Over the years, we’ve shared stories about Scoro’s company culture, given tips on recruiting world-class talent, and explained how we use Scoro to manage daily work. Now, we’ve decided to raise the curtain again and talk a bit more about our life at Scoro.
We kicked this series off with our VP of Sales, who spoke about the life in our Sales Team. This time, we’ve asked our VP of Customer Success, Elvita Verbele, to overview what’s happening in the client-facing SOS department.
1. You have worked at Scoro for over 6 years. What has kept you here all this time?
Many of us agree there is something magical about Scoro that you can’t put into words. But the main reasons for me have been:
- Our Team. I think we have the most hard-working, supporting, and brightest team ever.
- Our Product. I’m the biggest fan of Scoro. We use it daily, and I just love seeing how we have grown and how much more our software can do. I love seeing how we help our customers to save time, remove friction and headaches.
- Personal Growth. Our company really is built to support the growth of our people. You don’t have to be a high-level manager to have a say in the company. Everyone is welcome to share their ideas, and you can often get the chance to work on them. Of course, we must understand that not all opinions are possible to execute right away. Still, if it’s not relevant or possible right now, it might be after some time.
- Our Customers. It’s great to see that our customers want to improve their teams’ work, make sure that their people are not burning out, and feel appreciated for their work. The constant praise from our customers confirms that we are doing something right and this motivates the team and me to deliver even better service and product.
2. What kind of different roles have you held in Scoro during this time?
I have had quite a few roles over time – 7 different position titles to be precise.
In January 2015, I joined Scoro as an Intern/Customer Support Specialist. When I joined, we didn’t have most of our current teams. So over the years, I have held different specialist and managerial roles to help shape and scale the Support, Onboarding, and Success teams.
Recently we decided to put all these teams under one umbrella, and I am currently holding the position of VP of Customer Success. My primary role is to ensure we have the right strategies to be successful. It involves recruiting and developing high-performing professionals and setting up the right processes and initiatives so that our team can support our customers in the best possible way. For me, it’s essential that every team member feels supported and guided in their work.
3. Today, you are leading a department called SOS. What exactly are people doing there?
In Scoro, SOS means Support, Onboarding, and Success. Everyone has the same main goal – make our customers and their businesses successful by using Scoro. We divided the customer journey into different stages to make things structured and more transparent. Each team joins at a different stage.
Customer Onboarding has the first contact with the customer after handover from sales. Their main goal is to help customers implement Scoro in their everyday work. Every new customer is a new project.
Some of the main daily activities include:
- mapping business processes
- consulting Scoro workflow processes
- assisting and coordinating integration setup
- supporting and advising change management
- training the customer side on using Scoro.
The job is fascinating as the onboarding project manager works with hundreds of different businesses, high-level leaders, and teams to build a great network.
As a Customer Onboarding Expert I can discover ways to organize, automate and manage their daily activities for improved efficiency and user productivity. – Mark Woods, Customer Onboarding Expert
The Customer Success Team’s job begins once the onboarding project is completed. Their central role is to know the customers’ business plans, support their objectives, and ensure that they continue getting value from Scoro.
Depending on the customer segment, the work differs. Nevertheless, it’s important that every customer feels supported in their journey. That’s why every Customer Success Manager has their own portfolio. Relationship building is an important ingredient for this role.
Customer Support assists our customers all the way through the customer lifecycle. Our Support Team works only during the working days, and we cover 14h of the day. We mainly provide the support over email but occasionally also have Zoom calls.
Customer Support Specialists, on average, work on 20 tickets during the day, which is not that much compared to other companies. Our goal is to focus on providing the best possible solution to the customer. When I attend calls with our customers, the Support team is consistently highlighted as the best tech support team they have worked with, so it must show that we do it right.
Because of the complexity of Scoro, you can't send a template answer to the client. Each email requires you to understand that client's unique workflow and find an answer that works for their business. – Gunnar Salum, Customer Support Coach
4. How big is the SOS team, and what are the challenges you feel we’re currently facing?
Currently, we have approximately 25 people in our team based in different locations – US, UK, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia. The team is constantly growing, so we hope to have many new members soon.
Of course, there are different challenges when we grow and some additional ones caused by the pandemic. Due to the Covid-19, almost all of our customers switched to remote working. Also, it increased the interest in our software and brought us a lot of additional work.
As a department leader, it is important for me that my people keep their work-life balance in place while working from home. Luckily, Scoro as a tool can help with that. Also, we have processes to monitor happiness and work performance to make sure that they do not overwork.
“There is a thin line between a healthy and unhealthy work-life balance. I try to be extra careful and keep an eye on the happiness of my team.”
5. How do you motivate your people and keep them going?
People are motivated when they know what, why and when is expected of them. Equally important is to notice and show appreciation for their good work.
Further, people are different and what works for one person might not work for others. That’s why it’s important to have honest and open communication with everyone.
“I often ask my team what motivates them individually.
Based on this I can ensure every person in my team is motivated.”
6. What are the development opportunities for a person joining the SOS department?
There are many opportunities for growth in Scoro. We have junior to senior-level people in every team. Most of our SOS department team leads have grown into those positions from joining as specialists.
Further, there are different options to move and join other teams. For example, many of our Support specialists have now moved into different roles in our Success, Onboarding and Product team. In some cases, we have created new roles to enable our talent to work on new initiatives.
That said, there’s nothing wrong if people truly enjoy their current roles and are not looking to switch positions.
If you genuinely like helping others and don’t like routine, then customer success manager is the best role for you. It allows you to polish your soft and hard skills daily, and take part in many other interesting projects. – Lauma Kaugare, Senior Customer Success Manager
7. What are the key competencies you’re looking for in a candidate?
For me, it’s important that the person is eager to learn, has interest and passion in what they do, and that our culture suits the candidate. I started as an intern myself, so I believe that anyone with passion, eagerness to learn and open-minded attitude can achieve anything. Of course, in some cases, the previous experience is essential.
8. Why do you feel Scoro is an attractive place for talented people?
Scoro has the environment for people to grow and excel in their work and career. We are a fast-growing company, and there are new opportunities every day. But I have to say that at Scoro, we like to get things done and not only talk about them. So if you are talented and can get things done, the sky is only the limit.
If you would like to join Scoro’s SOS team, check our Careers Page. We currently have openings for Customer Support Specialist, Customer Success Manager, and Customer Onboarding Manager in different locations.