Interviews

Interview with Monetha’s Customer Support Specialist | Aivaras

Tell us a bit more about your professional background? How did you get into customer support?

My career in customer support started in-between studies. I had just received my degree and needed to support myself. I was also planning on enrolling to a graduate school, so the job had to be outside study hours.

I had done some translating before, but I wanted to try something different. I got lucky and found a place at a Danish startup, as a customer support agent. At the time, it was perfect. I spent there more than a year and a half; then the studies finished and I decided to start looking for new challenges.

What do you love about your profession?

I think it has grown on me. Initially I wasn’t sure if I’d be the right person for the job, but with time I found myself comfortable with it and enjoying what I was doing.

For me, customer support is a constant strive for perfection. Users want the product to fit their needs as perfectly as possible, and express their wish in a variety of ways: by asking for information, suggesting features, bringing up issues they have encountered, and so on. On the other hand, companies aim to address these gaps to the best of their abilities.

It’s an on-going process, a constant negotiation between the user and the company. Paradoxically, the end goal of customer support is to remove the need for customer support altogether. However, I don’t think that it’s very realistic. And if so, then the next best thing is making people’s experiences as pleasant and uninterrupted as possible.

What is your philosophy behind customer support?

I believe that good customer support should embrace three values: competence, patience, and empathy.

A customer support agent should ideally know how to act in all given scenarios, or at least where to refer for help. Admitting to now knowing something is not necessarily a bad thing, but it shouldn’t be relied on as a go-to response.

No less important is being able to relay that knowledge to others. What seems self-explanatory to you might not be so to different people, and thus you have to be patient in sharing it. This aspect of customer support somewhat resembles teaching. However, while teachers have months or even years to work with their students, your interaction will likely only last minutes and end without even knowing the person’s name.

Finally, it’s no secret that supporting customers can be repetitive. After hundreds of similar requests it becomes hard not to see the user as a problem to be solved or a ticket completed. That’s when you have to remember that behind every request lies a real person, and that in a different scenario that person might be you. It really puts things into perspective.

What brought you to Monetha? What do you like about the product?

I was approached by Monika on LinkedIn. It was really good timing, as I was finishing up with my thesis and thinking about what to do next. I hadn’t heard about Monetha before, but having been introduced to the product I found it fascinating.

What I like about the product is how the guys managed to fit complex technologies into such a simple package so that anybody would be able to use it for their benefit. Then there’s the idea. I’ve been searching for a laptop for a while now, and whenever I see a great deal, I can’t help thinking that there’s more to it than meets the eye, and not necessarily in a good way. Call it a lack of trust. I do. And that’s exactly what Monetha has set out to address.

Any funny/interesting stories that you can share from your time in Monetha?

The office has a beautiful terrace. When I came for the job interview, that’s where Justas and Justina took me to talk. It was a beautiful sunny day, but I had seen the weather forecast and brought an umbrella. Apparently, Justas hadn’t, because he found the item very unusual. Half an hour later, as we were still sitting there, it started raining. Talk about a first impression!