Dear customer support specialist who cares about doing meaningful work,
If your dream is to help people have a positive experience with a solution that truly makes a difference and to do it with a small team that values freedom, sustainability, and ownership, I've got good news for you... we're hiring a Customer Support Specialist at Know Your Team.
If your dream is to help people have a positive experience with a solution that truly makes a difference and to do it with a small team that values freedom, sustainability, and ownership, I've got good news for you... we're hiring a Customer Support Specialist at Know Your Team.
First, a quick introduction.
My name is Claire Lew, and I'm the CEO of Know Your Team. Our company, Know Your Team, is software that gives you the tools, training, and resources to become a better manager. Thousands of managers at companies like Airbnb, Netflix, Pixar, and Shopify use our software and attend our trainings every single week.
We were born from Basecamp back in 2014, and have been profitable since Month 1. We've been a 100% remote company for the entire time, and purposefully stayed small in headcount, and avoided traditional VC funding to enable us to stay focused on serving our customers to the highest quality. You can read more about our journey so far here. (We're a bit of weird company, admittedly!)
Above all else, what motivates us at KYT is making progress toward our vision: A world where bad bosses are the exception, not the norm. Imagine a world where leadership doesn't have such a high learning curve. A world where anyone, anywhere, can become a better leader – with a little help from us :-)
We believe if you help managers become better, everything gets better. An organization with better leadership achieves better outcomes and takes better care of its people. Helping people become better leaders might just be one of the most high-leverage ways to help the world.
For our own company, our vision is for KYT to be an independent, remote, profitable company that's small in headcount but impacting tens of thousands (if not hundreds or even millions!) of managers, for 10 years and beyond. We want KYT to be a place where people come to do the best work of their lives – and continue to do the best work of their lives. Sustainability, and lasting in the long-term is a key part of success, for us.
We were born from Basecamp back in 2014, and have been profitable since Month 1. We've been a 100% remote company for the entire time, and purposefully stayed small in headcount, and avoided traditional VC funding to enable us to stay focused on serving our customers to the highest quality. You can read more about our journey so far here. (We're a bit of weird company, admittedly!)
Above all else, what motivates us at KYT is making progress toward our vision: A world where bad bosses are the exception, not the norm. Imagine a world where leadership doesn't have such a high learning curve. A world where anyone, anywhere, can become a better leader – with a little help from us :-)
We believe if you help managers become better, everything gets better. An organization with better leadership achieves better outcomes and takes better care of its people. Helping people become better leaders might just be one of the most high-leverage ways to help the world.
For our own company, our vision is for KYT to be an independent, remote, profitable company that's small in headcount but impacting tens of thousands (if not hundreds or even millions!) of managers, for 10 years and beyond. We want KYT to be a place where people come to do the best work of their lives – and continue to do the best work of their lives. Sustainability, and lasting in the long-term is a key part of success, for us.
So what's the job?
You'll be responsible for managing and replying to all incoming customer support inquiries during KYT business hours, Monday through Friday, 8AM - 5PM PT across all our channels (Help Scout, Intercom, social media) in an empathetic, friendly way. Right now, it's the amazing Jenna Chaplin who is running Customer Support – but her exceptional talents fit better with Customer Success, and so you'll have to opportunity to replace her, which we'll be genuinely grateful for.
You'll take on technical support requests, triage tasks to our Engineering Team, dive-in to troubleshoot and do QA with the customer, and even directly debug issues in the console. You'll acquire deep product knowledge about KYT and problem-solve when customers run into technical issues or confusion about using a certain part of our product.
You'll identify the customers who need our help – the ones who are stuck or don't know how to get started – and proactively reach out to them to lend a hand. You'll share best practices, offer helpful tips, and give them encouragement on their path to becoming a better manager.
You'll be the eyes, ears, and heart of the customer – sharing insights and desires gleaned from customer interactions with the rest of the KYT so our product and offerings can be better for our managers.
