Mar 31, 2022 | My Life, WordPress
2109 days, 5 countries, countless moments.
A lot has happened since I started working at Automattic. We lost our house in a fire, had a child, travelled, weathered a global pandemic.
When I joined, there were a ~240 Automattians, but it still felt like a small company. Fast forward to today and Automattic has grown to 2000 employees. All working where ever they want in the world, within a fully distributed company.
I learned so much during my six years years. Met so many amazing people. Travelled to places I would have otherwise never seen.
Today I signed out of work for the last time. I had five weeks to prepare for this and going into today, I was ready. But when I closed my laptop it hit me… and I was not ready.
The tears are a great reminder that six years ago I made the right decision joining Automattic. They’re a reminder of all the great experiences and people I met. Next week I start a new adventure, but for right now I think I’ll spend a bit more time reminiscing,
Cheers Automattic and until we meet again ❤️
Jun 21, 2021 | Customer Service
I’ve been working in the Customer Support / Custom Service realm now for well over a decade. During that time I’ve learned and worked on becoming more empathetic and understanding on customers. I’ve learned how to understand what customer’s truly want/need. As well as how to communicate in more universally understable ways.
So how did that all make me a worse customer?
Yes, I am definitely a far worse customer now than I was 15-20 years ago. The reason for that, is everything that I listed above. Listening, communicating, helping customers find solutions… All the things that I’ve worked at are all reasons why I make a crappy customer now.
I know how little effort it often takes to turn a bad situation into a positive one. I know what it looks like to make a decision based on profit, instead of outcome. I know that you can show a customer that you value them, even when you can’t provide them with the solution they want. I know that scripts are great for efficiency and terrible for creating a customer experience.
you can show a customer that you value them, even when you can’t provide them with the solution they want
So when I get a canned copy/paste reply to an interaction, it annoys me that they could have taken 10 seconds to alter that message to fit my inquiry better. When someone defaults to blaming “company policy”, without actually thinking about other solutions that are possible. Or when someone offers an appology or an “unfortunately” and then proceeds to inadvertently explain why they aren’t actually sorry…. It pisses me off.
Providing a basic level of quality customer service can be done in any industry, at any scale. It’s a pretty low bar and there isn’t an excuse to not meet that. If you aren’t, it’s either lack of effort or lack of caring.
So, yes! I am a worse customer now because I can’t stand seeing companies doing the absolutely bar minimum to provide a access to their customers. Note that I didn’t say provide “service” or “support” to their customers, as I don’t think anyone would describe talking to their phone company a “service” 😂
You must be logged in to post a comment.