hardware-manufacturing-podcast/2024-09-26-ep-29-managing-customer-support. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast.