Support Tool Stack

Overview

Your support stack determines whether customers feel heard or abandoned. The mistake: picking the tool your last company used instead of the tool that matches your current stage, team size, and support philosophy. A 3-person startup on Zendesk Enterprise ($150/agent/mo) is burning money. A 50-person team on a shared Gmail inbox is losing customers to slow responses. This skill covers platform selection, setup, and optimization across every stage and support philosophy.

Authoritative Foundations

• Intercom — Conversational Support Framework — Conversational Support Framework
• Plain — API-first headless support and BYOAI via MCP — Model Context Protocol — tool servers for agent-safe CRM and enrichment access.
• Zendesk — Omnichannel CX Maturity Model — Omnichannel CX Maturity Model
• Help Scout — Support-Driven Growth (Bezos: customer obsession) — Support-Driven Growth (Bezos: customer obsession)
• Klaus/Maestro QA — Support Quality Framework — Support Quality Framework