Stytch is a developer platform for authentication, authorization, and fraud prevention, enabling users to build secure, highly-scalable apps with minimal code and complexity. Giving their customers premium support is crucial to their success.

The challenge

As Stytch grew, managing support requests through multiple channels – Slack, email, and Discourse  – got harder. Their previous setup involved using a combination of Zendesk and Channeled, which meant the team had to jump between different tools, leading to slow and siloed support.

Christopher O’Neill, Head of Developer Success at Stytch, said, “We had to jump between internal and external Slack channels, then to Discourse, then over to Zendesk for email. It wasn’t seamless, and that lack of unification slowed us down.”

Evaluating Plain and Pylon side-by-side

Stytch chose Plain over Pylon after thoroughly testing both platforms in their public Slack environment. In the Stytch team's eyes – both platforms offered really strong features. Plain stood out for its developer-first approach and focused on building the best B2B support platform, rather than replicating Zendesk. As Christopher O’Neill, Head of Developer Success, explained, “Plain feels like it was designed for technical teams like ours. We don’t need a Zendesk replacement; we need the best B2B support tool for developers, and Plain fits that perfectly.”

A few key factors drove Stytch’s decision.

• Plain’s developer-focused design aligned perfectly with their technical needs.

• Our robust Slack integration centralized support requests from their public Slack community, their Slack Connect channels with larger customers, and email into one platform.

• The API-driven approach enabled Stytch to embed customer and product data directly into customer requests, keeping context front-and-center.

• Plain's focus on technical workflows gave their team a platform that worked how they like to work – fast and efficiently.

All of these features made managing support far faster and more natural – benefits that became clear when the team started using Plain full time in production. Christopher summed it up: “Plain feels like it was built for teams like ours – technical, developer-focused, and fast-moving.”

The solution

Migrating to Plain led to several key improvements for their support team:

1. Consolidated support queue: All queries – from Slack and email (and Discourse very soon) – are now centralized in Plain, eliminating the need to switch between tools.

2. Faster internal collaboration: Team members can log internal notes and link discussions, Slack threads, and Linear tickets quickly and easily straight from a customer request in Plain.

3. Easier handoffs: Transitioning enterprise customers from solution engineering to ongoing support is now effortless, thanks to centralized ticket management in Plain.

4. Improved visibility: Customer context, like historical conversations and linked tickets, is embedded in every support interaction, so no customer detail is lost and their team has all the information they need at their fingertips to solve an issue.

Christopher shared, “With Plain, we’ve become far more consistent about leaving internal notes, linking Slack discussions to tickets, and closing the loop with customers – this is the boring but incredibly necessary work as you scale a team to provide a stellar support experience.”

Plain's impact on Stytch's support

• Stronger support workflows: Plain’s centralized platform has replaced Zendesk and Channeled, making it easier for the team to manage all support requests from one place. 

• Faster response times: Consolidated support channels and better visibility into customer data allow the team to prioritize and resolve issues more faster and more efficiently.

• Scalable support: The ability to integrate new channels, like Discord and Teams, ensures that Stytch’s support setup can grow with them as they scale.

• Better customer experience: By linking customer requests to Linear issues, Stytch closes the loop on issues, so they never forget to update a customer when an issue is fixed. 

• Clearer focus with team views: Stytch uses saved views to split incoming requests based on the team handling them, ensuring Support focuses on existing customers while Solutions Engineering manages pre-sales conversations.

Christopher said, “The unification of workflows in Plain isn’t just a convenience – it’s critical for scaling our team and ensuring we provide the best possible experience to our customers.”

Looking ahead

As Stytch continues to grow, they plan to leverage Plain’s extensibility further by integrating additional customer data into their support processes with customer cards. With a streamlined and scalable system in place, the team is well-positioned to support their expanding customer base.