How we increased our support team 3 times without losing quality
The number of teams that Wrike uses for project management and collaboration has exceeded 10,000 in December. The company is growing, and a year ago we were faced with the need to multiply the support service (from 20 to 60 people in the future).
We needed to reorganize the process of selecting and training new employees in order, on the one hand, to expand the team quickly, and on the other, to maintain strict requirements for the quality of the team’s work. We want to tell what we have done for this.
Support service as the basis of business
The first thing we did almost immediately was to abandon the idea of ​​support as a kind of peripheral division in the company. The support service often becomes the first point of contact with the customer and influences how the user will perceive the product and brand in the future. Companies increasingly understand that it is important not only to answer questions, but also to explain to customers how and why they need to use the product, and even just to communicate on abstract topics. In fact, the support agent often acts as both a sales manager and a consultant for optimizing work processes in a client’s company.
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Most vividly, the new approach to support is described in the book by Delivering Happiness, the chief executive of Zappos, Zappos. Tony perceives work with clients not as a task of one department, but as a center around which his entire online store was originally built.
The client’s experience with the company, according to Tony, will be ideal if there are three factors that we have taken as the basis of our approach to support.
Profile of the ideal candidate
At first glance it may seem that the people working in the Wrike support team have a completely different background. We refused the experience in the support service as a necessary condition, since people with such experience often got used to the template answers, and retraining turned out to be more difficult than teaching from scratch.
At the interview came people with completely different education and experience. These were yesterday's graduates, and people 30-40 years old, who decided to change their careers. The requirement was fluency in a foreign language (Wrike supports customers in 6 languages) and interest in the IT industry as a whole.
At the same time, the personal qualities that we are looking for in the candidates were difficult to assess from the resume or the results of the usual test task. First of all, we were looking for people who are well able to communicate and resolve conflicts, patient, able to communicate the same information in accessible language. The second important aspect was learning and the ability to learn a lot of new knowledge. The ideal candidate must be quite resourceful in finding the right information, learn quickly, be able to independently apply general descriptions of functionality in specific situations, and explain the work of Wrike in simple and accessible language. Therefore, we have developed a multi-stage selection system.
Today, after the test is completed, the following steps are assumed:
This approach led to a serious drop out of candidates. Of the 50 people who sent us test tasks every month, we hired 3-4 employees to the team, that is, 6% of the total number of candidates. This, of course, added to the work of the HR-department, but it just allowed to guarantee the preservation of quality with rapid growth.
Probationary period = training
One of the problems that Wrike faced, accelerating the growth of the team, is the need to establish a system for training new employees. Previously, the novice was simply provided access to an external referral service (help section on the site) and a special internal knowledge base that is stored in the system itself, and then he himself understood the functionality of the service. However, when 3-4 new support agents began to go out to work every month, and the product became noticeably more complicated, it became clear that the previous approach was not very effective.
As a result, we realized that we need a single training program for support, sales and specialists in working with paid customers. It was developed by two employees based on their experience and that of colleagues. Since we have rather high requirements for learnability of specialists, the main goal of the program was not only to centralize the learning process, but also to quickly select those who suit us. Within 2 weeks, 25-30% of candidates leave the program. A three-month program, mandatory for all Wrike support professionals, launched in June 2015.
Wrike is a service for managing tasks and projects, and all training tasks for beginners are stored and executed in the system itself, which simplifies the learning process. They are broken down by weeks - from simple functions of the free version to complex corporate functionality. Each task is an action that needs to be performed on the system (for example, create an account, create task dependencies on a Gantt chart, etc.) with links to the reference section, videos, blog posts, and other supporting materials. At the end of the day, a new team member calls up with his supervisor to show his progress and discuss the difficulties encountered. This approach helps to quickly understand how a person is ready for independent work, and how quickly he can understand technical subtleties. Each major topic closes the final test.
Separate trainings are available for the most complex system functions, such as integration with Salesforce and API, as well as how to use the Zendesk and Support app (internal Wrike system, where account data is stored).
