It’s week 6 of the Support Driven writing challenge and the prompt suggested we write about our space and where we work.  While I enjoy my current workspace, the prompt really got me thinking about how I miss my cubicle.  Something, you don’t often hear…so I thought I’d write about that instead.

In tech, you’ll often hear an open concept office being used as a recruiting tool or selling point.  However, when you talk to employees that sit in an open office they don’t always love it.

The allure of the open office totally makes sense.  No one wants to work in an office space type place where it’s all cubes and you’re a cog.  The standard corporate hierarchy is erased, everyone has the same desk.  Smart people tend to have their best ideas when collaborating with others.  Businesses want their employees to be empowered to make the best decisions possible.

That allure is fading a little bit.  Startups aren’t so small anymore and funding isn’t quite as easy.  I’ve heard from all types of employees that noise-cancelling headphones are their greatest assets at work.  The constant chatter and conversations are distracting.  It’s hard to focus on the task at hand when a million other things are happening around you.

The solution that I hear most often proposed is a quiet room, so you can focus on your work without distraction.

I love this idea, because personally, I’m not as productive in a quiet space.  I like to have a little noise to tune out, but I understand sometimes you need to focus.

It’s this balance that makes me miss my cube.

Being in Customer Service, there’s always someone on a phone call or discussing an interaction within earshot.  When I sat in a cube it was great.  I had enough of a partition, that I could focus in on my calls as needed and still be involved on things going on around me…if I wanted to be.

I also liked that it was my cube and I could decorate it.  It was my little space.

I think that’s what I miss most about my cube…a little place at the bustling office that was my own.

 

This week’s writing challenge is to write about a day in the life.  I struggled a little bit with what to write.  It’s currently the slow season at work and I’m working on updating our help center, so there isn’t much exciting going on.  So here it is:

7:50-8:10  Attempt to wake up.  I’m not a morning person.  It takes a bit of time to acknowledge that I need to wake up.

8:10-8:35 Get ready for work.

8:35-8:45 Think Oh shit, I’m going to be late to work.

8:45-9:00 Drive to work

9:00-10:00 Start working.  This means checking my email, slack, and zendesk.

10:00 -11:00 Update and Manage HR product and payroll

11:00-12:00 Check Zendesk again, Start on writing a new help center article

12:00-1:00 Lunch!  I like to go get out of the office and do a quick walk

1:00-6:00 Periodic Zendesk checking, live chats, and writing articles.

6:00-6:30 Drive to the gym

6:30-7:15 Spin

7:15-8:00 Chat with my boyfriend and shower

8:00-9:00 Dinner

9:00-11:00 Internet, research, hang out and tv time.

Then bed…sometimes it’s a little later.

And that’s my day!

 

 

 

 

This week’s writing challenge encouraged us to write about our Support Stack.  The tools we use to do our jobs and why we use them.  In my previous role, I was tasked with creating a CS department from the ground up.  While I was researching tools I tried to find articles others had written about why they made the choices they did.  I had a hard time finding anything.  I found marketing materials and comparisons, but almost nothing about what works/didn’t for other companies.

So here’s my thoughts on what does and doesn’t work for me and a little bit about how I decided to use intercom.

How are my customers most likely to communicate with me?
I had the luxury of only having one product – a mobile app.

Phone calls were out – You can’t ask questions about something you can’t see very easily.

Emails were sporadic – It’s annoying to open up a separate application and submit a question.

In-app chat – This was most convenient and we saw most of our inquiries were sent in via chat.

Is there anything besides support related communications that my team needs?
Our team also needed something capable of drip email marketing campaigns.

Prioritize Features to create a baseline for evaluation.
This is like creating a game plan.  Just like when you buy anything, you want a reminder of what it is that you actually need vs what the salesperson wants you to think you need.  For us it looked like:

Must Haves:

• Awesome in-app chat
• Email support ticketing
• Email marketing capabilities
• Event tracking

Nice to Haves:

• Knowledgebase / Help Center
• Web chat
• In-app notifications
• Salesforce integration
• Phone integration
• Reporting

Get googling
I started researching by googling in-app chat, mobile chat, and help desk reviews.  The major results were

Zendesk
Helpscout
Intercom
Kayako
Desk
Freshdesk

All of these solutions are great (so I read) for various organizations.  However armed with my goals of needing awesome in-app chat I was left with Zendesk and Intercom.

We were already using zendesk chat.  I was not a fan.  The mobile app for agents often lagged/had issues with being logged in/out.  Notifications were sporadic and it wasn’t as “pretty” as Olark, which I had used before.

Making a choice
Intercom was the front runner for us.  The only thing that it was really missing was a knowledgebase and reporting.

What we got with Intercom:

• In-app chat – With an option to add web when we needed it
• In app alerts & notifications – To make product feedback easier
• Email Ticketing System
• Event Tracking
• Ability to do drip campaigns
• Salesforce integration

What we missed with Intercom:

• Knowledge Base
• Reporting
• Phone system integration

Implementation
Now that we had chosen Intercom, we had to remove Zendesk and add Intercom to our app.

