Customer service has grown to become a critical function across industries including airlines, software companies, retail, and even real estate companies. Because of this, a career in customer service is growing in popularity, while companies and individual employers continue to struggle with scaling their support teams as their business grows.
In this blog, we discuss the different customer service career paths you can explore, customer service roles you should be aware of, and fields you can jump into after a stint in support.
What are the different customer service career paths?
When considering a career in support, there are three paths that an individual should look into and evaluate: a technical path, a role in people leadership, or making up your own new role that doesn’t exist yet!
1. Technical careers in customer service
Depending on the type of product that you are supporting, technical skills can go a long way in support. If you work for a SaaS product, for example, it might be good to have knowledge of whatever coding languages that product is built-in, like HTML or Javascript. Similarly, if you’re more intrigued by the data side of things, languages like SQL can be useful for diving deeper into analytics and information about customer behavior.
Even if you don’t work for a software product, developing technical knowledge helps you do things like build out tooling for your company, and maybe even contribute to building and designing a physical product in the future. For non-SaaS support employees, technical knowledge looks more like getting a deeper understanding of how the product runs and is built.
Typically, if you dive deeper into the technical side of things, this leads you to an elevated role within the support team, or potentially even a jump into the engineering or product teams. To stay within the support team, you can position yourself as a support engineer, a support operations specialist, or an internal developer who works specifically on building things that the support team needs to do their job better.
2. People leadership roles in customer service
Despite the fact that many people think that developing technical knowledge is the best way to build a career in support, there are tons of opportunities to grow for people who have excellent handles on soft skills like communication and relationship-building. The path to leadership is always a long one, but the best way to start is by excelling in your role as an individual contributor. From there, start to step outside of your box and do things that make the team better or assist your manager in doing their job better.
This could look like doing something to improve the quality assurance process for your support team, or even strategizing a shift in the way you do documentation to better improve contact ratio and customer satisfaction. The best way to earn a new position or promotion is to be already doing much of the job before you ask for it or it’s given to you. By showing that you care about bettering the team and your support processes, you also show that you are invested and want to do more.
Typically, growth to a people-leadership role in support looks like excellent work as an individual contributor in the queue, then a shift to a senior support position or team lead role. From there, you can transition to customer service manager and then move on to director or a c-level position within the team or company. As you grow, though, be sure that you remain focused on the most important thing: your team.
3. Build your own career path
The landscape of customer support is changing so quickly as people learn about their customers and more data becomes available. So there are always opportunities opening up that look nothing like any role that’s ever been offered. For example, with the rise of AI, positions for people to do things like manage robots are becoming available—something that just five years ago would have been unheard of.
Given that, the possibility to make your own role and pitch it within a company is becoming more and more viable. Denise Twum of SmugMug, for example, created and pitched her role before even working for the company. She saw an opportunity for a specific position in quality assurance and management at the company, reached out to them, and was ultimately offered the job. While this might seem pretty bold to some, it can be an excellent way to work for an amazing company while doing something that you really care about. It is certainly the most challenging way to grow your career and doesn’t have a straightforward path to move through until you make it, but can be the most potentially rewarding for many.
What does a conventional customer service career path look like?
A customer service path commonly starts as an agent and can go up to the head of customer support. Here are the different levels in a typical customer service career path:
- Customer service agent
- Customer service specialist
- Customer service lead
- Customer service manager
- VP/Director/Head of customer support
Here’s a closer look at each of the role.
Customer service agent
A customer service agent or a customer service representative is the first role that opens doors to the customer support space. In this role, agents are on the frontline of customer support and spend most of their time-solving customer questions. Customer service reps may also be referred to as L-1 agents since the questions they deal with can be graded as the first difficulty level.
This entry level-role requires you to speak to customers on a daily basis. Owing to frequent interactions with customers, agents learn the ropes of customer service in this role – customer support etiquette, processes, and different metrics in customer support. Agents are also introduced to a range of tools in this role.
