We approach content as an embodiment of our vision to empower customer-centric businesses with tools that serve customers in the most helpful, human way. That means that all the content we produce, without exception, must provide real value to the community.
We strive to elevate the field of customer service by producing high-quality, well-researched, actionable content (no surface-level, keyword-stuffed pieces that waste anyone’s time). Everything we produce — blog posts, help documentation, social media posts, webinars and classes — is the result of time, effort, and intentionality from subject matter experts with a relentless dedication to quality.
Our content strives to live up to our brand values. Above all, we want to be helpful before asking for anything in return.
Our content is:
Remain mindful about accessibility as it pertains to web content per the Web Accessibility Initiative’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Use descriptive link text, for example, as well as descriptive alt text for images — what’s good for SEO is also good for accessibility.
Solicit and select photos and illustrations that showcase different axes of diversity, outside the standard stock images you’d expect from the average software website.
For example: Use “folks” or “people” rather than “guys”; “staffed” or “handled” rather than “manned”; “go-between” rather than “middleman,” etc. Avoid ableist language (e.g., “crazy,” “OCD,” “blind,” “lame,” “insane,” and so on).
We use U.S. English (as opposed to British/Australian English) by default, unless stylistically it makes sense otherwise.
Help Scout adheres to AP style except where noted below.
Use italics, with a link to either the book’s designated website (preferred), or a reputable bookseller.
Capitalize all job titles (Note: “Co-founder” as opposed to “Co-Founder.”) and team/department names (e.g., “Support,” “Engineering”).
Use first names in the second instance when quoting Help Scout teammates. For people outside Help Scout, use last names in the second instance.
Use “%” as opposed to “percent” unless stylistically it makes sense otherwise.
Acceptable to use an ampersand (“&”) when speaking about the concept. See also: D&I.
Use bulleted or numbered lists, never dashes. When writing a bulleted list, use periods at the end of each point when the bullet points are complete sentences. If each point is a word or short phrase, do not use periods.
Use digits in titles and subheads even when greater than 10 (e.g., “Help Scout's 12-Step Remote Hiring Process”).
Use a hyphen to distinguish the Support-Driven Growth business approach from the Support Driven community.
The Help Scout Blog is geared toward founders and high-level decision makers at customer-focused companies. Our readers care deeply about the customer experience, and about growing a business their customers love.
We publish helpful, well-researched articles about company culture, customer experience, brand and design, remote work, and thoughtful approaches to business growth.
The blog also hosts Release Notes — our monthly update that highlights recent product improvements — and other product-related announcements.
HelpU is the education resource for companies and teams who want to create better customer experiences. The content on HelpU is aimed at customer service practitioners and their leaders, and is typically practical and actionable.
HelpU aims to elevate customer service professionals, who are often under-appreciated inside organizations. It achieves this by directly advocating for them, and teaching them the skills they need to build more influence and have more impact.
HelpU content is grouped under these major topics:
Individual HelpU content can be attached to playlists — collections of related content — which can include both other Help Scout content and relevant external links..
Our resources are longer-form, typically written content, targeted at both the Blog audience and the HelpU audience. They are produced in-house, but may be written in partnership with outside experts and aligned companies.
The resources are grouped into 3 sections, each customer-focused:
HelpU Webinars are educational and often practical, exploring customer service and adjacent topics in partnership with external experts. Each webinar includes a handful of practical takeaways.
Our webinars are not Help Scout-specific, but often refer to how particular actions or ideas could be implemented using Help Scout products. Our webinar partners and guests are not necessarily Help Scout users — we want to first create value through helpful, honest content and include our products where it makes sense.
Our voice and tone during webinars is consistent with our written content, although it can be more conversational and casual.
Our voice is friendly, clear, concise, and most importantly, human. Read your replies in your head or aloud before sending. Would you use those same words in a conversation with a friendly acquaintance? If not, find new words.
Adjust your tone based on the tone of the customer’s email. If they’re clearly angry, don’t be enthusiastically happy — take into account where they’re coming from. If they’re excited about something, match that excitement. Our voice should be consistent, but our tone should vary depending on the customer or situation.
Double-check to ensure you’ve spelled people’s names correctly. Sérgio is Sérgio, not Sergio, etc. Don’t shorten someone’s name unless they have already shortened it in their email or signature. Christopher is Christopher, not Chris. Katie is Katie, not Kate, etc. If you’re unsure the “name” in Help Scout is truly a person’s name, go with something generic to avoid confusion or offense.