There were some struggles with this part of the project.  While the features of intercom are great, it does require engineering resources to get started.

Our engineers reviewed intercom’s docs before we agreed to move forward with the system.  However, when they got down to really having to integrate they hit a few snags.

• While there is event tracking and metadata you can’t use that info in emails. So while we could send emails based on events, we couldn’t put any user specific data in the emails.   They did tell us they are working on updating this.
• Adding the code was a pain. They had to remove our other systems and it wasn’t quite as easy as the engineers had hoped.  I don’t think that’s too unusual though.
• There really isn’t much reporting.  That’s something they’re working on too.

Using Intercom!
The interface was easy and intuitive.  Having only used Zendesk before it wasn’ t too hard to make the switch.  I enjoyed using the app on my phone to respond to chats and tickets.

 

I’m currently at a different company and back to using Zendesk.  It’s a great reminder of how there is no one size fits all solution for creating a great CS team.

 

 

 

 

Week 3 of the Support Driven Challenge is supposed to be about our thinking space.

After thinking about where my thinking space was I realized I don’t have a thinking space.  My brain kinda just goes…

With that being said, it’s not unusual to find me zoned out or seemingly daydreaming at any point in the day. What I really struggle with is not thinking.

I tend to overanalyze and contemplate things way too much.  What really helps me is turning off.  It’s kind of like when you reset a computer and what ever wasn’t working magically starts working.

My non-thinking place is… spin class.

I usually go 2-3 times a week.  It’s 45 min where instead of thinking about life, I forget and just enjoy the class.  My favorite instructors have the best music and it’s a time to just have fun, pay attention to the beat, and focus on challenging myself physically.

Whenever I start thinking about life (as opposed to focusing on the ride) I tend to lose the beat and get annoyed.  It’s like a literal jolt to remember class is for spinning and none of the stuff going on in the world outside.

Sometimes, the best approach to solving problems is taking a step back and that’s exactly what spin lets me do.

 

 

When I was little and when people asked what I wanted to be, the answer was President (or rather Prisident, I was a horrible speller).  As I got older, I shifted towards wanting to do something related to science.  I wasn’t particularly gifted in science, but I thought it was more interesting than the other subjects.  My senior year of high school I took AP Environmental Science and was hooked.  It was such a tangible science.  I was learning about things I interacted with daily and I loved it.

I ended up switching my major and diving into Environmental Science (I got accepted as a biological sciences major).  It turned out there were 2 paths in Environmental Sciences…Social or Sciences.  My advisor suggested I take Sciences because it’s what everyone does.  So that’s what  I did.

While I enjoyed what I was learning, I never really connected.  My classes were interesting, but I struggled sometimes.  I worked in an entomology lab, did a great job of taking care of my colony, but ended up getting fired (because of transportation issues, but I wasn’t too disappointed).

I realized that the path I was on, just wasn’t for me.  My classes and job were more about science and less about the interactions, the thing that really excited me about Environmental Science.

Unfortunately, this realization came when I was a little over 3/4 of the way through college. I went to my advisor and her suggestion was to just stick it out.  So I did and I got my BS in Environmental Sciences.

During that stick it out period, I needed a job.  My ex-boyfriend’s mom had opened a clothing boutique and I began helping out.  Helping out turned into part-time work.  Part-time work turned into full-time work.  Full-time work turned into the opportunity to own a store.

The boutique was in a small town and without a great reputation we wouldn’t survive.  We treated every interaction as the opportunity to create a genuine and memorable experience.  My job was to interact with people, all the while being friendly and helpful.  I truly enjoyed it.

It turned out working in retail was so much more fulfilling than getting a college degree.

After helping run the store for a few years, I wanted to move to LA and open a store near UCLA.  The plan was for me to co-own and run the store while my ex-boyfriend’s mom would finance it.

We looked at a few locations, but after running the numbers my plans for opening a store in LA were over.  Rent was way more expensive and the financial gamble was too much.

That left me with a tough decision to make.

Open a store somewhere besides LA or leave the store completely.

I decided to leave the store completely.  I wanted to grow in my career and while owning a small business is a great goal, there wasn’t much difference between what I was already doing and what I’d be doing as an owner.

I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do.  I knew that it wasn’t environmental science and that I loved interacting with people.

I started searching for a customer service or admin job.

I got hired as a Payroll Specialist at Paychex.

I learned a lot, but it was a little too corporate for me.  The conversations I had were transactional and I didn’t really get to connect with the customers that I was helping.

Since I wasn’t entirely happy in my job and I was still living at home, not in LA where I wanted to be, I decided to apply to 1 job in LA.  If I got it I’d move.

Surprise, surprise…I got it.

I was officially a Customer Service Rep. (and eventually a Customer Success Rep)

I was constantly interacting with people. I was helping customers solve their problems.  I was interacting with my team, collaborating, learning, and teaching.

I found a job that satisfied my need for meaningful interactions and has plenty of career growth.  I’m happy and can’t imagine doing anything else.