Are you still falling for the myth that a career transition is impossible? No, it isn’t! I used my hospitality experience to transition to customer support effortlessly and I hope this post changes your perspective.
My early professional days were in the food service and hospitality industry. By 2019, I moved to France for my masters program in Hospitality Management. I worked across multiple teams and gained ample customer service experiences.
As we all know, COVID-19 came and I knew I had to learn new technical skills and transition to a more technical role. Transitioning from hospitality to customer support was quite simple for me: I had transferable customer service skills that were inevitable for a customer support role.
On the other hand, I loved ecommerce and everything in it! I wanted a role that could allow me serve users/customers from all works of life while helping business owners manage their customer interactions. Same thing for SaaS companies: help users navigate their software or systems using simple non-technical words.
I found a problem in the industry, knew the solution, and prepared myself.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Do your research
- Evaluate your transferable skills
- Upskill and retrain
- Restructure your résumé
- Prepare yourself
- Continue training
- Must-have skills for Customer Support roles
But how can you do that? How can you use your hospitality or related experience to transition to customer support?
That’s what this post is for! Whether you want to transition to any field or aim you are looking to upskill, this post is for you. This post is to highlight how to transition from hospitality to customer support or from one industry to another.
1. DO YOUR RESEARCH
Now that you know what career you would transition to, your next step is to get to know the industry. From my experience, I recommend that you do your research, study everything you need to know about your intended field, and identify other career paths in this field.
For example, when I saw the gap I could fill in the ecommerce industry (the field), I knew it was Customer Support (the role) – helping businesses optimize their customers’ interactions via email and chat (the niche/specific role).
Of course, there are other roles like call center jobs, but I narrowed it down and chose a particular path to focus on.
The same goes for other career transitions. Since we are in a tech world, some professionals can transition from non-tech to tech roles. Whatever path you choose, having a prior understanding of the industry and its roles will help you master the necessary skills quickly.
2. EVALUATE YOUR TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
Now that you know your preferred role in the field, let’s identify your transferable skills!
Every former/old role has a skill that can be transferable to a new role, whether it is a tech role or not. That is, if a receptionist wants to transition to Data Analytics, she should have problem-solving, attention to detail, and some basic Excel skills.
Make a list of relevant skills you have gathered in your previous role and identify specific skills that can be transferable to the new role.
If there are transferable skills (of course, there are), highlight them and group them into hard and soft skills so you can structure them into your new résumé or CV. Skills like empathy, product knowledge, excellent communication skills, attention to detail, problem-solving, etc., are transferable skills for anyone looking to transition from hospitality to customer support.
3. UPSKILL AND RETRAIN
We have identified our transferable skills and now is the time to assess if there are new skills to learn and a possibility of retraining.
But, this can go three ways: retrain and upskill, learn new technical skills needed for this role, and enroll in a professional course or certificate.
UPSKILL AND LEARN THE RELEVANT SKILLS
Let’s assume you want to transition to Data Analytics, the basic skill is to master Excel and Spreadsheets. But bear in mind, that while mastering relevant skills for your future role, soft skills should not be ignored.
A former hospitality employee should have soft skills like empathy, problem-solving, attention to detail, ability to advocate for the brand, thinking outside the box, etc., if they are transitioning to technical customer support roles.
However, some of these skills may be alien to an engineer or accountant looking to transition to customer support.
So whatever role it is, do well to find out what skills you might need and learn them so that they can complement your résumé.
LEARN NEW TECHNICAL SKILLS
Everything is online now and businesses, onsite or online, are embracing new methods that make their operations seamless.
If you want to transition to customer support, it is pertinent that you master the relevant technical tools, whether you plan to work remotely or onsite. If you are unfamiliar with helpdesk software, customer tickets, or how software can help businesses understand their customers’ behavior, then you should learn them.
Intercom, Gorgias, Freshdesk, Zendesk, HubSpot, and most helpdesk have free resources to help you learn their tools. While at it, they offer immersive learning experiences that give you a sneak peek of their software and how their integrations work with businesses.
Coursera, Udemy, and other online learning platforms also have resources to help you transition properly to Customer Support and give you the necessary skills to thrive in the industry.
RETRAIN OR TAKE A COURSE
I taught myself most of the hard skills I knew when I transitioned to being a freelance Customer Support Specialist for businesses. But I also knew that I needed a form of professional training to master the new field.
This might be a different case for anyone looking to transition to a Call Center Agent; you should learn phone etiquette, conversational skills, and some crisis management.
