Building
a Career
in Customer
Support

It used to be that when people thought “customer support” they thought of a cramped room with a bunch of unhappy people sitting at call banks speaking to other unhappy people. It used to be, that that is what customer support was — back then it was called customer service, but it was effectively just servicing the customer (ie. providing what they needed and nothing more) versus supporting the customer or providing them with success (ie. helping the customer succeed in the things that they are looking to do with your product.).

Customer support is a whole-package kind of deal: customers are able to email, chat, video, even sometimes meet in person with support people to help them with their needs. As customer-centrism becomes more and more important and brands are required to align their values with their customers’ in order to gain brand loyalty, customer support has gone from being a background player to center stage. As the industry has grown, so has the number of jobs, as well as the caliber of expertise that they require (and growth that they afford). A career in support is no longer something that people dying to be relegated to a basement need to take — it’s vibrant, booming and, maybe surprisingly, a whole lot of fun. Here’s our guide to building a career in support.