Don’t guess a person’s gender based on their name or avatar. If you’re unsure of the gender of the customer or another user they refer to, the singular “they” is fine. Using “he/she” or just guessing aren’t OK. Avoid gendered terms like “you guys,” “our tech guy,” and so on.
“Hey” and other informal greetings are great for customers we know or who share our friendly, casual culture. For customers we don’t know well or whose culture we’re not familiar with, try to keep greetings more standard or match how they’ve addressed you.
Mailbox signatures are added automatically with every reply. Don’t sign your replies unless it’s appropriate for the type of message you’re sending.
When you’re writing a date, it’s best to type out: “November 18” or “18 November.” Using the mm/dd format can be confusing for customers who use dd/mm in their countries.
If you know what time zone a customer is in and are suggesting a time to meet, it’s nice to do the conversion on your end so that they don’t have to. If you’re not sure though, go with your own or default to Eastern Time and they can convert from there.
Write telephone numbers as 123.456.7890 or 123-456-7890. If a country code is included, add it at the beginning with a “+” — e.g., +1 123-456-7890.
Keep messages short, simple, and clear. Don’t provide unnecessary technical details — customers want to know we have our eye on an issue, not the technical guts of the problem. For customers who are curious about the more technical side, engineering provides public post-mortem for any major status event.
For the first 30 minutes of a status event, post an update when you actually have new information. If the status event lasts longer than 30 minutes, make sure status is updated once every 30 minutes. Only send email notifications for the first post and the final post.
Things to keep in mind
Defining the “why” before drafting the “how” helps identify puzzle pieces, and where they need to go when you start writing.
Think about what you want the reader to accomplish.
Is the article meant for Users, Administrators, or both? Is the article for a new, potential customer or a seasoned User?
Preview the article frequently as you write. Pay attention to formatting, paragraph structure, image placement, and overall length of the article.
Complex topics can require long explanations, but sometimes more specific content is more helpful. Break out long articles that cover multiple, related topics, in to separate articles when appropriate. On the flip side, long-form content is helpful for things like Getting Started guides and knowledge clusters, where lots of relevant content is packed in to one article.
Creating a scannable, neatly organized article is essential to keeping readers on task. Each Docs article contains the same content structure:
Create simple, specific article titles. Readers should have a clear idea of what questions are answered in the article.
Article introductions let the reader know what the article contains, or what questions the article answers. Avoid sales pitches and funny catchphrases. If a feature is plan-specific, the introduction is a great place to mention which plan a feature is available on.
A table of contents provides the reader a quick way to find what they’re looking for. Create a table of contents for articles with two or more key points. Link each list item to its corresponding Header 3 text.
<section class="index-list"></section>
Stay relevant, clear, and concise. Use as few sentences in a paragraph as possible, and try to avoid big words and long sentences. Use active voice, not passive voice. Add context using images to make content easier to understand. Always use an Oxford comma when making lists.
Additional headings help break up ideas and important concepts. Headings and sub-headings can be a little longer and more specific than article titles.
Definition lists are great for step-by-step instructions. Use definition lists when the primary purpose of the article is to explain how to complete a task in the app.
Callouts are small, styled text boxes that are ideal for calling attention to important reminders that you want the reader to remember. There are multiple callout colors available, but we only use yellow callouts within Docs articles.
<section class="callout-yellow">
<h3>This is a yellow callout</h3>
<p>Just add class="callout-yellow". It's really that easy.</p>
</section>
Clearly cropped images help the reader get their bearings in the app. Use images sparingly, but don’t shy away from adding an image if it’s helpful.
Ordered (numbered) lists can be used to explain a series of steps or reminders that don’t require multiple actions or related images. Unordered (bulleted) lists are helpful for grouping together concepts or ideas.
Bold text is reserved for highlighting specific call-to-action items. When writing descriptive text, use bold text to highlight the name of a menu item, link, or button: “Click the Notifications link. Select your desired notifications, then click Save Notifications.”
To call out a contact us in an article, use the link to the contact modal rather than a mailto: link with our email address. The a tag for this is:
<a href=''#contactModal' data-toggle='modal' class='contactUs'>
Article slugs are part of the article URL. The article slug should match the article title, word for word.
Title: Manage Voice Messages
Slug: article/71-manage-voice-messages
Proof your article before publishing. Read it again, again, and again. Before publishing the final version, ask a teammate to read the article. Check for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Run the content through a service like Grammarly or Hemmingway as an extra proofreading step. Clean up extra HTML tags or spacing in the HTML editor.