Finding balance: life working in customer experience
How I chanced into a role as an accountant and ended up leading a customer experience team
One thing you’ll learn really quickly about me is I can talk for England. That, and my life is my family. This is my story of how I chanced into a role as an accountant and ended up leading a customer experience team. And how I’ve found the perfect work-life balance while doing it.
About 18 years ago, I fell into a career in accounting. I didn’t even really want to be an accountant. But I was doing accounts for a family firm and their accountant said: “Oh, you’re actually quite good at this. I’ve got a job — do you want to come and work for me?” So I did, and I stayed there for about seven years.
After having my son, I got a part-time job as a customer service representative at a gym. Working those hours to enable more family time was really important to me when he was little. As my son got older, I progressed from part time to full time, looking after memberships and the reception team.
But after about eight years it was time for something new. I wanted a role that combined my customer service skills, my leadership skills, and my accounting skills. To be honest, I didn’t think a job like that existed. But then I found Xero.
My tip for finding balance: Consider your strengths — and how a role could meet all of these. I’m a talker who loves customers, with a great understanding of accounting. Who knew there was a perfect role for someone like me? I bet there’s a role that meets most of your strengths too.
Xero was looking for people with an accounting background, so they had the knowledge to help customers with those types of questions. I could bring my accounting skills, help customers all day, and (because Xero was a growth company) have huge opportunities to develop and grow. I joined in October 2018. A year later, I’d been promoted to a senior role and 18 months after that I was seconded to a team leader position. Just this month I’ve been promoted again to a permanent team leader role.
In previous roles, I’ve never been able to get the work-life balance right. I’d be bringing things home, or being called in on my days off, or getting phone calls at all hours. But Xero’s not like that. I have a perfect balance between work and family.
My tip for finding balance: Be really clear on what’s important to you. When my son was young, I wanted more time at home — and so I chose part-time work.
Our Customer Experience (CX) team has a ‘follow the sun’ model, which means we have team members who start earlier and some who start later, so there’s always a crossover with our teams in other regions. I’m a ‘middle’. I start at 8.30am and finish at 5pm because that’s what works for me and my family. I can still do the school run, then get home to make dinner and have family time in the evening.
My tip for finding balance: Everybody is different, so define what balance means to you. For me — this is being home for dinner with my husband and my son, and being able to work a hybrid role with time in the office and at home. But maybe for you balance means time to walk the dog at lunchtime, or fewer hours on a Friday, or being able to set your own schedule.
My workday starts with checking in to see what’s happened since my last shift — have there been any product announcements? Any communication from the US, New Zealand or Australia teams overnight that I need to be aware of?
Next, I’ll jump straight onto the queue and start supporting customers. The customers who come through to our queues are those who have more complicated questions and need individual support. Like I said, I can talk for England, so I’m not afraid to pick up the phone. If someone’s struggling to understand what I’m saying, or their question is really in depth, then I will pick up the phone straight away. It just makes sense — it’s what’s in their best interest.
We’re doing two days at home and three days in the office — being able to do a bit of both really suits me. I pick one of my office days to be a day that will be really busy and I’ll try and have a bit of a walkaround and catch up with people. And I definitely make the most of the coffee machines while I’m there.
What the pandemic has shown me is that we haven’t lost that culture in the office. There’s such a nice atmosphere. You can hear people on the phone talking to customers, people are walking around, people look happy. They are genuinely pleased to be in the office and seeing each other. I get a buzz being in the office and being with my colleagues.
When I first started at Xero, I remember walking around the office and thinking, ‘Everyone is so nice. Where’s the catch?’ Everyone is so focused on taking care of people — they’re so happy, friendly and chatty. I thought it just couldn’t be real. But it is!
I think it’s because of our values. We truly live the values in the way that we treat each other. In Customer Experience, we want to make sure we’re driving that to our customers as well. Living the Xero value of #beautiful means doing the right thing for the customer at the right time, and never letting processes get in the way and giving our customers a #human experience.
I remember once I was speaking with a customer who’d had a really rubbish time in their personal life. They’d had family members who were really unwell and they’d been running around looking after everyone else. But they were so lovely to me on the phone and thankful for me helping them with their query. I thought — you know what, they deserve something to perk them up a little. So I sent them a package with some tea, biscuits and Xero swag with a little note that said ‘Here’s something just for you’.
It’s the little things that make such a difference, you know? Being able to show our customers that we understand, and that we’re listening, and that we truly care.
My tip for finding balance: Treat your career as a journey, not a destination. I never expected to spend so long in accounting, or to greatly increase my role at the gym, or to end up leading a team of CX specialists! But I’ve appreciated the differences of every stage and I encourage you to have this mindset too.
Want a career that fuels your passion and still allows for work-life balance? Apply for a role on our CX team now.
