"I'm not here to catch your mistakes, I'm trying to get customers to stop yelling at you." - Amanda Drws

That’s how Amanda Drws thinks about QA, and it’s a big reason her teams trust the process instead of fearing it.

In this episode, we dig into how Amanda built a QA approach that actually makes life easier for agents and more valuable for the whole company. She shares why she audits a tiny fraction of tickets, how she decides what’s worth flagging, and the surprising ways QA can uncover customer trends you’d never think to track.

What we cover:

• Why “less QA” can lead to more insight
• How to make QA a culture-builder instead of a compliance drill
• A simple way to catch big issues without nitpicking typos
• Using QA to surface trends before your dashboards do
• Getting other teams to actually care about support insights

If you’ve ever thought QA was just about catching mistakes, Amanda’s going to change your mind

Take the Next Step:

📬 Subscribe for weekly tactical tips → Get Weekly Tactical CX and Support Ops Tips

🔍 Follow Amanda Drws on LinkedIn for more insights →Amanda Drws on LinkedIn

🎙 Keep listening → More Episodes of Live Chat with Jen Weaver

🗣 Follow Jen for more CX conversations →Jen Weaver on LinkedIn

🤖 Sponsored by Supportman: https://supportman.io

Episode Time Stamps:

00:00 – Why QA Shouldn't Catch Mistakes

01:32 – Amanda’s Weekly QA and CSAT Ritual

04:15 – QA Is Not Stress Relief

07:48 – Audit Less Than 10% of Tickets

09:55 – QA Insights for Marketing Wins

13:12 – Training Doesn’t Stop After Onboarding

16:44 – How QA Builds Team Safety

20:08 – Weighted Scorecards, Not Gotchas

23:31 – Share QA Gold in Slack Channels

AI isn't something you turn on like flipping a switch. Chances are, your team is already using it. That chatbot pilot you ran and the sentiment analysis humming along in your stack, those are AI at work. The challenge isn't adoption, it's making it work for you instead of against you.

This week, I’m joined by Jen McCorkle, a data-driven leader with 25+ years of experience in revenue generation and analytics, for a grounded, tactical conversation about how AI is reshaping customer support from the inside out and what you can do to lead the change. We unpack the alphabet soup (LLMs, GPT, ML, agentic AI), share practical use cases, and get real about the risks, biases, and blind spots that come with these tools.

If you’re ready to stop reacting to AI and start directing it, you need to give this episode a listen.

What we get into:

• Why your AI tool might be hallucinating… and how to spot it
• The problem with sentiment analysis (and what to do instead)
• How to start learning prompt engineering without taking a class
• Guardrails, audits, and smart pilots before you scale
• The rise of AI governance, and how support leaders can get ahead

Whether AI feels like magic, mayhem, or just another Monday, this episode will give you the clarity to stop reacting and the confidence to start directing.

Keep Exploring:

📬 Subscribe for weekly tactical tips → Get Weekly Tactical CX and Support Ops Tips

🔍 Follow Jen McCorkle on LinkedIn for more insights →Jen McCorkle on LinkedIn

🎙 Keep listening → More Episodes of Live Chat with Jen Weaver

🗣 Follow Jen for more CX conversations →Jen Weaver on LinkedIn

🤖 Sponsored by Supportman: https://supportman.io

Episode Time Stamps:

0:00 Why AI Feels So Overwhelming

3:17 Generative vs. Agentic AI Explained

6:50 AI Use Cases That Actually Work

10:45 Real-Time Agent Support with AI

13:30 The Flaws in Sentiment Analysis

17:04 Hallucinations, Bias & Bad Data

20:30 Building AI Literacy on Your Team

23:40 Always Pilot Before You Scale

27:15 Human QA for AI Systems

32:42 Will AI Replace Support Teams?

Ever feel like your to-do list is calling the shots? Elyse Mankin has been there, and she figured out how to take back control.

As Head of Support at Attio, Elyse knows firsthand how hard it is to shift from individual contributor to team lead without drowning in tasks. In this episode, she gets real about the habits that don’t scale, the ones that do, and what it takes to rebuild your time management from the ground up.

We get into the messy (but rewarding) process of spotting your own pitfalls, building a planning rhythm that sticks, and coaching your team to find their own flow, instead of just copying yours.

Here’s what we dig into:

• Why the move from IC to manager breaks your old time habits
• How Elyse sets a yearly-to-daily cadence to stay focused
• Her go-to frameworks for prioritizing (Rule of 3 + Eisenhower Matrix)
• How to coach time management without micromanaging

Whether you're scaling a team or just trying to tame your own calendar, this episode gives you a toolkit (and mindset) for leading with clarity and care.

Keep Exploring:

📬 Subscribe for weekly tactical tips → Get Weekly Tactical CX and Support Ops Tips

🔍 More of Elyse’s insights → Elyse Mankin on LinkedIn

🎙 Keep listening → More Episodes of Live Chat with Jen Weaver

🗣 Follow Jen for more CX conversations →Jen Weaver on LinkedIn

🤖 Sponsored by Supportman: https://supportman.io