Why support isn’t just a job for me – it’s a career

It is honest to say that not many individuals develop up dreaming about working in buyer assist. It is not the everyday aspirational profession path! Certainly, some see a buyer assist function as a stepping stone to one thing else or a short-term job in a break from faculty or Uni. After practically a decade working in a assist function right here at Buffer, I’ve come to think about buyer assist as a profession in its personal proper, and I am extra keen about it than ever.

I have been working within the assist crew at Buffer for 9 years, which is a major and weird period of time in a single job! Within the tech world, individuals change roles and employers greater than in virtually every other trade, making me much more of an outlier. There have definitely been occasions when the considered shifting on has popped into my thoughts, and I questioned if I ought to contemplate beginning a brand new chapter. I wish to share extra about why I’ve stayed at Buffer and don’t have any plans to depart.

To start with – why assist?

I’ve at all times favored figuring issues out, understanding how issues work, making issues higher, and serving to individuals. I really feel satisfaction after I’ve been in a position to make use of my data, expertise, and abilities to make a distinction. I’ve beforehand labored in healthcare, the place I made medical diagnoses (centered on individuals) and in IT safety roles (centered on tech). My buyer assist function at Buffer is in a candy spot for me, the place I take advantage of abilities from each areas.

Working in buyer assist can draw on many abilities you would not mix in different roles. In simply sooner or later’s work, you should use a variety of abilities: emotional intelligence, predictive communication, technical data, troubleshooting/diagnostics, and testing. There’s additionally lots of cross-team communication: we work straight with the finance crew on gross sales admin, with the advertising and marketing crew on launch planning, and we work with the product and engineering groups to assist their work in bettering our product and bringing new options to our clients. We’re removed from being an remoted crew!

One other superior factor about assist is that we have to learn about the entire product, not simply functionally. We have to know the ins and outs of how one can use every function, and we have to perceive a number of use instances for every function, the related bugs, which bugs have not too long ago been resolved for that function, how options work together with each other, how our options differ from native options, and so forth. There’s the potential for infinite data development. You have by no means ‘arrived’ as a data professional throughout all the product because of continuous modifications, so there is a fixed problem. Nevertheless, amidst that problem, your understanding of the assets that are at your disposal grows and offers you the arrogance to proceed navigating this ever-changing atmosphere.

Second – why I’ve stayed at Buffer.

I joined in 2014 once we had been nonetheless a start-up (Buffer was based in 2012), and we had been fewer than 20 individuals. The assist crew is presently larger than Buffer was after I joined! I began out protecting Saturdays and Sundays as a “Weekend Warrior” (we used to have barely extra jovial names for our roles, and we had a robust love of alliteration again then). I lined the e-mail inbox and conversations coming in through social, and after some time, I transitioned right into a extra conventional work week.

Some individuals know Buffer as a lot for our tradition as for our product. We have been totally distant since earlier than my time, and with the ability to work from wherever you’re feeling most efficient has been extremely highly effective. To me, it is the most important perk!

I have been in a position to stick with my Dad, working from his place when he was unwell. I’ve additionally had the luxurious of serving clients whereas poolside on a Spanish island. The flexibleness and potential to search out your finest model of work-life steadiness with out having to commute or being tied to an workplace is one thing I treasure. Extra not too long ago, we transitioned to a four-day work week with no drop in wage. You is perhaps beginning to perceive why Buffer is an distinctive firm! Past this stuff, we’re a values-led firm, and regardless of being unfold across the globe, there are key issues all of us have in frequent.

The work we do in assist has at all times been centered on empowering individuals. We wish to be there to assist, however we additionally wish to get out of the best way as quickly as doable. There are a couple of methods we do that:

• We provide the identical stage of assist to our Free plan customers as any paying buyer, which implies we may be there for individuals simply getting began. That is extremely highly effective.

• We invite clients to assessment their assist expertise, and we pay very shut consideration to how they rating us. Our buyer satisfaction rating is presently 97%!

• We use a system to assessment and price our assist conversations and ensure we’re delivering a very excessive normal, specializing in three tenets: Consciousness, Readability, and Empowerment.

