The Miracle of Mentorship: How Hevo’s Values Built our Customer Support
Hevo was the first startup I’d ever been a part of. Before that, I’d worked in multiple large companies across various roles. My interview was a direct conversation with one of our founders, Sourabh Agarwal, and he was quite candid with me about how Hevo wanted to enter the market, what space we would occupy, and how we wished to proceed. Before I joined, Support was non-existent; I was the first member of this team. Was I intimidated? Yes, but I was equally excited to help build this team from scratch. Sourabh saw a spark in me and asked me to join this budding team!
In the beginning, I went through an intense mentorship period. I got a chance to intimately learn the ins and outs of our Product straight from Sourabh, our founder, and from the other founding engineers. The idea was to gain as much Product Knowledge as possible and leverage it to help customers in the best way possible. Now that I look back, this truly gave me the context to build our Customer Support team into the dynamic department it is today. Here are a few aspects of the team that I am incredibly proud of.
Informal and formal interactions
As many formal meetings and discussions as I have had with various teams, I’ve also had an equal number of informal conversations that gave me as much insight and knowledge. I will never forget the day when I was preparing for my Weekly Planning meeting with Sourabh. I was ready with my laptop and notebook in hand — only to be told to leave them at my desk. In complete contrast to the typical glass cubicles, we discussed work over coffee at a nearby coffee joint. This environment was entirely new to me yet quite heartening. I was able to feel comfortable and open with my founder and truly feel like I was a part of the team and a family that was working towards a common goal. This is exactly the kind of environment that I always try to bring in within all my meetings with the team.
Besides this, I also had regular casual interactions with my colleagues where I truly learned a lot about managing and approaching my life, how best to contribute to my goals, and a lot more. It truly made me feel like I was learning something beyond the usual processes I’d picked up in any job I had been in before this. The team dynamic where we all wanted to work together to achieve our goals and dreamt beyond the office walls became more of an ever-present environment of support.
Collaborative approach
As the first Support team member among a large group of developers working incessantly on our product, I had a lot to learn. I had been asked to join the Scrum meetings that the developers held regularly. As they discussed technical terms and roadblocks, I would often somewhat feel awkward at first. My inputs always sounded rudimentary and straightforward, usually accounts of customer interactions I’d had. However, I soon realized that the rest of the team was quite keen to know what I had to contribute; we often got caught up in discussions regarding the interaction I’d relayed.
This was when I realized that the team was carefully penning down my inputs to gain a holistic understanding of the Customer Needs & Perspectives to incorporate them into our Product. In turn, to contribute better, I also tried to tune my inputs to make them as helpful and reflective of the Customer Experience as possible. I feel that this environment, where different departments who often spoke different languages mingled very easily, paved the way for us to build the best Product possible and, meanwhile, truly understand how we all were contributing.
Not just across teams or departments, the learning nature of folks at Hevo extends beyond the horizontals of the organization. People always try and learn something good from one another. Even during my learning phase, my mentor and manager would often encourage me to share feedback. They wanted to understand my perspective and takeaways from what I had been observing at Hevo, to see things from a new lens, and we were always accountable for each other. Everybody here is always open and willing to receive feedback. This self-confidence and openness to learning is a truly commendable aspect about Hevo that I’ve observed since the beginning.
Immense growth opportunities
Within the Customer Support team, there are two paths that one can take to grow within the organization. One would be to develop within the same team and become the Manager within it. We also have another pathway that we have carefully designed for our Support Engineers, which is to become a Solution Architect eventually. In this role, one would indeed gain an in-depth, holistic insight into our Product, and become the one who would explain the entire Product to our new customers while being a bridge to our Product and Development teams for any ad-hoc requests from them.
No matter which pathway a Support Engineer decides to take, there is a constant growth process happening at Hevo, starting from the day they join the organization and are assigned a ‘buddy’ who would be their mentor for the next few months. This is because he or she would be the one interacting with customers directly and addressing their queries & issues — hence, developing an ever-evolving birds-eye view of the product is of the utmost importance. To ensure this we have regular training programs for our engineers that enable them to upskill themselves, both in their problem-solving skills and technical knowledge. Having this knowledge places the Support team in a unique position of knowing all the perspectives of the Customers using our Product. This is why Support is involved in all of the new features, functionalities, and other such developments in the Product.
Patience and support
One thing that truly blew me over, in the beginning, was the patience exhibited by everybody on the team. The amount of learning that I had to do within a few months was high, and my questions ranged from the mundane to the complex. Yet, every single query of mine was dealt with the same attitude and patience. As a result, I was always comfortable and willing to ask any questions that came to mind.
Yet, this patience turned into staunch support for each other when required. One day, while dealing with a client who seemed to be having a bad day, my manager stepped in and refused to let me endure more than I had to. This was a new experience for me — never had someone cared about my troublesome Customer Interactions enough to stand up for me, perhaps at the risk of the Customer himself. This was a very humbling experience for me.
These experiences encouraged me to bring in the same attitude within my team as well. We always treat each other with support and dignity, no matter the situation or designation. We are well aware that we all can grow only by supporting each other, and we follow this mantra every day.
Now, the Support team has grown exponentially since I have joined Hevo, and this place has slowly become home. Yet, even after all these months of hustle, growth, and development, I still keep my initial days of learning and mentorship in mind. I constantly reflect and try to incorporate them in my daily dealings to achieve greater success in my work. These values always greatly encourage and include people in the team, bringing them entirely into the fold and ensuring they have the best foundation for their time at Hevo.
Building a great product takes hard work and determination. With each of us at Hevo sharing the same passion, everyone in the team takes the effort to go the extra mile. If you’d like to be a part of our journey and work on some of these unique challenges, please do check Hevo’s careers page.”
