10 Things You Didn’t Know about Help Scout’s Nick Francis

Nick Francis is the co-founder and CEO of Help Scout, an innovative software company that delivers services and customer support for small businesses. He put in the effort and is now reaping the benefits of his hard work. The company has taken flight and is enjoying tremendous success in the industry. Francis is a part of the team behind the company that gives each customer the individual attention and help that is needed, but his name is just beginning to surface as an expert in his field. He’s not yet received a lot of press, so here are ten things you didn’t know about Help Scout’s Nick Francis.

He follows the principle of adding value

When asked about his thinking about how to be successful, his answer was simple. Nick believes that every product you sell and every service that you offer needs to have added value included. It is his firm belief, that before you can ask for anything in return, you must be willing to give your customer something of value beforehand. There is no such thing as getting something for nothing, and if you want to be successful in business or in your personal life, you had better be willing to offer something of value before having the expectation of any type of return.

He’s all about keeping up with the times

Nick realizes that in order to be successful, it’s important to change with the times. In a world of automation and robotics, there is a need to rely on technology to offer the quickest response times for a demanding public. While this is just a fact of the new age we live in, it’s vital to give people what they want, what they need and to do it well. Help Scout offers all this with personalized services and one on one assistance. In general, help desks need to be human instead of just offering an automated service that can’t cater to off topic questions or problems. Over the past decade, there have been a lot of changes, but he’s an expert and keeping up with what works.

Nick Francis has a unique perspective on customer service

When Help Scout goes about selling their services, the firsts thing that they do is to offer help to potential customers. Nick believes that it’s important to let people know what you can do for them and offer help. He understands that the company must earn the business, but only if it’s a good fit for the customer. This laid back approach takes the pressure off the customer and puts it all on Help Scout. It’s a tactic that is appreciated with no high pressure sales techniques. The teams has orchestrated their marketing and sales strategies in a way that Nick himself would prefer as a potential customer. It’s great that they put the customer first in all aspects of the process.

Nick takes personal responsibility

Francis is not too proud to admit that he has made some mistakes in growing the company that he helped to found and establish. He stated that he didn’t realize in the beginning, how crucial it was to get the right team members on board. He had made a few bad choices in hiring employees, which he felt had the potential to affect the long term success of the company. Over time, Nick began to realize the importance of having the right people on board to build the team environment and culture that the founders had envisioned for Help Scout.

He believes in education

As a part of the whole of customer service, Nick is passionate about educating customers. It’s one thing to tell them how to do something, but quite another to provide resources that help them learn for themselves and become more skilled at what they do. This is a big elevation in the arena of customer support. Francis strives to ensure that a blog with relevant content is kept, along with email support and self-service content.

He is a great problem solver

Nick has the ability to take a look at a problem and see through the obstacles. He’s very methodical about testing the processes that are currently in place, and considering updates that will make the company more effective. For example, multi-channel support is a big deal in the world of customer service currently. he’s aware that it’s easy for thee channels to get funneled into a huge queue. Currently, the way that Help Scout has aligned their channels takes a little more time, but Nick wants to do it right as they are at the beginning of this new technology. His goal is to make sure that regardless of anything else’s, customer base all being properly taken care of.

He was scared when he first started fundraising

Nick Francis shared in a Youtube interview that his first experiences with being an entrepreneur were frightening for him. He and his co-founding partner were faced with the challenge of needing financing to get their new start up business off the ground. He shared that it was the unknown that was the scariest aspect for him. He also confirmed that this was a learning process for him. Nick was forced to move outside of his comfort zone and to tread in deeper waters than he had previously tested.

His education is in music

Most people would assume that a man who has accomplished so much in the business sector would have an MBA or something similar. This is not the case with Nick Francis. He actually attended the Middle Tennessee State University. It was there that he earned his BS degree in music business in 2004. He may not be active in the business end of the music industry, but he’s learned enough from the business portion of his education to make an amazing success of an idea for a business venture that he and his partner and co-founder of Help Scout share.

He doesn’t like taking shortcuts

Nick is the kind of guy that is not fond of taking shortcuts. This applies to both his business and personal life. He prefers to be on top of the situation, present in the moment and highly focused. Then he rolls up his sleeves and gives it all he’s got and then some. This means that he has to be mindful of his time and manage it well.

He was named to a prestigious list of who’s who

In 2016, Nick Francis reached a pinnacle, which would be one of many throughout his career. He was added to “Entrepreneur’s list of Young Millionaires. He exists as proof that it is best to cut everyone a great deal in business, because you can still get ahead.