Hypermode is a platform for building intelligent APIs. Building on the Modus and Dgraph open source projects the company stewards, Hypermode makes it easy for companies like Hashnode, Semgrep, Equinor and more to introduce and manage AI features and the knowledge graphs that underpin them. Their user base consists of product engineers and data architects within companies of all sizes. 

How support works at Hypermode 

Support at Hypermode lives under their engineering, product, and design team. They approach support as a whole-company initiative. For Hypermode (and many other technical teams) – having engineers respond directly to customer questions and issues allows them to work more effectively on building the product. 

The team at Hypermode have rotations for emergency issues. For regular support threads, consisting mainly of issues, tasks, and general help questions – all 12 of their engineers are responsible, and feel comfortable jumping into Plain to quickly help customers. 

Plain was a key part of Hypermode’s transition to providing whole-company support. “Plain makes it super approachable for anyone in the company to answer the customer, without having it be a burdensome thing. There’s no learning curve involved, it’s just easy”.

Evaluating Plain 

Hypermode evaluated Plain primarily against Hubspot’s Service Hub. While Hubspot is more well-known and established in the support industry, Ryan ended up convinced that Plain was the right choice for their team after speaking with Simon, our Co-Founder and CEO. Plain won out over Hubspot for a few key reasons: 

• The speed of our updates. 

• The support we give 

• Our Linear integration allows customers to create a solid feedback loop between support and product teams 

Ryan had used Zendesk at a previous role, and didn’t evaluate it to use as an alternative to Plain because of a few issues they anticipated: 

• The cost of Zendesk also didn’t suit how the Hypermode team worked. Paying for a license, rather than a usage-based model, meant that their costs were higher than they needed to be.

• It’s super time consuming to keep data and integrations in sync with Zendesk – if an integration breaks, customers don’t get the support they need, and SLAs breach as a result. 

Implementation 

Hypermode initially migrated to Plain by using our native, out-of-the-box features – meaning very little customization was needed on their side to actually get set up and answer customer questions. “Plain feels like a delightful experience for our engineers, and for our customers”. 

That being said, Hypermode has utilized Plain’s API to pick up emergency response emails triggered through email, with Zapier triggering alerts for on-call. With a little help from our team, Hypermode were able to set up this solution within an hour – ensuring their customers could send emergency response requests through their preferred channel. 

Why Hypermode loves Plain 

Plain has revolutionized the way that the team at Hypermode works on support. Previously, the team would leave conversations with customers open so they’d remember to update the customer on the progress of a bug or issue. Now, their team is completely optimized for inbox-zero. They’re able to focus on what they need to focus on, and align priorities across the whole organization. “Knowing that when a Linear issue is complete, the customer will pop back into our inbox without us needing to remember to update the customer is a game-changer”. 

The ability to add context about a customer, such as pricing tier for example, directly into a thread has helped the Hypermode team to think about support from a product perspective. Designing for a support-driven product is now at the forefront of their team’s design thinking – ensuring that customers can get support where and when they need it. 

The support that we offer ensures that we’re at hand anytime anyone at Hypermode needs help. If they’re ever unsure of how to do something, or if a workflow is even possible in Plain – we’ll always work together to figure out the best path forward. 

Growing with Plain

Over the next few months, Ryan and his team want to introduce more proactive support. By reaching out to customers preemptively when issues are detected, they can resolve issues before the customer even notices there’s anything wrong. 

Maintaining high-quality, speedy support without a dedicated support team remains a priority for the team at Hypermode, with engineers continuing to play a central role in customer interactions.

Advice from Hypermode on building whole-company support

Ryan truly believes in the importance of treating customer feedback as a crucial resource, and integrating it into the company’s issue tracking system. Bringing engineers directly into conversations with customers shows them a whole new perspective than they would have if they weren’t connecting with them. 

Another important thing to think about when you’re figuring out whole-company support, is considering the elements that will actually make your customers and team want to use your support platform. Optimizing your support workflows to ensure both engineers and customers find them user-friendly is the first step in unlocking whole-company support.