I’ve been doing 98% of our customer/tech support for about 3 years now and it’s time to pass the torch to someone who’s better at it than I am ;)
We’re looking for someone (Chicago based or remote—it doesn’t matter) who can head up customer support.
All email
We get about 125-150 emails a day from customers across our entire range of products. About half of them are really quick answers (under a minute with a standard response or FAQ link), another quarter are a touch more involved, and the remaining quarter can take a 5-10+ minutes each depending on the issue.
We’d also like this person to browse the forums for our products and pop in and offer a hand when people are stuck.
Passion wanted
We’re looking for someone who is passionate about 37signals, passionate about simple solutions to common problems, and passionate about helping people get back on track quickly. Strong writing skills and the ability to get to the point quick are a big plus.
Think you’re the one?
If you think you’re the guy or gal, please drop me a line at jason at 37signals dot com. Do me a favor and include “Customer Support Position” in the subject so I can easily corral these into the proper folder.
I can’t promise I’ll respond to each one, but I will review them and get in touch if we think you may be the right person.
Thanks.
Douglas
on 20 Mar 07You should have an email from me. :)
Josh Walsh
on 20 Mar 07Mine sent as well. Good luck finding the right person.
Luis
on 20 Mar 07Me too!
sloan
on 20 Mar 07I thought you guys said you wanted to read all those emails yourselves so you stay in touch with your customer base?
JF
on 20 Mar 07Sloan, we’re looking for someone to help respond to them. We can still read them.
Alex Bosworth
on 20 Mar 07Bummer, I understand you needing to scale to get bigger, but it was really cool when you responded personally to my support email :/
Alejandro Moreno
on 20 Mar 07Hi, I’ve been Lurking.
I decided to do some loose math on this one:
Really quick answers: 75 emails X 1 min. = 75 min.
A touch more involved: 37.5 emails X 2 min. = 75 min.
The rest: 37.5 emails X ~8 min. = ~300 min.
450 minutes, 7.5 hours, just taking care of the emails.
Add the forums to that. Jason, it’s amazing you’ve programmed anything at all during this time!
And here I was hoping that I could be your support guy on top of my regular job… sniff!
Peter Cooper
on 20 Mar 07Sloan: It would still be ‘you guys’ since I’m guessing the new hire would be an official part of 37 Signals. Therefore, someone from 37 Signals would read all the e-mails regardless ;-)
Nicki
on 20 Mar 07Are you looking for FT or PT? Hours? Pay? Benefits?
Thanks! :)
John
on 20 Mar 07Try posting on the job board.
Hank
on 20 Mar 07I thought some of the responsibilities of the sysadmin you hired was to responsed to customer requests (support emails).
http://jobs.37signals.com/jobs/356
JF
on 20 Mar 07Nicki, it would likely be a full time position.
Matt Lee
on 20 Mar 07Hank,
Likely someone would pass any technical queries to Mark, but act as a frontline support, after all he does have a job to do :)
Rex Dixon
on 20 Mar 07Jason,
Just sent you an e-mail, just south of you down here in the STL! :)
rex
Ben Mc
on 20 Mar 07“450 minutes, 7.5 hours, just taking care of the emails. Add the forums to that. Jason, it’s amazing you’ve programmed anything at all during this time!”
Ha! I’m guessing you don’t know many entrepreneurs. The day is barely half over at 7.5 hours.
Baz
on 20 Mar 07Sorry guys, I know I was your first choice but I’m just too busy at the moment.
J Lane
on 20 Mar 07Okay, but only if I can use Highrise Ultra Max Unlimited to managed the support requests :-)
Sandra
on 20 Mar 07Ah … no wonder nobody answered my BaseCamp email tech support request. Would I still be in the queue? Will you have to hire before someone gets back to me?
paulo Elias
on 21 Mar 07“Bummer, I understand you needing to scale to get bigger, but it was really cool when you responded personally to my support email :/”
You guys complaining about this are retarded. Go read “the e-myth” or, better yet, open up a lemonade stand. You don’t grow to become one of the most meaningful companies in the next 20 years by doing it all on your own. You need to work on your business opposed to in it.
Ben Mc knows what’s up. You are just hitting your stride at 7.5 hours ;-)
Austen
on 21 Mar 07Have you guys noticed no where in this product are support tickets?
This is one of the most personal and meaningful companies I have ever bought a product from.
I would love to be apart of it.
J.
on 21 Mar 07Interesting contrast: “passionate about helping people” ... “I can’t promise I’ll respond to each one”.
John
on 21 Mar 07J:
Helping people !always= responding to every email you get.
At one point I would’ve seriously considered dropping everything to work for you guys—in fact I till feel a twinge in my email-sendy finger… ;)
All the best finding the right person, Signals!
(On another note, will there be any mention on here of Marcel’s move? Just curious)
Nathan Jones
on 21 Mar 07J: Saying “I can’t promise I’ll respond to each one” is not a failure to help people. It’s setting appropriate expectations.
It’s no more helpful to commit to replying to every applicant. That would be a tedious task, and it would eat into Jason’s time for helping customers. All for the sole benefit of notifying people that they were unsuccessful. Jason’s statement simply means that we’ll be watching SvN for an announcement, instead of watching our email for a negative response.
Justin Reese
on 21 Mar 07Negative response? Says you!
J.
on 21 Mar 07Yes, in the case of 37signals, people may indeed just be watching SvN. In general, hower, not replying to applications – not even with a standard “sorry, you’re not hired” message – is rather rude towards the applicants. Sending a reply will allow them to direct their focus on other job openings.
Of course, this behaviour is quite common for many companies, but it’s not something I would have expected from 37signals.
Bronwyn
on 21 Mar 07Can we Canucks apply, or does that do nasty things to the tax requirements?
Becky
on 21 Mar 07I did customer support for a small business for about 4 years, handling anywhere from 50-150 emails per day. My grammar and spelling skills are excellent. I’m in the Phoenix, AZ area and am very interested in this job. Any other information you can send me will be greatly appreciated!
Looking forward to a response! -Becky
Mike
on 21 Mar 07Alright, alright, pipe down everyone. I sent Jason an email, so the job is as good as mine. Too bad, suckers!! lol JOKING of course!!! ;)
JF
on 21 Mar 07Thanks to everyone who’s sent in emails so far… Over 120! Yikes. I’ll start reviewing them soon.
Trevor Turk
on 22 Mar 07Holy cats! I was on an RSS-break and didn’t see this right away. I hope I’m not too late!
Don Schenck
on 22 Mar 07Sorry Jason, but I have my own business.
I know you’re crushed (COUGH) ... but our paths will cross in the future on a different plane.
Damon Billian
on 23 Mar 07Hi Mike,
“Alright, alright, pipe down everyone. I sent Jason an email, so the job is as good as mine. Too bad, suckers!! lol JOKING of course!!! ;)”
That’s only because I haven’t applied;-)
Anonymous Coward
on 23 Mar 07@Becky Grammar and spelling… check. Following directions…. ehhh not so much. :P
Good luck finding the right fit fellas.
Paul
on 23 Mar 07I’d love to give it a try, but I’m way over on the other side of the planet. :P
The workaround solution might be to equipped myself with a Blackberry first, drop in my resume, hopefully in due course, I’d get a reply from Jason.
O… well, let’s see how it goes.
Charles
on 25 Mar 07I think I can do that. Especially regarding my client philosophy
This discussion is closed.