Starting from the sixth week, newcomers begin to respond to the first requests for support. Wrike support is available through three channels: email, chat, and phone. It is in this order that the new agents master them. In the first stages, all drafts are checked by shift managers, then the answers are checked after sending. With knowledge of the language at this stage, difficulties no longer arise, but it is estimated how simple and logical a person can explain the work of the service to people with different levels of technical literacy.
The final stage is an interview with the director of the support team, from which it becomes clear how well a person fits Wrike, and whether it can work with the rest of the team.
Further career
The work of the support service is perceived by many as a routine from copying replies of the same type to purely technical queries. In the case of Wrike, the focus is on unique responses and a more personalized approach to help the client adapt Wrike for specific workflows and, in some cases, to optimize these processes. Therefore, unlike other companies, we do not have a mandatory rate of requests per day. The time spent on one ticket can take from 10 minutes to an hour or more, in particularly difficult cases, and we only welcome the detailed study of each request. Agents' productivity is evaluated in relation to other team members, and not in absolute numbers.
In addition, for those who do well, there are several options for further advancement:
The Wrike support team operates from St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Kharkov, Kiev and Rio de Janeiro. It has recent students, former scientists and translators, engineers and people who have worked in construction. Many have experience of living in the USA, Australia and other countries. Because of the large number of offices, as well as the possibility of remote work, the team is rarely assembled entirely. Therefore, the need for team building in this case is not just a fad. We began to devote a lot of time to preparing and organizing team meetings, which are celebratory in nature. This is the January Kick Off in Mexico, and team meetings in St. Petersburg and Minsk.
The optimization of our HR processes continues. We are still looking for ways to improve the quality of work and the motivation of support staff. We hope that our experience will seem useful to you and we will be glad to receive feedback and suggestions. By the way, we are still looking for talented people who will help our clients get the most from Wrike. If you or your friends are interested, we always welcome a new resume at wrike.com/ru/company .
We needed to reorganize the process of selecting and training new employees in order, on the one hand, to expand the team quickly, and on the other, to maintain strict requirements for the quality of the team’s work. We want to tell what we have done for this.
Support service as the basis of business
The first thing we did almost immediately was to abandon the idea of ​​support as a kind of peripheral division in the company. The support service often becomes the first point of contact with the customer and influences how the user will perceive the product and brand in the future. Companies increasingly understand that it is important not only to answer questions, but also to explain to customers how and why they need to use the product, and even just to communicate on abstract topics. In fact, the support agent often acts as both a sales manager and a consultant for optimizing work processes in a client’s company.
')
Most vividly, the new approach to support is described in the book by Delivering Happiness, the chief executive of Zappos, Zappos. Tony perceives work with clients not as a task of one department, but as a center around which his entire online store was originally built.
The client’s experience with the company, according to Tony, will be ideal if there are three factors that we have taken as the basis of our approach to support.
- A unique, non-sample response that takes into account customer’s particularities.
- Emotional contact
- Proactive support agent who can tell the client things that he could not even mention, but which will certainly be interesting to him.
Profile of the ideal candidate
At first glance it may seem that the people working in the Wrike support team have a completely different background. We refused the experience in the support service as a necessary condition, since people with such experience often got used to the template answers, and retraining turned out to be more difficult than teaching from scratch.
At the interview came people with completely different education and experience. These were yesterday's graduates, and people 30-40 years old, who decided to change their careers. The requirement was fluency in a foreign language (Wrike supports customers in 6 languages) and interest in the IT industry as a whole.
At the same time, the personal qualities that we are looking for in the candidates were difficult to assess from the resume or the results of the usual test task. First of all, we were looking for people who are well able to communicate and resolve conflicts, patient, able to communicate the same information in accessible language. The second important aspect was learning and the ability to learn a lot of new knowledge. The ideal candidate must be quite resourceful in finding the right information, learn quickly, be able to independently apply general descriptions of functionality in specific situations, and explain the work of Wrike in simple and accessible language. Therefore, we have developed a multi-stage selection system.
Today, after the test is completed, the following steps are assumed:
- Telephone / Skype-interview with an employee of the HR-department
- Written Logic Tests
- Live chat with a “client” (the candidate is invited to sort out the work of one function and answer the client’s questions, which is represented by one of the support specialists)
- Interview with HR and support staff
- Interview with Nick Bryson, US support team leader.
