3 Customer service career paths you should know about

Which industry do you work in? Whether it’s financial services, e-commerce, retail, software, real estate, manufacturing, or any other industry under the sun, they all have one thing in common—they all have customer service departments.

Because of this, customer service jobs are highly popular. This blog discusses the different customer service career paths you can explore, customer care 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, you should evaluate three paths: a technical path, a role in people management, or creating a new role that doesn’t exist yet!

1. Technical careers in customer service

This is where you troubleshoot technical issues with products or services. For example, if you work for a SaaS product, it might be good to have knowledge of whatever coding languages that product is built-in, like React, Angular, or Node.

Even if you don’t work for a software product, developing technical knowledge helps you build 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 understanding 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, tech support specialist, or solutions engineer. 

2. People management roles in customer service

Growth opportunities are aplenty for people who excel at soft skills like communication and relationship-building. The most common roles are customer service representative, call center agent, or product specialist.

The path to leadership is always long, but the best way to start is by excelling in your role as an individual contributor. From there, start to step outside your box and take initiatives that improve team productivity or assist your manager in doing their job better. 

This could involve improving the quality assurance process for your support team or strategizing a shift in the way you do documentation to improve contact ratio and customer satisfaction. The best way to earn a new position or promotion is to start doing the next level role 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, be sure that you remain focused on the most important thing: your team.

3. Build your own career path

The customer support landscape is changing quickly as people learn about their customers and more data becomes available. Opportunities are always opening up that look nothing like any role that’s ever been offered. For example, with the rise of AI, new roles like AI/chatbot trainers are coming to the fore.

Another example would be a social media-savvy service rep who notices the growing importance of online communities for brand engagement and customer support. This could lead to a “community manager,” providing an additional channel for customer interactions. The role could help with problem-solving within the community and building brand loyalty.

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:

1. Customer service agent/representative

2. Customer service specialist

3. Customer service lead 

4. Customer service manager

5. VP/Director/Head of customer support

Here’s a closer look at each of the roles.

Customer service agent  

A customer service agent or 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 problems. Customer service reps may also be referred to as L-1 agents since their questions 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

• About 2+ 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, and quality assurance. While people managers are the most popular roles, 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 

• Forecast demand for customer service and rely on external customer service providers during the holiday season and other peak demand seasons.

• 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 

This role represents the peak of career growth. 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 and 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 from customer support

#1 Customer onboarding 

Onboarding a customer is the first step in creating a long-lasting customer relationship, and it has to be done right. 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. 

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.

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 part of support gives you a 360-degree view of our customers’ needs. By helping customers when they encounter problems, you gain insights that can help you evaluate how impactful a new feature can be. This enables you to better judge the features that could be built.

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 better understand and use the product. 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 using your product or service to its maximum potential.

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, apply it to customer success, and nurture customers to use the product optimally. By helping customers realize the product’s potential beforehand, you can eliminate the hiccups arising from a lack of clarity.

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 you want out of your career. Speak to as many people as possible within your organization to understand the opportunities your company can offer. 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 the 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 your team grow positively.

#4 Give your 100%

Regardless of your career stage, 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 call center 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.