It is honest to say that not many individuals develop up dreaming about working in buyer assist. It isn’t the standard aspirational profession path! Certainly, some see a buyer assist position 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 position right here at Buffer, I’ve come to consider buyer assist as a profession in its personal proper, and I am extra obsessed with it than ever.
I have been working within the assist crew at Buffer for 9 years, which is a big and weird period of time in a single job! Within the tech world, individuals change roles and employers greater than in virtually some other business, making me much more of an outlier. There have actually been occasions when the considered shifting on has popped into my thoughts, and I questioned if I ought to take into account beginning a brand new chapter. I wish to share extra about why I’ve stayed at Buffer and haven’t any plans to go away.
To start with – why assist?
I’ve all the time appreciated figuring issues out, understanding how issues work, making issues higher, and serving to individuals. I really feel satisfaction after I’ve been ready to make use of my data, expertise, and expertise to make a distinction. I’ve beforehand labored in healthcare, the place I made medical diagnoses (targeted on individuals) and in IT safety roles (targeted on tech). My buyer assist position at Buffer is in a candy spot for me, the place I take advantage of expertise from each areas.
Working in buyer assist can draw on many expertise you would not mix in different roles. In simply sooner or later’s work, you should utilize a variety of expertise: emotional intelligence, predictive communication, technical data, troubleshooting/diagnostics, and testing. There’s additionally loads of cross-team communication: we work instantly with the finance crew on gross sales admin, with the advertising crew on launch planning, and we work with the product and engineering groups to assist their work in enhancing 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 you can use every characteristic, and we have to perceive a number of use circumstances for every characteristic, the related bugs, which bugs have not too long ago been resolved for that characteristic, how options work together with each other, how our options differ from native options, and many others. There’s the potential for infinite data progress. You’ve got by no means ‘arrived’ as a data knowledgeable throughout your entire product as a result of continuous adjustments, so there is a fixed problem. Nevertheless, amidst that problem, your understanding of the sources that are at your disposal grows and provides you the arrogance to proceed navigating this ever-changing surroundings.
Second – why I’ve stayed at Buffer.
I joined in 2014 once we have been nonetheless a start-up (Buffer was based in 2012), and we have been fewer than 20 individuals. The assist crew is at the moment greater than Buffer was after I joined! I began out overlaying 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 coated the e-mail inbox and conversations coming in by way of 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 ready to stick with my Dad, working from his place when he was unwell. I’ve additionally had the posh 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 out a drop in wage. You is likely to be beginning to perceive why Buffer is an distinctive firm! Past these items, we’re a values-led firm, and regardless of being unfold across the globe, there are key issues all of us have in widespread.
The work we do in assist has all the time been targeted on empowering individuals. We wish to be there to assist, however we additionally wish to get out of the way in which as quickly as potential. There are a number of methods we do that:
- We provide the identical degree of assist to our Free plan customers as any paying buyer, which suggests we may be there for individuals simply getting began. That is extremely highly effective.
- We invite clients to overview their assist expertise, and we pay very shut consideration to how they rating us. Our buyer satisfaction rating is at the moment 97%!
- We use a system to overview and fee 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 advanced, and our firm has grown to only underneath 80 individuals. All this alteration has saved my position fascinating, with contemporary challenges and shifting crew constructions as we have advanced and refined our work and experimented with new approaches and instruments. On the identical time, we have maintained our small crew mindset and targeted on our core values.
Within the final 12 months, I’ve taken on a Product Liaison position (extra on that right here), working as a hyperlink between our assist crew and our improbable product crew. I’ve realized a lot! I be sure that the assist crew is aware of about all of the customer-facing adjustments being labored on, in addition to go on buyer insights that come via the inbox – resembling areas of product friction and have requests. I am additionally getting extra concerned in pre-release testing and studying about the entire means of bringing new options to market. It has been eye-opening, and the final 12 months have been essentially the most thrilling and rewarding of my profession.
How I keep away from stalling and preserve my motivation contemporary
A few times a 12 months, I’ve deliberately stepped again from my work to replicate 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 carried out, which have significantly enriched my work and profession in assist:
- Take time to attach with the broader assist neighborhood. There are Slack communities and real-life alternatives, resembling meet-ups and conferences. Constructing a community of assist professionals exterior of Buffer’s buyer Advocacy crew labored effectively for me. It began out very organically, at a Buyer Assist meet-up one night in London. I used to be chatting with some beautiful individuals who additionally labored remotely about how good it is likely to be to co-work frequently. This was the beginning of the Assist Breakfast, a casual co-working occasion primarily based round breakfast in numerous venues in London. We labored from all types of areas, together with espresso retailers, lodge lobbies, and museums, and shaped shut friendships over time. We had such nice chats in regards to the widespread themes in our work and the totally different ways in which we approached a few of 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 via the day. I’ve had jobs like that previously, and it’s simply not me. I do not assume that most individuals need that from a profession. Some degree of problem that you could be ok with on the finish of the day or week.
- Evaluate out there roles at different corporations every so often. The position description and necessities may also help body your present position and encourage you by way of private progress and the talents you wish to develop. Not solely will this enrich your present work, however it’ll additionally make sure that you are market-ready when you resolve to maneuver on.
- Tackle new challenges and initiatives inside your capability and together 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 grew to become 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 position is extra clearly mapped out and outlined, and there are fewer alternatives to ‘put on many hats’. Nevertheless, even in bigger organizations, there are all the time going to be gaps that want filling, new initiatives or experiments which are value 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 a few of 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 could get a style of and maybe go on to concentrate on: advertising, buyer analysis, neighborhood administration, gross sales, and account administration. You possibly can go deeper into technical expertise and engineering, in addition to progress into an operations or management position. 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!