This approach led to a serious drop out of candidates. Of the 50 people who sent us test tasks every month, we hired 3-4 employees to the team, that is, 6% of the total number of candidates. This, of course, added to the work of the HR-department, but it just allowed to guarantee the preservation of quality with rapid growth.
Probationary period = training
One of the problems that Wrike faced, accelerating the growth of the team, is the need to establish a system for training new employees. Previously, the novice was simply provided access to an external referral service (help section on the site) and a special internal knowledge base that is stored in the system itself, and then he himself understood the functionality of the service. However, when 3-4 new support agents began to go out to work every month, and the product became noticeably more complicated, it became clear that the previous approach was not very effective.
As a result, we realized that we need a single training program for support, sales and specialists in working with paid customers. It was developed by two employees based on their experience and that of colleagues. Since we have rather high requirements for learnability of specialists, the main goal of the program was not only to centralize the learning process, but also to quickly select those who suit us. Within 2 weeks, 25-30% of candidates leave the program. A three-month program, mandatory for all Wrike support professionals, launched in June 2015.
Wrike is a service for managing tasks and projects, and all training tasks for beginners are stored and executed in the system itself, which simplifies the learning process. They are broken down by weeks - from simple functions of the free version to complex corporate functionality. Each task is an action that needs to be performed on the system (for example, create an account, create task dependencies on a Gantt chart, etc.) with links to the reference section, videos, blog posts, and other supporting materials. At the end of the day, a new team member calls up with his supervisor to show his progress and discuss the difficulties encountered. This approach helps to quickly understand how a person is ready for independent work, and how quickly he can understand technical subtleties. Each major topic closes the final test.
Separate trainings are available for the most complex system functions, such as integration with Salesforce and API, as well as how to use the Zendesk and Support app (internal Wrike system, where account data is stored).
Starting from the sixth week, newcomers begin to respond to the first requests for support. Wrike support is available through three channels: email, chat, and phone. It is in this order that the new agents master them. In the first stages, all drafts are checked by shift managers, then the answers are checked after sending. With knowledge of the language at this stage, difficulties no longer arise, but it is estimated how simple and logical a person can explain the work of the service to people with different levels of technical literacy.
The final stage is an interview with the director of the support team, from which it becomes clear how well a person fits Wrike, and whether it can work with the rest of the team.
Further career
The work of the support service is perceived by many as a routine from copying replies of the same type to purely technical queries. In the case of Wrike, the focus is on unique responses and a more personalized approach to help the client adapt Wrike for specific workflows and, in some cases, to optimize these processes. Therefore, unlike other companies, we do not have a mandatory rate of requests per day. The time spent on one ticket can take from 10 minutes to an hour or more, in particularly difficult cases, and we only welcome the detailed study of each request. Agents' productivity is evaluated in relation to other team members, and not in absolute numbers.
In addition, for those who do well, there are several options for further advancement:
- Secondary support line (tier2): agents work with more complex technical inquiries involving developers, help with integrating Wrike with other products, and deal with complex business logic.
- Training manager tutorial for beginners.
- Shift Manager: Since Wrike is used in 120 countries, support works around the clock in three shifts, each with its own manager.
- Customer Success Manager: these specialists help new users in more detail to adapt the product to the needs of business, conduct webinars and trainings.
The Wrike support team operates from St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Kharkov, Kiev and Rio de Janeiro. It has recent students, former scientists and translators, engineers and people who have worked in construction. Many have experience of living in the USA, Australia and other countries. Because of the large number of offices, as well as the possibility of remote work, the team is rarely assembled entirely. Therefore, the need for team building in this case is not just a fad. We began to devote a lot of time to preparing and organizing team meetings, which are celebratory in nature. This is the January Kick Off in Mexico, and team meetings in St. Petersburg and Minsk.
The optimization of our HR processes continues. We are still looking for ways to improve the quality of work and the motivation of support staff. We hope that our experience will seem useful to you and we will be glad to receive feedback and suggestions. By the way, we are still looking for talented people who will help our clients get the most from Wrike. If you or your friends are interested, we always welcome a new resume at wrike.com/ru/company .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/298396/
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