Guest: Rick Myers (LinkedIn, Twitter)
Company: Akamai (Twitter) | Linode (LinkedIn, Twitter)

There is a vision and a reason why Linode is well-known for providing quality customer experience. In this episode of TFiR Let’s Talk recorded at the Linode headquarters in Philadelphia, Swapnil Bhartiya sits down with Rick Myers, Senior Director of Customer Support at Akamai, to discuss the company’s unique approach to customer support, including the way they recruit team members.

Key highlights from this video interview:

• Myers says Linode’s approach to providing a great customer experience is based on Linode CEO Chris Aker’s vision: he wanted to build a customer support team that makes problem-solving simple, is transparent when there are problems, and actively reaches out to customers.
• They often recruit people with hospitality or retail-type backgrounds who have a passion for technology. He explains how they can apply their existing skills to their work as customer support specialists for Linode and why it is more than just a job for them.
• Akamai’s acquisition of Linode has not affected their customer support other than removing some constraints that they were not able to prioritize simply because of their previous size. Myers explains how the acquisition actually opened up new possibilities for the company and what benefits this will bring to customers.
• They are seeing a trend of Kubernetes-managed databases, which is simple yet technologically complicated. Their support specialists are experts in Linux, but they are not experts in the managed version of Linux-related things. However, this has not resulted in an increase in technologically complicated queries so far.
• Linode support specialists do not just service the products, but they understand them and are certified in the products. Myers explains why they tend to look for people who are hobbyists with a passion, rather than just having a formal education. Their practical experience can help solve problems.

The summary of the show is written by Emily Nicholls.