Roles and responsibilities
- Answer questions about a product or feature
- Practice active listening
- Gather customer feedback
- Passing on technical requests to the concerned team
- Share product feedback
Qualification
- Good communication skills
- Ability to develop strong product knowledge
- Level headedness
- Listening skills
Customer service specialist
A customer service specialist, also known as a technical support specialist or L-2 agent, is an agent who handles complex issues that require collaborating closely with the technical team. In B2B businesses, a specialist could also be given large customer accounts for dedicated support.
Roles and responsibilities
- Coordinate with technical teams
- Assist agents with requests that are related to their specialization
- Pass on feedback to the right teams
- Understand specific customer needs and set up solutions
- Assist customers with setting up their product
Qualification
- Years of experience working as an agent
- Subject matter expertise
- Communication skills
- Collaboration skills
- Technical skills
Customer service lead
A customer service lead works on resolving complex complaints and also manages a team of agents or handles a project. A lead can step in to get new members up to speed, assist specialists with their tasks, open doors to better inter-team collaboration, or upgrade customer service software.
Roles and responsibilities
- Manage a team or manage a project end-to-end
- Assist agents with complex requests
- Create customer service reports
- Monitor performance and guide agents through achieving targets
- Identify roadblocks and communicate them to management
Qualification
- Years of experience working as a specialist
- People management skills
- Communication skills
- Collaboration skills
- Technical skills
Customer service manager
Customer service managers bridge customer needs and business goals through their in-depth knowledge of customer service. They clear roadblocks and offer solutions to problems that their teams are facing. A manager in customer service can also be responsible for managing operations, hiring and training, or quality assurance. While people managers are most popular, managerial roles in customer service also include:
- Customer support operations manager
- Customer service training manager
- Quality assurance manager
- Customer service people manager
Roles and responsibilities (for a people manager)
- Be responsible for targets and keep an eye on customer service KPIs
- Manage escalations whenever needed
- Manage planning and execute customer service strategies
- Have tooling-related knowledge
- Manage team schedules, resource planning, career planning, and hiring
- Motivate team members to perform at their best
Qualifications (for a people manager)
- Years of experience working as a lead
- Strong understanding of customer service space
- Experience setting up customer service processes
- Experience overseeing a project or a set of agents
VP/Director/Head of customer support
A head of customer support sets the vision for the entire support team and aligns it with the company’s goals. They are answerable to the leadership team, handle budgets for the team, and offer staffing and strategy-related advice.
Roles and responsibilities
- Set and implement policies and processes for good quality customer service experience
- Develop strategies to improve customer experience, retention. and loyalty
- Align customer service strategy with organizational goals
- Set performance metrics
- Draft roles and responsibilities for each role in customer service
Qualification
- Experience managing a team or being a head of support
- Stakeholder management
- Leadership skills
- Problem-solving skills
- Operations management
The common belief is that a career path in support is going from being a product specialist, to a technical account manager, and most likely ends at customer support manager. But that’s not necessarily the case. In fact, experience in customer support opens up opportunities in technical writing, customer success, marketing, and even product management. Let’s dive deeper into the fields that customer support professionals can switch to.
5 different career options to switch to from customer support
#1 Customer onboarding
Everybody knows how crucial it is to onboard a customer. A customer onboarding specialist sets up a project plan that is tailored to the customer’s needs and helps the customer implement a product successfully.
Being in a customer support position gives you in-depth product knowledge that will come in handy while mapping customer requirements to the product’s functionality and chalking out project plans.
Support is the base for everything. The in-depth product knowledge and experience I gained through communicating with customers across the globe really helps me even today. — Lloyd Sylvester, Onboarding Specialist at Freshworks
Roles and responsibilities
- Develop creative solutions to onboard customers
- Present features and capabilities to improve adoption
- Set up workflows and customizations based on the customer’s requirements
Qualifications
- Communication and presentation skills
- Strong documentation skills
- Very strong relationship skills
- Good problem solving and analytical skills
#2 Community engagement
Customer or user community forums are discussion boards that enable customers to interact and learn from one another. A community moderator represents the business and facilitates easy customer conversations on different topics.
The Forums are one channel where you actually get to know your customer’s pulse. Being a support person and solving the issues of multiple customers at once, feels great. — Aravind Sundararajan, Product Manager at Freshworks
As a customer service professional, you’ll have first hand-experience in cultivating customer relationships. With a good understanding of common customer issues, you can also structure the community to encourage fruitful interactions by proactively sharing solutions or hacks to these problems.
