Daria Leshchenko

CEO and Managing Partner at SupportYourApp

Message Posts: 3 Comments: 2

Bio The CEO and Managing Partner at SupportYourApp, Support-as-a-Service company with a focus on tech industry. She became CEO at the age of 24 and turned SupportYourApp in the Top-5 customer support providers in the world. Daria studied in MIM business school and Aspen Institute of Kyiv, and is a Harvard Kennedy School alumna. Daria was included in the 200 Female Founders 2023 list by Inc. She received the Accomplished Leader Award by CCA and was also recognized as Customer Service and Success Woman of the Year by the Globee Business Awards and Woman of the Year in Customer Service & Sales by the Stevie Awards.

Blogs

Personnel Management

I read 199 books about leadership. Only these 5 actually helped

01 Aug 2023

I have been reading since I can remember, and I am doing my best to pass this habit on to my team. Having read countless books on management and leadership, I have learned that not all of them are useful or can revolutionize one’s views. Here are 5 books I can truly recommend to everyone. Each of them made me a better manager and gave me a renewed...

Business

5 things I learned while building a team of over 1000 people

14 Jun 2023

Managing a talented international team with 1200+ members is one of the greatest privileges of my career. Building such a big and diverse team is a challenging task. Like with any other challenge, I see it as another opportunity to learn new things and gain new skills. Through 12 years in the customer service industry and countless hours spen...

Customer Service 2015-2019-2025

Three things fintech gets wrong about customer support

15 Mar 2021

Fintech products are gaining popularity and pose real competition to traditional banking. According to the 2019 FIS PACE study, 73% of consumer banking interactions are digital. Fintech startups have already raised a record $100M in Q2 2020 and, apparently, have cracked the secret to success — better CX and personalized customer service. Direct-

See all Daria's blogs

Daria is Commenting on

Three things fintech gets wrong about customer support

Hi Michael, thank you for your comment. I think your observation si generally spot-on: if your communication is not clear, the phone won’t make it better but will become another channel for uncertainty. But what if the demand for personal communication is not unclarity but the nature of business and peculiarity of human behaivor? In our case, many customers called to postpone their regular payments. A basic action that could be done (and had been, before COVID-19) online. But after the first lay-offs took place, customers became more sensitive and uncertain about their financial future. They could not afford any room for mistakes and had to make sure their payments indeed were postponed. All this could be done online via an app, email or live chat. But in the attempt to reduce the amount of uncertainty in their lives, people decided to call and get a confirmation of their action from another human. A study by Genesys about the role of empathy in customer service indicates that people use the phone to contact customer service when they are in a heightened emotional state much more (in 56% of cases) than live chat (15%) or email (10%). Why? Because a conversation with a representative brings the feeling of personal accountability, reassurance and guarantee. It also allows customers to express their feelings and get a required level of empathy from representatives. My point for the article was that fintech deals with a very sensitive topic of money. It’s something that makes people worry and double check everything. The level in anxiety among fintech customers is higher than for many other industries. Hence, fintech needs to address customers’ requirements for the level of empathy and desirable channels of communication. Phone is a direct channel that gives an opportunity for an immediate two-ways communication. No matter how technically enhanced our systems may be, many people still want to talk and hear from another real person on that side of the line.

22 Mar 2021 Reply Read article

Three things fintech gets wrong about customer support

Ketharaman, thank you for your feedback! I think your point is very interesting and applies to some companies, not only in fintech. However, sooner or later businesses face a challenge of customer retention. That’s when customer support kicks in as a great tool and a real necessity. Are there companies out there who still don’t care about supporting their customers? Definitely. But we have plenty of clients, from fintech as well, who prioritize their customers and invest in their positive experience. They see great returns on those investments and, I believe, with a growing competition in fintech industry, CX and support will become a major competitive advantage. It’s fascinating to see what’s happening in the industry and how different businesses apply different strategies. Let’s see which one proves to be more successful!

17 Mar 2021 Reply Read article