Onwards and upwards with your CX career

Your mother might not understand that working in customer service, support and experience is a real job. But here are 5 top tips from people who do.

CX Career Illustrations pointing onwards and upwards

We noticed that none of the people who have had a super successful CX Career took a linear or direct route to get to where they are. None of the people we interviewed for Undefined World or on our CX Profiles segment. People  at the top of the CX game.

None of them wanted to be a CX agent as a child.
Or studied CX in college.

We know that everybody is different. And if you look around the people working with you, you’ll see that too. But in our experience, a lot of people who find their way working day in and day out answering tickets or taking calls don’t really think of CX as their life’s calling.

They started doing CX until something else came along. Or for a little extra cash. Because they spoke an extra language. Or because it was all that they could find.

But then they landed here.
And they worked their way onwards and upwards to the jobs they love in companies they admire.

We realised there are some tips to learn to follow their footsteps or make your own way in this game. Are you considering or starting out your CX career? These 5 tips will make all the difference.

TIP #1: EMPATHY IS YOUR SECRET WEAPON.

On the other side of every ticket and every call is another human being. Remember that. It seems simple enough, but it’s so easy to forget:

Your work matters. And it matters to them. 

Even when you’re taking on a minor issue. If it’s just a customer frustrated with your website, or trying to understand billing, your conversation with them can define the way that customer perceives and remembers the brand forever. 

Remember: some of the companies we work for spend millions on advertising shaping the way people think of them. And now think: your ability to solve a problem or just empathise and connect with the customer has the power to make or break that work.

Your work matters. So teach yourself to care throughout your CX career.

Because a customer support agent who cares is worth their weight in gold. They’re so rare in some companies that people almost react with surprise, or delight, when they feel that the agent actually cares. They’ll leave that call with a better image of the whole company. And the positive feedback they’ll give you will be a vital element for you to set yourself apart.

TIP #2: NOT ALL CUSTOMERS WILL BE HAPPY.

(You might have noticed.) 

When things go wrong, it’s very common for customers not to see where the problem ends and you begin. 

It’s only natural. Think about it: they have a problem, they get routed to you. So you become the face of that problem, the first voice they associate with it. And yes, sometimes they’ll lash out. And no, they probably shouldn’t.

But once you make yourself care about the person on the other side, you’ll be able to cope a lot better with the toughest tickets.

TIP #3 DON’T FIGHT OR FEAR PROGRESS

Every year a new product, gadget or guru will announce that human jobs will disappear. The first thing you need to know is that experts believe automation won’t replace customer-facing jobs any time soon.

Because sure, there are some things a human can do that a bot can too.
But there’s a lot of things humans can do that a bot can’t.

And that is exactly what automation will mean for the workforce.

Bots will do what they can, so that humans can focus on what they can’t. Things like caring, understanding, coming up with creative solutions or a personalized message. And to have more time to focus on that, we’ll reduce the time managing processes, assigning tickets, intraday managing takes with better, more intelligent and more efficient tools.

Try to be receptive to optimization. And keep an eye open to processes you think are wasting time or draining resources. Don’t be shy. Good managers and higher-ups will be happy to hear your suggestions on how to make the whole team more productive.

TIP #4 SET A PATH FOR YOUR CX CAREER

It might not be obvious at first, and many of the people we talk to felt like CX was a temporary job with little to no room for growth. Some agents will chase bonuses and think that’s all there is to it.

But if you make it in this area, a number of paths open up for you.

The most obvious one, of course, is advance into WFM. You know the job better than anyone. If you have the right organizational and leadership skills, you could lead teams of champions of customer service.

But if that doesn’t feel right for you, there are other options. Some of the experts we talk to, who have been where you are now, moved to these areas for example:

Why not research what these are and see which one of them is most appealing to you?
Having set a goal is the best way to make sure you work your way towards it.
You’ll be missing a few tools and skillsets, probably. But at least now you know where to start.

TIP #5 FIND A MENTOR

This is a CX career-changing tip.

When you’ve established your goal, one priceless piece of advice is to find someone who knows the area better than you. Who, ideally, is already working in the job that you now aspire to.

Good mentors (or allies!) will help you identify your weaknesses and challenge you to work on them. To improve yourself. They will give you tasks that confront your soft-sports head on. They will help you be prouder of your strengths than you’ve ever been before, as well as more aware of those weaknesses.

But they will also help you understand yourself better, see things differently. You may look back at some of your past or current experiences with a set of eyes that puts too much of the blame on yourself. Or, to be honest, not enough. Getting an outside perspective on what you’ve been through is a liberating experience, and one that will help you evolve into a better worker and a better person.

And they will guide you along on that path.

Nobody can tell you how long it’ll be. But we can tell you this thing for sure: if you improve your motivation and performance at work, set concrete objectives and an endgoal for yourself, and find a mentor to help you get there, that journey will be a lot shorter, a lot faster, and a lot happier.

About Tymeshift:

We’re Tymeshift, an effortless WFM solution made exclusively for Zendesk to make workforce managers’ lives easier. Our workforce management tools include shift scheduling, forecasting and analytics. A perfectly intuitive Zendesk integration makes your CX agents’ lives easier. Learn all there is about us and our product on tymeshift.com

🚨 By the way, we’re hiring! 🚨

 So if you want to kickstart your CX Career you can always check out our openings and apply here.