Roles and responsibilities
- Plan and implement strategies to improve customer engagement
- Draft messages, images, and video content
- Respond to customers in a timely manner
- Monitor, track, and report on feedback
Qualifications
- Customer engagement skills
- Time management skills
- Good writing skills
- Interpersonal skills
#3 Product management
Product management is a business function that plans, develops, and maintains a product or service. Product managers come up with ideas for features or launches and work with designers and developers to bring these ideas to life. So product managers need to have visibility to customer pain points.
Being a part of support gives you a 360-degree view of our customers’ needs. By helping customers when they encounter problems, you have insights that can help you evaluate how impactful a new feature can turn out to be. This enables you to be a better judge of the features that could be built.
A customer service role lets you understand your customers’ pain points and the gap in the product’s capabilities. — Raghuvaran Viswanathan, Product Manager at Freshworks
Roles and responsibilities
- Develop features that align with product vision and strategy
- Collaborate with design and development teams
- Understand customer requirements and come up with ways to solve them
- Plan product roadmap
Qualification
- Time management and organizational skills
- Strong presentation skills
- Ability to think creatively and solve problems
- Experience with problem-solving and customer support
#4 Technical writing
A technical writer creates product-specific content that helps customers understand and use the product better. To be a good technical writer, you need to be able to break down complex technical processes into simple language.
A customer support background helps you document frequently asked customer questions and help guides using language that customers commonly use.
You also develop an understanding of where customers get stuck while using the product. This way, you can easily curb the ambiguities right at where they stem from by creating helpful content.
Roles and responsibilities
- Document help guides and answers to FAQs
- Standardize the documentation process across the organization
- Collaborate with different teams to understand changes and keep articles up to date
Qualifications
- Ability to break down technical activities into easy-to-understand language
- Writing skills
- Collaboration skills
#5 Customer success
The role of a customer success professional is to ensure that customers are putting your product or service to maximum use.
Going from customer support to customer success could feel like a natural progression. You know the product so well that you can help customers understand its value and help them achieve their desired outcomes.
Plus, interacting with customers from across the world can help you understand their needs better. You can carry this experience and apply it to customer success and nurture customers to make optimal use of the product. By helping customers realize the product’s potential beforehand, you can eliminate the hiccups arising from a lack of clarity.
Watching a customer change from being a detractor to a promoter, you know you’ve increased the customer’s happiness and welfare. — Sethupathy R M, Customer Success Specialist at Freshworks
4 tips for advancing your career in customer service
Whether you’re aiming to progress to the next level in customer support, or switching careers, here are four tips that can help you.
#1 Be clear about what you want to do
Try to figure out what it is that you want out of your career. Speak to as many people as possible within your organization to get an understanding of the opportunities your company can open doors to. Connect with your network outside of your company to find out what their customer service career paths look like.
#2 Pick up projects that align with where you want to be
Once you’ve decided what you want your next step to look like, you need to work towards building a portfolio that can help you get there. Pick up or contribute to projects that will help you gain experience and expertise needed for your next role. For example, if you want to become a technical writer, then you can convert frequently asked questions into articles or volunteer to clean up your knowledge base.
#3 Maintain open lines of communication with your manager
Your manager could be the biggest champion of your upcoming career move. Schedule periodic 1-1s where you speak about your professional and personal growth and get career advice if needed. Ask them about what more you could pick or discuss ideas that will help help your team grow positively.
#4 Give your 100%
Regardless of which stage of your career you are in, you cannot progress further if you’re not giving your 100% in your current role. To be recognized, you need to first shine in your current role and then show that you’re ready to take on more. So, if you’re a support agent, then focus on delivering stellar support. If you’re a manager, make sure you build a fantastic team.
Your customer service career path is yours to build
While support originally started as a cost center where people sat in a phone bank all day, it’s becoming an industry full of adventure and interesting new things to learn. Because of that, careers in support are becoming more attractive to people that, before, would have turned up their noses.
The opportunities are truly endless, no matter what interests you.
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