You'll own, write, update, and improve all our customer support documentation, including our Help Docs and internal documentation around customer support.
Over time, as you grow more comfortable with the role and the product, you'll run demo tours for prospective and current customers, improve our onboarding flow to enable greater customer success, and strategize + execute cross-functional projects that help improve the overall KYT customer experience.
High-level, here's how you can expect to spend your time in a given week:
You'll take on technical support requests, triage tasks to our Engineering Team, dive-in to troubleshoot and do QA with the customer, and even directly debug issues in the console. You'll acquire deep product knowledge about KYT and problem-solve when customers run into technical issues or confusion about using a certain part of our product.
You'll identify the customers who need our help – the ones who are stuck or don't know how to get started – and proactively reach out to them to lend a hand. You'll share best practices, offer helpful tips, and give them encouragement on their path to becoming a better manager.
You'll be the eyes, ears, and heart of the customer – sharing insights and desires gleaned from customer interactions with the rest of the KYT so our product and offerings can be better for our managers.
You'll own, write, update, and improve all our customer support documentation, including our Help Docs and internal documentation around customer support.
Over time, as you grow more comfortable with the role and the product, you'll run demo tours for prospective and current customers, improve our onboarding flow to enable greater customer success, and strategize + execute cross-functional projects that help improve the overall KYT customer experience.
High-level, here's how you can expect to spend your time in a given week:
- 60% - Responding to support inquiries, Monday through Friday, 8AM - 5PM PT.
- 20% - Working with our Product team to do Q/A and monitoring our errors system, raising important issues to our engineers and proactively notifying customers affected.
- 10% - Improving our support documentation + brainstorming/executing ways to improve our overall KYT customer experience.
- 10% - Working on cross-functional projects that align with your skills/interests that support our team, move KYT forward, and improve the overall KYT customer experience.
The full-time salary for this role is $70,000 USD, with health benefits, and unlimited vacation. We try to do everything in our power to give you the trust, space and stability to do your best work.
This is a full-time role. Eventually, we'll hire another full-time Customer Support Specialist for you to work alongside. As the company grows, we'd continue to build a team around you. And if things worked out well, you could potentially grow into a Head of Customer Support role.
Together, we’d grow Know Your Team to be a solution that improves the lives of hundreds of thousands (if not millions!) of managers every day.
This is a full-time role. Eventually, we'll hire another full-time Customer Support Specialist for you to work alongside. As the company grows, we'd continue to build a team around you. And if things worked out well, you could potentially grow into a Head of Customer Support role.
Together, we’d grow Know Your Team to be a solution that improves the lives of hundreds of thousands (if not millions!) of managers every day.
Who I am looking for exactly?
I'm looking for an impeccable, clear writer. Fluent in writing and speaking English is a must. You distill complex concepts into simple phrasing, and get-to-the-point quickly and thoughtfully. You communicate warmth and friendliness in your words. It doesn’t matter what you’ve studied (or if you graduated from school at all): You've honed your craft of writing over the years, in your own way. You believe the best writing is not what you intend to say, but in fact, how it comes across to the other person.
You're a problem-solver at heart, who excels in tackling detailed + technical challenges. To you, there's no greater thrill than helping someone else make progress toward an outcome they care about. You consider yourself tech-savvy and innately inquisitive. You relish learning new technologies and new skills, and typically you're always tinkering with something. You even might know some basic HTML/CSS (or even basic Ruby) or have used console tools in the past to help run pre-written scripts – but totally fine if not, too! Either way, it's highly probable that you're "that one friend" all your friends go to when they can't get their computer to reboot properly or need a recommendation on "an app for X". You are curious and persistent to find a solution and creative in how you approach a problem.
