Customer Support Roles

Customer support specialists work with a range of technology to help customers sort, technical glitches, orders, problems, queries and returns. They may work in IT, sales, retail or finance, to name a few sectors.  

Skills, behaviours and knowledge 

Let’s look at the transferable skills for these roles first and some examples of what these skills, behaviours and knowledge might look like. 

Building connection:

Knowledge of different ways to connect with and help customers, social media, webchat, email, video calls, WhatsApp etc.  

Product knowledge:

Knowledge of the products you’re working with, if it’s a technical product how to install, troubleshoot and fix issues. Or if it’s something less technical, then how to return, refund or exchange it.  

Time management:

Prioritisation of work and jobs that come in, what is most important and/or urgent. 

Communication: 

Great communication skills via all methods, able to use different question techniques in conversation, to get the right information and effectively solve the problem.

Customer service:

Able to put people at ease, make them feel comfortable and valued, especially important when there is an ongoing issue or one that is preventing someone from doing their job.

Patience:

People don’t always give you the right information, they might also misunderstand instructions you need to give them or become frustrated. They might also be angry or upset if they’ve lost an important piece of work on their laptop or can’t get hold of someone to raise a problem with a product.

Some digital customer support role ideas to consider and specific skills you might need:

IT Support  

• IT support specialists work with a range of technology to help staff across companies set up their tech as well as resolving any problems or answering queries. Often an IT department (internal) or business (outsourced and paid to carry out the work) is responsible for setting up the tech network for the whole company. This might include configuring and maintaining laptops, desktops, tablets, smartphones, and any other technology required for what the business does. 

• Remote working is more common these days and so you might have to be available via phone, email or video call to troubleshoot issues. If not on-site, you might also be required to access staff tech remotely for more complex or specialist problems. 

 Digital Customer Service (Online)  

• Sometimes called ‘webchat’ or ‘live chat’ – providing support to consumers through digital channels like chat, email, text (SMS), social media, messaging apps, and more. 

• Communication is important, you have to be clear about what you’re saying when you type or write it, there’s no tone within chats or emails and you need to make sure you’re understood in the right way.  

• You’ll need to work on your resilience (not taking things personally) and patience too, as sometimes customers might be annoyed or might be having difficulty in contacting someone (you might have seen this on social media for some companies).  

• You’ll mostly be helping customers with questions about products, finding specific products, issues with the website, account issues like password problems or discount codes not working.  

 Remote/Digital Sales Advisor  

• Sales advisors are trained to be subject-matter experts and understand the products they promote fully, just the same as an in-store sales person. 

• Handle sales and other enquiries via a range of virtual platforms, including email, online chat and phone. You might do the customer service side of things as well as the sales (see above for the customer service role). 

• Communication is important, you have to be clear about what you’re saying when you type or write it, there’s no tone within chats or emails and you need to make sure you’re understood in the right way.  

• Some items that are sold this way are phone contracts, for example, if you’ve ever upgraded your phone online then you may have chatted with someone in this way.  

Relevant qualifications or experience 

• Trainee programmes or apprenticeships, entry level positions from which you can grow, apprenticeships in customer service for example.  

• College level qualification – or similar. 

• Work experience within a business, where you can/have asked questions, shadowed others in the role. 

• Jobs in retail, or anything that works with customers, this is a great starting point to build on your customer service skills.  

Don’t worry if you don’t have specific experience, if you’re a natural problem solver, think of times when you’ve offered a solution to a problem, even if it doesn’t seem relevant, it could be useful to note for interviews.