A customer support job is a fantastic career selection for you lot if you like to solve problems, help others, and directly impact the bottom line at your company. If you're looking for a client support job merely aren't sure whether the career is right for you lot, I've got you covered.

When I first started at HubSpot, I worked on the customer support squad, so I have first-manus experience on the field. In this mail service, you'll larn the skills and expertise you can gain from a chore in customer support — and how the feel will benefit you lot for the residuum of your career.

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Why work in client service?

Working in customer service can exist extremely rewarding. You aid people accomplish goals and play a directly role in customer success. And, the professional person skills y'all develop in this field can be applied to any career you pursue.

Is customer service a good job?

Customer service is a fantastic job. It's unfairly considered as a "fill-in career" considering customer support reps tin enter the industry with any feel level and background. But client service is at the core of a visitor'due south success, making information technology one of the most vital roles you can play after product and sales. Information technology allows yous to impact the lesser line at your company while forging meaningful connections with your teammates and customers.

In fact, customer service might exist the most of import task at a company. According to Microsoft, ninety% of consumers choose to do business with a company based on the quality of its customer service. You yourself might experience that way. How many times have you stopped doing business organisation with a visitor considering of a poor customer support feel? As a client support rep, you'd directly touch on how much revenue your visitor makes from returning customers.

You might accept preconceived notions about customer support from your own service experiences. These interactions can sometimes make y'all think a customer-facing part isn't for you.

But, I'1000 here to tell you lot that a customer support job can be a fantastic offset step on the path toward a successful career — in almost any business role y'all might be interested in.

Curious about what those benefits might be? Read on for a list of reasons why you should piece of work in customer service.

All-time Reasons to Work in Customer Support

i. You lot'll develop your emotional intelligence.

It'south a given that y'all'll develop people skills while working in a client-facing role. And, although there tin can be challenges to working on the phones with customers all 24-hour interval, the skills and strategies you'll develop far outweigh those challenges.

You'll exist helping customers solve a variety of different problems, which could have a huge impact on their personal or professional person life. Your ability to empathize and wield social skills volition be critical to build rapport with customers and get the information you need to help them.

In the face of hard customers or antagonistic language, you lot'll need to tap into your sense of self-regulation to calmly and effectively de-escalate customers so yous can better assist them. During those tough days when yous don't feel like yous tin make another phone call (we all accept them), you'll go into your senses of motivation and self-awareness to go on yourself on-runway and positive and then yous can buckle downward and get everything done.

Studies have shown that these people skills are linked more closely with success in the

workplace than cerebral intelligence — especially when it comes to management. Starting your career in client back up sets you lot on the correct track for building and growing these skills. (Plus, they're helpful for constructive interpersonal relationship advice and collaboration, too.)

2. You'll learn your product or service, inside and out.

To be successful in customer support, you lot need to understand every aspect of your product or service then you tin rapidly answer questions and resolve bug for your customers. Merely this isn't simply a benefit for the people who volition get the information they demand ASAP — it'due south a big win for you, too.

Learning nearly your product or service helps you become a subject matter skilful — which tin open a ton of different doors for you as you grow in your career.

For example, by practicing teaching your customers how to use your product or service, you'll be able to specialize in training and onboarding new members of your customer support team and take on a leadership office. If yous adopt writing, you might be able to beginning writing cognition base articles or blog posts for your system to supplement ane-off client back up interactions. Or, y'all could utilise your creative side to create step-past-footstep product walkthrough videos to help your customers and build your online presence.

Regardless of the avenue you decide to take, an in-depth production or service noesis will help you get an proficient — on your squad, within your organization, and in your manufacture.

3. Yous'll build transferable Skills.

Building your subject affair expertise will help you lot abound within your customer back up team — but you'll also larn valuable skills that you tin use to snag a new role if yous want to branch out fifty-fifty further.

Sales Skills

Working with customers will teach you exactly how customers can use your company's product or service to achieve their goals. Yous can use this cognition and feel if y'all decided to move into sales. Social proof is an constructive selling tool, and if you can tell prospects on the phone exactly how your product or service has helped other customers, they might be more interested in closing a deal with you lot.

Marketing Skills

Product cognition is incredibly valuable for your marketing squad, too. Whether you want to write for the blog, behave product and market research, or manage social media support channels, in-depth product expertise and killer communication skills could help you state a role on your marketing team.

Product Evolution Skills

If y'all know the product inside and out, yous might be able to build it, too. If you develop some chops for product development — whether that consists of software engineering, outreach, or vendor management — you might be able to employ your wealth of knowledge to facilitate a transition away from the phones. Y'all can so work behind-the-scenes to build the product you're servicing.

