It is honest to say that not many individuals develop up dreaming about working in buyer help. It isn’t the everyday aspirational profession path! Certainly, some see a buyer help 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 help position right here at Buffer, I’ve come to consider buyer help as a profession in its personal proper, and I am extra obsessed with it than ever.
I have been working within the help staff 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 nearly some 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 puzzled 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 begin with – why help?
I’ve all the time 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 expertise to make a distinction. I’ve beforehand labored in healthcare, the place I made scientific diagnoses (targeted on individuals) and in IT safety roles (targeted on tech). My buyer help position at Buffer is in a candy spot for me, the place I take advantage of expertise from each areas.
Working in buyer help 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 a variety of cross-team communication: we work instantly with the finance staff on gross sales admin, with the advertising and marketing staff on launch planning, and we work with the product and engineering groups to help their work in bettering our product and bringing new options to our clients. We’re removed from being an remoted staff!
One other superior factor about help is that we have to find out about the entire product, not simply functionally. We have to know the ins and outs of the right way to 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 many others. There’s the potential for infinite data progress. You have by no means ‘arrived’ as a data knowledgeable throughout your complete product because of continuous modifications, so there is a fixed problem. Nevertheless, amidst that problem, your understanding of the sources 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 after we had been nonetheless a start-up (Buffer was based in 2012), and we had been fewer than 20 individuals. The help staff 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 lined 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 having the ability to work from wherever you’re feeling most efficient has been extremely highly effective. To me, it is the largest 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 pliability and potential to seek out your greatest model of work-life stability 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 could 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 frequent.
The work we do in help 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 stage of help to our Free plan customers as any paying buyer, which suggests we will be there for individuals simply getting began. That is extremely highly effective.
- We invite clients to evaluate their help 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 evaluate and fee our help conversations and ensure we’re delivering a extremely 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 only beneath 80 individuals. All this modification has saved my position attention-grabbing, with recent challenges and shifting staff constructions as we have advanced and refined our work and experimented with new approaches and instruments. On the similar time, we have maintained our small staff 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 help staff and our implausible product staff. I’ve realized a lot! I make it possible for the help staff is aware of about all of the customer-facing modifications being labored on, in addition to move on buyer insights that come by way of the inbox – equivalent to areas of product friction and have requests. I am additionally getting extra concerned in pre-release testing and studying about the entire technique 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 replicate and guarantee I’ve not gotten caught in a rut or complacent about what I do. I would 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 vastly enriched my work and profession in help:
- Take time to attach with the broader help group. There are Slack communities and real-life alternatives, equivalent to meet-ups and conferences. Constructing a community of help professionals exterior of Buffer’s buyer Advocacy staff labored effectively 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 could be to co-work frequently. This was the beginning of the Help Breakfast, an off-the-cuff co-working occasion primarily based round breakfast in numerous venues in London. We labored from all types of areas, together with espresso retailers, resort 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 completely different ways in which we approached among the challenges we confronted, that we began recording our conversations and sharing them as a podcast.
- Pay attention to 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 which you can be ok with on the finish of the day or week.
- Overview accessible roles at different firms sometimes. The position description and necessities might help body your present position and encourage you when it comes to private progress and the talents you wish to develop. Not solely will this enrich your present work, however it would additionally be sure that you are market-ready for those who resolve to maneuver on.
- Tackle new challenges and tasks inside your capability and together with your supervisor’s help. Discover areas inside your staff 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 completely different. In small firms, you usually 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 price exploring, or individuals or groups that need assistance.
- Lastly, I suggest studying books and articles and listening to podcasts to broaden your data. Buyer help has actually been coming into its personal as a profession, and like all careers, there are rising traits and alternatives.
I ended up working within the help 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 lots of instructions {that a} profession in help can take you and so many areas which you can 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 expertise and engineering, in addition to progress into an operations or management position. I didn’t develop up anticipating to observe this path, however I’m fueled and inspired by how dynamic and fulfilling my profession in buyer help 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!
