People are the backbone of everything we do at Mitto. Our employees, and their tireless dedication to our customers are what make our company function and what help build a community and brand that we are all so lucky to represent. Periodically, on the Mitto blog we like to spotlight an employee and drill down to what their role entails and how they support our team. Today, we sit down with Technical Customer Support Supervisor, Kulumus Wang. As a Technical CS Supervisor, Kulumus interfaces directly with our customers and helps them solve problems in real time. So let’s pull back the curtain and take a look at Kulumus’ day-to-day responsibilities, his overall areas of focus and what drives his passion for helping Mitto’s customers.
Please describe the role of a technical customer support manager at Mitto
Basically, there 5 key responsibilities:
- Ensure the highest rate of customer satisfaction, advocacy, and retention through usage of metrics and effective day-to-day leadership and operational practices.
- Focus on improvement and efficiency of current customer interaction practices and internal workflows.
- Provide insight and assistance to business teams regarding client needs, feature requests, and general inquiries.
- Take on more complicated client inquiries and provide fast and data driven replies.
- Participate in bug reporting and creation of new product features.
What do you feel are the most important skills individuals must have to be on your team – in the customer support roles? What do you look for when choosing team members?
Soft skills like being detail-oriented and having empathy are more important than hard skills. Knowledge can be acquired but soft skills are often more challenging to develop. I would say the following traits are valued:
- Proactiveness
- Responsiveness
- Analytical thinking
- Customer-oriented
- Team player
- Reliability and flexibility
- Results-oriented
- Continuous learning
Mitto has customers all over the world – how is our team set up to be able to support customers in every region?
At Mitto, we take great pride in our global reach and our commitment to providing exceptional support to customers worldwide. To ensure we can support customers in every region, our team is structured in that way that we have international presence. Our support team operates on a follow-the-sun model, ensuring 24/7 availability. We have teams working in different time zones to provide timely assistance, no matter where our customers are located.
We actively seek feedback from customers via CSAT (Customer Satisfaction score) in different regions and use this feedback to continuously improve our support services. We can proudly say that last quarter our CSAT was 93.8% and average in 2023 92%.
How are customer issues addressed by your team, in terms of process followed, etc.?
Our approach to any customer support problem or request revolves around several key principles:
- Issue Identification: We begin by pinpointing the problem.
- Immediate Response: Swiftly, we respond to address the issue.
- Investigation: Locate the problem, perform tests in order to replicate the issue.
- Temporary Workaround: If necessary, we find a temporary solution to minimize disruption.
- Cross-Departmental Alignment: We prioritize alignment with other departments, fostering effective communication and collaboration. This typically involves close coordination with teams like Business Operations (such as Routing and Procurement), our Data Center team, and Account Managers.
- Continuous Improvement: Post-resolution, we focus on learning from the experience. Our aim is to identify areas where we can do better or differently to prevent a recurrence.
Our objective is to provide the best possible assistance and deliver the quickest resolution, whether our client is an SMB or a large enterprise.
What advice would you offer to someone starting a career in technical customer support, especially within a technology-driven company like Mitto?
I would say self-management and engagement are essential qualities to success. Confidence is important, but humbleness makes us better. Collaboration is crucial. Do a fact check, even the best experts can make mistakes. The career is a marathon, over time, all small steps will add up to a giant leap forward.
As someone who has been with Mitto for a significant period, what do you believe sets Mitto apart from other companies in the industry?
Mitto has a sophisticated platform which has been mentioned many times, but its people are the foundations. Mitto is also one of the companies which commits to the highest moral standards. It is not uncommon that many companies in this industry have some special methods to get money, but it would never happen here.
In a more lighthearted context, if you could choose one word to describe your Mitto journey so far, what would it be, and why?
I would choose GRATEFUL.
When I joined Mitto, I got a warm welcome. When I posted my first question, someone called me immediately.
When I was unfamiliar with the Mitto messaging platform, no one hesitated to spend time teaching me.
When we are snowed-under, there are always people silently taking responsibility and making big impacts on our workload.
Mitto is a diverse and inclusive place that consists of supportive and encouraging colleagues. I could write a book to describe my Mitto journey, however, if I have to choose one word, it must be GRATEFUL.