4. Y'all can brainwash customers without selling.

One of my favorite parts of working in client service was being in a position where I could teach a customer something well-nigh the product without having to sell them on the solution.

For example, HubSpot offers a platform of products at various subscriptions and tiers. In some support cases, the best solution available was using a product that the customer didn't ain. This left us with ii choices: review the advantages of ownership the boosted product or find a creative workaround.

The start selection allowed me to gently flex my sales skills without having the pressure level of closing a bargain. The furthest I would have to take the case was handing it off to sales rep who would proceed the remainder of the pitch.

Option two encouraged me to be artistic. Betwixt me and the customer, I was the product skillful — which meant the customer was looking to me to detect a solution. Whether information technology was using a production in a new way or thinking of an out-of-the-box culling, I always felt like a magician whenever I found a workaround to a trouble I couldn't directly solve.

5. You can develop a side project.

Here at HubSpot, we make sure our client support reps spend time away from the phones — deliberately.

This time away from the queue accomplishes a few things. Information technology gives customer support reps fourth dimension to eat, take breaks, attend meetings, walk their dogs, etc. But more than importantly, giving customer support reps time away from the call queue gives them time to spend working on side projects and other initiatives can bring tremendous value to our system — and to the reps themselves.

For example, i HubSpot client support rep who specialized in social media decided to start a dedicated social media aqueduct for rapid customer support on Twitter. They took the insights they learned on the phones with customers to bear research and start an initiative they idea would be impactful — and they were right.

You'll learn a ton about your company's customers while you're on the phones. So make certain you're tracking those insights and dedicating them to a side project or initiative that could bring a lot of value to your arrangement and to you lot.

Plus, anyone who has a pulse on the voice of the customer has a ton of value to offering their team and other teams — so it's yet some other benefit you could bring to the table for a promotion or transfer discussion with your manager.

6. You'll learn how to effectively solve issues.

At the heart of it, customer back up is about reactively helping your customers and solving their problems. And whether it's a quick fix or a multi-footstep procedure, every customer problem will crave creative thinking, people skills, and expertise to solve.

The ability to solve problems rapidly, effectively, and diplomatically is critical for any job there is — whether it's in customer support or not. The ability to problem-solve is the building cake of existence able to prioritize, project manage, and resolve conflicts, and these skills are required if yous want to earn promotions, manage a squad, and use your influence and expertise to achieve your goals.

seven. You'll master unlike advice mediums.

Many customer service teams require reps to work on different back up channels. This means y'all'll go from working with customers on the phone one mean solar day to emailing them the adjacent. Simply, as you continue to bounce between the various communication mediums your company offers, y'all'll somewhen main the art of digital conversation.

Here are a few back up channels yous'll be exposed to:

  • Email
  • Phone
  • Alive Conversation
  • Social Media
  • Community Forum

Understanding how to communicate finer on these platforms will assistance you establish relationships with people you may non have met in person. This is a very handy skill to have, specially when applying for a new job.

eight. You'll collaborate with a various squad.

Client support teams aren't e'er your typical tech-oriented grouping. Many are full of interesting individuals who take unique personalities and perspectives.

In fact, that was my favorite part well-nigh working on the HubSpot support squad. You lot always learned something new about somebody whenever yous worked with them on a case.

This is helpful for your growing your career as well. Beingness exposed to an array of different perspectives can help you detect solutions to problems that yous might not realize exist. It tin also alter your opinion on an issue after looking at information technology from an bending that yous hadn't considered earlier. Situations like these where our perspective is challenged non only assistance united states of america grow as professionals simply as people, too.

9. Y'all'll learn to work remotely.

One growing trend in client service is remote work. In fact, 40% of U.S. companies offered more than remote work this year than they did five years ago. Equally customer service technology continues to enable reps to work from abode, more than client service teams are taking advantage of this opportunity.

But, remote work isn't just a nice perk. It'southward a skill you'll need to develop, regardless of the career you pursue. As the cost of part space continues to rise and more positions get remote, yous might soon observe your function has go fully-remote every bit well. And, while this might not change what yous do for a living, it volition certainly change how you do it.

Getting exposure to remote piece of work in a customer service office is great experience for any career. It challenges you to primary your daily workflow without the immediate help of your surrounding colleagues. You acquire how to independently troubleshoot problems and how to teach yourself solutions when no one is nigh to aid.

10. You can build a network within your organization.

When you lot piece of work in customer support, you might not always know the answer to a client question. You lot might take to share customer feedback with important stakeholders. Or y'all might have insights to share that alter how your visitor'south leadership thinks about your ideal buyer persona.