Over the span of 9 years, Buffer has modified lots. Our product is extra highly effective and extra complicated, and our firm has grown to simply underneath 80 individuals. All this variation has saved my function fascinating, with recent challenges and shifting crew buildings as we have advanced and refined our work and experimented with new approaches and instruments. On the similar time, we have maintained our small crew mindset and centered on our core values.

Within the final 12 months, I’ve taken on a Product Liaison function (extra on that right here), working as a hyperlink between our assist crew and our improbable product crew. I’ve realized a lot! I guarantee that the assist crew is aware of about all of the customer-facing modifications being labored on, in addition to go on buyer insights that come by way of the inbox – comparable to areas of product friction and have requests. I am additionally getting extra concerned in pre-release testing and studying about the entire strategy of bringing new options to market. It has been eye-opening, and the final 12 months have been probably the most thrilling and rewarding of my profession.

How I keep away from stalling and preserve my motivation recent

A few times a 12 months, I’ve deliberately stepped again from my work to mirror and guarantee I’ve not gotten caught in a rut or complacent about what I do. I might by no means wish to work on autopilot; that simply is not me. Fortunately, my work retains me on my toes! There are additionally some proactive issues I’ve executed, which have enormously enriched my work and profession in assist:

• Take time to attach with the broader assist group. There are Slack communities and real-life alternatives, comparable to meet-ups and conferences. Constructing a community of assist professionals outdoors of Buffer’s buyer Advocacy crew labored properly for me. It began out very organically, at a Buyer Help meet-up one night in London. I used to be chatting with some beautiful individuals who additionally labored remotely about how good it is perhaps to co-work recurrently. This was the beginning of the Help Breakfast, a casual co-working occasion based mostly round breakfast in varied venues in London. We labored from every kind of areas, together with espresso outlets, lodge lobbies, and museums, and fashioned shut friendships over time. We had such nice chats in regards to the frequent themes in our work and the totally different ways in which we approached among the challenges we confronted, that we began recording our conversations and sharing them as a podcast.
• Concentrate on engaged on autopilot. I am not considering of ‘getting within the zone’ right here, extra about coasting by way of the day. I’ve had jobs like that previously, and it’s simply not me. I do not suppose that most individuals need that from a profession. Some stage of problem that you may be ok with on the finish of the day or week.
• Evaluate accessible roles at different corporations now and again. The function description and necessities may help body your present function and encourage you by way of private development and the talents you wish to develop. Not solely will this enrich your present work, however it’s going to additionally be certain that you are market-ready when you determine to maneuver on.
• Tackle new challenges and initiatives inside your capability and along with your supervisor’s assist. Discover areas inside your crew or adjoining groups the place you may assist out. For some time, I used to be cautious that as Buffer had grown, our roles turned extra outlined, with much less selection in our work or alternatives to do one thing totally different. In small corporations, you typically do what wants doing, whether or not in your job description or not – in bigger organizations, your function is extra clearly mapped out and outlined, and there are fewer alternatives to ‘put on many hats’. Nevertheless, even in bigger organizations, there are at all times going to be gaps that want filling, new initiatives or experiments which can be price exploring, or individuals or groups that need assistance.
• Lastly, I advocate studying books and articles and listening to podcasts to increase your data. Buyer assist has actually been coming into its personal as a profession, and like all careers, there are rising developments and alternatives.

I ended up working within the assist world as a result of I like to assist, and I’ve ended up surrounded by among the kindest and most supportive individuals I’ve ever met.

There are a lot of instructions {that a} profession in assist can take you and so many areas that you may get a style of and maybe go on to concentrate on: advertising and marketing, buyer analysis, group administration, gross sales, and account administration. You may go deeper into technical abilities and engineering, in addition to progress into an operations or management function. I didn’t develop up anticipating to comply with this path, however I’m fueled and inspired by how dynamic and fulfilling my profession in buyer assist has been. I’ll be right here for some time!

What ideas come to thoughts for you on this subject? Come chat with me over on Mastodon,  Twitter, or LinkedIn!