You're empathetic (perhaps to a fault, at times!). Your day is made when you can make another person smile – be the Amazon delivery guy at your doorstep or your kid's school teacher via Zoom. Even when the world feels like it's falling apart (oof, does it feel like that more than ever!), you maintain a cheery orientation and choose to see the good in people. In previous work environments, co-workers likely have marveled and how upbeat and calm you remain when others around you feel downtrodden and overwhelmed.
Most importantly, you believe in the vision of Know Your Team. You’ve personally felt the pain of having a bad manager (or two) before. Or you’ve personally struggled to find an effective learning path to become a better leader, yourself. Either way, you’re passionate about what Know Your Team stands for, and how we can help as many managers become better leaders.
You're a problem-solver at heart, who excels in tackling detailed + technical challenges. To you, there's no greater thrill than helping someone else make progress toward an outcome they care about. You consider yourself tech-savvy and innately inquisitive. You relish learning new technologies and new skills, and typically you're always tinkering with something. You even might know some basic HTML/CSS (or even basic Ruby) or have used console tools in the past to help run pre-written scripts – but totally fine if not, too! Either way, it's highly probable that you're "that one friend" all your friends go to when they can't get their computer to reboot properly or need a recommendation on "an app for X". You are curious and persistent to find a solution and creative in how you approach a problem.
You're empathetic (perhaps to a fault, at times!). Your day is made when you can make another person smile – be the Amazon delivery guy at your doorstep or your kid's school teacher via Zoom. Even when the world feels like it's falling apart (oof, does it feel like that more than ever!), you maintain a cheery orientation and choose to see the good in people. In previous work environments, co-workers likely have marveled and how upbeat and calm you remain when others around you feel downtrodden and overwhelmed.
Most importantly, you believe in the vision of Know Your Team. You’ve personally felt the pain of having a bad manager (or two) before. Or you’ve personally struggled to find an effective learning path to become a better leader, yourself. Either way, you’re passionate about what Know Your Team stands for, and how we can help as many managers become better leaders.
I’d love to hear from you. Here's how you can apply:
If you’re interested in working together, apply here by 11:59PM PT Thursday, March 24th, 2022 with the following information...
- Please introduce yourself to us as a potential fellow KYT team member. What's your story? :-) Writing is one of the top skills we prioritize as a company. Feel free to take your time, as we won't begin reviewing applications until after applications have closed on Thursday, March 24th. Do take license to be creative, and include answers to these questions...
- Why KYT? Why not work somewhere else?
- Why customer support? What is it that you love about this industry?
- What's a memorable customer support interaction you had recently that stood out to you as positive? What made it so?
- Could you describe a time when you had to teach yourself a new skill in order to accomplish a job or project?
- What's your favorite spot (e.g., park, coffee shop, etc.) to visit nearby? How do you get there from where you live?
- Then, please answer the following questions, as if you were already a KYT Customer Support Specialist. To help you answer these questions, we've made available a private link for you to sign-up for a demo account of our product here to help give you context. Please note: This is NOT a public-facing domain for potential customers, but is being shared purely to help you in this application process. Here are the questions we'd love for you to answer as if you were already a KYT Customer Support Specialist...
- "I don't see how to sign up for the free trial account. How do I do that?"
- "How does your Heartbeat Tool work?"
- "Do you integrate with Basecamp?"
- "How does your pricing work?"
- "Help! Our company changed their domain for all their email addresses and I can't log into Know Your Team anymore... What should I do?"
- "I used your Slack integration but I don't see all my channels, please assist."
Please apply here by 11:59PM PT, Thursday, March 24th, 2022. We'll confirm that we've received your application within 48 hours. At the conclusion of the review process, we'll respond to every application about the result and next steps. We appreciate your patience as we review each application carefully.
This is a unique opportunity to influence a company's customer support from the first floor and up, and to help solve a significant problem. If you’re the right person for it, I’d be honored if we got to tackle it together.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
-Claire Lew
CEO of Know Your Team
Looking forward to hearing from you,
-Claire Lew
CEO of Know Your Team