To achieve any of the higher up, you'll have to pull knowledge from the people effectually you — your colleagues. If you lot tin can build a network of coworkers with dissimilar skillsets and expertise from you lot, non only will you be able to chop-chop and effectively get your job done, simply you'll build a network of new opportunities for growth and professional development, too.

Whether yous aspire to a long career in the customer support space, or you lot're simply eager to get your pes in the door at an innovative company, a job in customer back up volition teach you valuable skills that you'll need, again and over again, over the course of your career

11. Y'all can come from any background and with whatsoever level of feel.

Coming from an "artsy" school — where the but math class taught you to calculate audience statistics for Seinfeld — I was honestly surprised I was hired for a HubSpot customer support office. I didn't have a groundwork in tech, nor did I have any real experience with providing phone back up.

But as I went through my offset weeks of grooming, I was delighted to find that I wasn't lone. Oddly enough, information technology seemed more of my colleagues had degrees in English language and writing than calculator sciences. We weren't a team of extroverted tech enthusiasts, rather a diverse group of professionals who all brought different skills and perspectives to the tabular array. (By the fashion, if you're interested in working on the HubSpot client support team, nosotros're hiring.)

I share my own story so that you can meet how possible it is to go a customer back up task regardless of what you lot studied in college. Other firms make it even easier to get a client service job by omitting the 4-yr-caste requirement, making this a highly accessible and rewarding career.

If you're not sure whether yous're qualified for a customer back up role, you can take a customer service certification course to go an edge over other candidates.

12. You'll directly impact the bottom line at your company.

When it comes to a company's financial performance, information technology's all likewise easy to overemphasize the role of sales and marketing in the firm'south success. Merely I would debate that client service is truly the differentiating gene between a company that fails and one that succeeds.

The service feel makes the difference betwixt a one-fourth dimension customer and a loyal client that keeps returning to the make. Knowing that yous'll take such a big, real-world impact is one of the greatest perks of working in customer back up. Y'all're non crunching numbers or looking at spreadsheets all 24-hour interval. Something as uncomplicated as a single positive telephone call with a client tin terminate up turning into an upsell bargain later.

That's non to say it won't be hard. Keeping a positive attitude while working in client service is specially difficult when customers are being harsh and even illogical. But a bad customer is a customer you won't want to keep. A good client, however, can turn into a brand abet after an fantabulous customer service experience — bringing in more referral concern than a marketing campaign would.

Now that you're convinced why you lot should pursue a customer service job, let's take a look at the customer service careers that are available to you.

Types of Customer Service Jobs

There are a broad multifariousness of customer service roles you can use for when starting a customer service career. Almost entry-level applicants start as representatives or specialists, then move upwards into more than managerial and strategic roles. In other words, if yous're afraid of working in a call center forever, don't fret — there'southward more to customer service than answering the phone.

Customer Back up Representative or Specialist

A customer service representative works ane-on-one with customers who've run into a one-fourth dimension outcome with the product or service. Customer back up reps are typically the first ones to pick up the phone or answer an email.

If the effect persists, the case may exist escalated to a support specialist. Customer service specialists accost i problem surface area within the product or service and typically provide prolonged back up to a client.

Client Support Managing director

Client service managers tin work in one of two ways. They can:

  • Oversee a squad of customer support reps.
  • Provide highly specialized and standing support with loftier-value customers.

Some customer support managers do a mixture of both. They tin also report on their team's functioning metrics to higher-up employees, such equally the director of customer feel. There are too variations of this function: you lot can be a client success managing director or service operation manager.

Director of Customer Feel or Success

The manager of client experience is responsible for all things relating to the client'due south journeying earlier and after they make a purchase. They ofttimes establish a "customer-focused vision" at all levels, so that everything from sales procedures to website copy is centered effectually helping the customer, non just getting their business organisation. That mode, customers take a positive and rewarding experience with the company.

Chief Customer Officer

The main customer officeholder (CCO) is a high-level executive responsible for making overarching strategic decisions as they pertain to the customer experience. They also brand these decisions with the company's financial goals in mind. Some companies might non rent a CCO but a vice president of customer experience instead. Others might hire both. In that case, the CCO would oversee the vice president's duties.

A Customer Support Task is the Kickoff of a Highly Rewarding Career

Most people look at customer service equally an entry-level role. While there are many frontline jobs available in customer support, there are also plenty of opportunities for people who have more experience. Whether yous're just getting out of college or taking a new direction in your career, customer service teams offer a variety of unique positions and benefits that will help y'all grow in your professional and personal life.

Editor'due south note: This post was originally published in February 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Originally published Oct 8, 2021 5:00:00 PM, updated February 14 2022