It is truthful to say that not many individuals develop up dreaming about working in buyer assist. It is not the standard 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 almost a decade working in a assist function right here at Buffer, I’ve come to consider buyer assist as a profession in its personal proper, and I am extra captivated with it than ever.
I have been working within the assist group at Buffer for 9 years, which is a big and weird period of time in a single job! Within the tech world, folks swap roles and employers greater than in nearly every 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 puzzled if I ought to think about 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.
Initially – why assist?
I’ve at all times appreciated figuring issues out, understanding how issues work, making issues higher, and serving to folks. I really feel satisfaction once I’ve been ready to make use of my information, expertise, and abilities to make a distinction. I’ve beforehand labored in healthcare, the place I made medical diagnoses (targeted on folks) and in IT safety roles (targeted 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 someday’s work, you need to use a variety of abilities: emotional intelligence, predictive communication, technical information, troubleshooting/diagnostics, and testing. There’s additionally a whole lot of cross-team communication: we work immediately with the finance group on gross sales admin, with the advertising group 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 group!
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 learn how to use every function, and we have to perceive a number of use instances for every function, the related bugs, which bugs have just lately 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 information development. You’ve got by no means ‘arrived’ as a information knowledgeable throughout your entire product resulting from continuous adjustments, so there is a fixed problem. Nonetheless, amidst that problem, your understanding of the assets that are at your disposal grows and offers you the boldness to proceed navigating this ever-changing atmosphere.
Second – why I’ve stayed at Buffer.
I joined in 2014 after we have been nonetheless a start-up (Buffer was based in 2012), and we have been fewer than 20 folks. The assist group is presently greater than Buffer was once I joined! I began out masking Saturdays and Sundays as a “Weekend Warrior” (we used to have barely extra jovial names for our roles, and we had a powerful 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 folks know Buffer as a lot for our tradition as for our product. We have been absolutely distant since earlier than my time, and having the ability to work from wherever you are feeling best 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 luxurious of serving clients whereas poolside on a Spanish island. The flexibleness and potential to search 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 just lately, we transitioned to a four-day work week with no 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 assist has at all times been targeted on empowering folks. We wish to be there to assist, however we additionally wish to get out of the way in which as quickly as doable. 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 implies we could be there for folks simply getting began. That is extremely highly effective.
- We invite clients to evaluate 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 evaluate and fee our assist conversations and ensure we’re delivering a extremely excessive customary, specializing in three tenets: Consciousness, Readability, and Empowerment.
Over the span of 9 years, Buffer has modified so much. Our product is extra highly effective and extra complicated, and our firm has grown to only underneath 80 folks. All this variation has stored my function fascinating, with recent challenges and shifting group constructions as we have developed and refined our work and experimented with new approaches and instruments. On the similar time, we have maintained our small group mindset and targeted on our core values.
Within the final yr, I’ve taken on a Product Liaison function (extra on that here), working as a hyperlink between our assist group and our unbelievable product group. I’ve realized a lot! I guarantee that the assist group is aware of about all of the customer-facing adjustments being labored on, in addition to move on buyer insights that come via 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 essentially the most thrilling and rewarding of my profession.
How I keep away from stalling and maintain my motivation recent
A few times a yr, 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 accomplished, which have vastly enriched my work and profession in assist:
- Take time to attach with the broader assist neighborhood. 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 group labored nicely 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 could be to co-work repeatedly. This was the beginning of the Assist 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, lodge lobbies, and museums, and shaped 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 pondering 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 suppose that most individuals need that from a profession. Some degree of problem which you can be ok with on the finish of the day or week.
- Evaluate accessible roles at different corporations once in a while. The function description and necessities may also help body your present function and encourage you when it comes to private development and the talents you wish to develop. Not solely will this enrich your present work, however it would additionally be certain that you are market-ready in the event you determine to maneuver on.
- Tackle new challenges and tasks inside your capability and together with your supervisor’s assist. Discover areas inside your group or adjoining groups the place you possibly can 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 completely different. In small corporations, you usually 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’. Nonetheless, even in bigger organizations, there are at all times going to be gaps that want filling, new initiatives or experiments which can be value exploring, or folks or groups that need assistance.
- Lastly, I suggest studying books and articles and listening to podcasts to broaden your information. 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 folks I’ve ever met.
There are numerous instructions {that a} profession in assist can take you and so many areas which you can 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 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!
