Helping Product Teams Achieve Success Through Better Customer Support

We take our southern Raleigh, NC roots to heart and that means we’ve never met a stranger. We take pride in getting to know our customers, their businesses and what keeps them up at night. To that end, there’s a special team of Pendo people in Support and Services that spends days (and sometimes nights) making sure we really know our customers well and deliver exactly what they need from our product. They listen to the problems customers are trying to solve. They empathize with users and think creatively to find solutions. Quite frankly, they’re the bee’s knees.

We’re highlighting two of them today to say “thank you.” You guys are the sugar in our sweet tea, and the honey on our biscuits. Crazy smart and completely genuine, Rick Kadlac and Ryan Warner are two outstanding examples of why working at Pendo continues to be rewarding and a whole lot of fun. So, meet the guys and see why we think they’re simply grand.

“Rick has been a true partner working through technically challenging issues and solving them to ensure we get results we want.”

Rick Kadlac, Support

What brought you to Pendo? Why here? Why this group of people rather than working elsewhere?
The caliber and experience of the leadership at Pendo impressed me. I could see myself enjoying working with every person I met during the interview process. Pendo has some very sharp, but down to earth people. I’ve always thought that was an ideal mix for potential co-workers.

What aspect(s) of your job do you like?
My job is mentally challenging and satisfying. Every Customer case is a new puzzle which I can help solve. Sometimes there are similarities to the problems, many times not. I often feel like a detective solving a problem. Often in the process of solving these problems, I get opportunities to learn new technologies. This is awesome to me and it’s also essential for my personal career growth.

What would you like to see happen more often with customer?
I love seeing when our customers get excited about using Pendo features that I’ve shown them in order to help them solve real problems in their business life. It puts a smile on my face. There can never be enough of that.

An “aha moment” or story where you learned something from a customer?
Pendo code runs inside the web applications of our customers. These web applications use a number of different frameworks and technologies. We have aha moments for nearly every new framework we encounter. We also have customers who use Pendo in new and unexpected ways. There is a TON you can do with Pendo when used to it’s full potential.

How do you approach a case?
I collect all the information I can get my hands on, recreate the issue, and break down the problem down into parts which I can start investigating.

If you had to give your job a different title, what would it be?
I’m not sure. I’d say something to do with solving customer cases. We are involved in almost everything though.

What’s something unique about you that makes you especially well suited for this company or this type of work?
I’ve always worked in customer focused and/or technical positions. I am just as comfortable in both. So this position is right up my alley.

Anything else you’d like to add?
I have a high amount of job satisfaction at Pendo compared to anything I’ve done in the past. I love the people and I love solving technical problems.

“Ryan has been extremely responsive to our support issues, and is always working with us to drive value creation from Pendo analytics.”

Ryan Warner

What brought you to Pendo? Why here? Why this group of people rather than working elsewhere?
The depth of experience within leadership was a huge enticement for me in coming to Pendo. They were passionate about Pendo and it was contagious. With every person I interviewed, you could see and feel the excitement they had.

What aspect(s) of your job do you like?
I really enjoy connecting with our customers on a daily basis. We get to hear the passion our customers have for our product first hand. Additionally, I really enjoy being the voice of the customer directly to our product and engineering teams.

What would you like to see happen more often with customers?
When we first see customers come on board, they normally focus in on our outstanding visual pieces, such as walkthroughs, tooltips, and banners. While these are great, I enjoy the feedback from customers when they finally dig through our analytics we provide and see the gold hidden in that information. It is that “aha moment” which impacts our customer’s product or planning.

Describe an “aha moment” or story where you learned something from a customer.
My second week in, I scheduled a call with one of our newer customers. They were looking to expand the use of Pendo within the company and we offered to provide an overview of Pendo for the users who were unfamiliar with our product . We hopped on the call, and there were 2 people already waiting—10 Minutes early. Then, 2 more jumped on. Then another 3 called in; and then another 5. Before we knew it, there were 19 people on this call. Apparently, the company decided to expand it across almost all departments. How cool! That’s when I realized how important Pendo was to our customers and witnessed the value they saw in it.

How do you approach a case?
It’s tempting to jump to conclusions in this role. However, I’ve found the quickest solution starts by listening and gathering as much information as possible. From there, I start with the most plausible option; and work my way out.

If you had to give your job a different title, what would it be?
Answers Engineer—We are the expert users of Pendo. If the question is outside the normal use case, we get to manipulate, break, and stretch the Pendo product.

What’s something unique about you that makes you especially well suited for this company or this type of work?
I’m very curious by nature, which can be a blessing and a curse. When I’m trying to fix the heater at home instead of calling the repairman—just because I’m curious—it’s a curse. When I’m working to solve a guide display issue at work, it’s a blessing. Curiosity and commitment is something that fits very well with this role.

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