Retraining will expose you to terminologies or metrics you need to know for your new role. CSAT, NPS, etc. are some basic metrics that every customer support agent should know.
Therefore, while you are transitioning, plan to take a professional course to be properly equipped for your next role, and use every free resource that is available to you.
4. RESTRUCTURE YOUR RESUME
At this point, your goal will be highlight transferable soft and hard skills. Once you identify them, restructure your résumé or CV to fit your preferred roles.
But first, let’s crawl through job boards and look at the skills needed for the role. For customer support roles, job listings require a previous experience in a customer-facing role, good knowledge of Helpdesk tools, knowledge of marketplace operations like Shopify, and soft skills.
This will give you a basic understanding of what skills businesses require you to have.
Now that you know the required skills, you can now restructure your resume to fit the industry. As a hospitality professional, your soft skills are as important as your hard skills.
Highlight them in your skills and professional experience sections, and match your summary to fit the job description. Look at samples of CVs that fit your specific role and use them as a guide to restructure yours.
If you need help, consult an expert or a recruiter to review your CV and make any necessary corrections. Update your professional networking profiles (like LinkedIn), and connect with like-minded professionals and prospective clients you would like to work with. Follow community forums or software relevant to the industry and take note of upcoming trends.
Create a stack of all professional certifications and work samples you have acquired. If you want to freelance, prepare and create a portfolio of all your work samples while highlighting the relevant skills.
Notion is a tool I recommend for freelancers for portfolios and client management.
Take a peek at my Notion portfolio
5. PREPARE YOURSELF
If you fulfilled 80% of everything mentioned above, you are ready.
Transitioning to a new career does not happen overnight or in weeks. It took me one year, hundreds of cold emails, a website, a revised LinkedIn profile, and petit freelance gigs here and there to properly transition into this role.
For a hospitality professional looking to transition to customer support, empathy and attention to detail are a must-have. But you must also learn how to handle difficult clients, think outside the box while trying to solve a ticket, handle escalations without exerting your emotions, etc. Also, if you want to work with businesses with a large customer base, the risks could be overwhelming hours or a large volume of tickets.
So, brace yourself!
Further reading: 18+ Freelancing Tips from my experience
You can decide if you want to go freelance or become an employee.
If you want to be a freelancer, find out what basic skills you need, and build an alluring portfolio and proposal that highlights the gap you aim to solve. You can offer free services to clients to build your portfolio and experiences.
Use cold emails to attract new clients or showcase your skills, and connect with business owners or freelancers on networking sites like LinkedIn.
Don’t skip freelance platforms. Create and polish your profile, write a compelling bio, respond quickly to messages, and aim to convert new clients to repeat clients.
Use workspace tools like Notion to compile your portfolio, organize your tasks and client files, track your day-to-day client activities, and save files.
In addition to a portfolio, register your freelance business and create a website. Your website attracts people to e-meet you and puts you on the radar if you use the right keywords.
Google Sites is a great website tool for beginners. If you want to aim higher, you can take advantage of Hostinger’s web hosting and free domain.
If you want to be an employee, use social networking platforms, connect and chat with hiring managers or recruiters, and use spontaneous job applications.
6. CONTINUE TRAINING
Even after retraining and setting yourself up for a smooth transition to customer support with transferable skills from your past hospitality experience, you still need to be on your toes. As trends change or evolve, ecommerce businesses aim to stay updated while helpdesk or CRM software strives to match these trends. Intercom recently launched an AI co-pilot feature that will help businesses reduce ticket backlogs. With this in mind, the training never stops. Subscribe to newsletters, follow helpdesk platforms to stay updated with new features, and monitor upcoming trends for the industry you wish to serve.
7. MUST-HAVE SKILLS FOR A CUSTOMER SUPPORT ROLE
My top 5 must-have skills for anyone looking to transition to customer support are:
- Problem-solving skills: Ability to handle unexpected situations and find solutions for customers.
- Excellent communication skills: Ability to understand customers’ needs and communicate clearly to ensure satisfaction.
- Empathy: Ability to understand, relate, and empathize with your customers.
- Attention to detail: Ability to spot a customer’s need beforehand and using to improve customer satisfaction.
- Product knowledge: Understanding the services or products of the business and use it to serve customers better or upsell.
The list is endless but this post is to help you understand how you can transition from hospitality to customer support.
CONCLUSION
Again, transitioning to a new career is not as impossible as it sounds. If you want to transition to a technical or non-technical role, you should find transferable skills for your new role. Adequate training and planning will also get your foot in the door quickly, but don’t forget to be patient with yourself.
Of course, some challenges come with career transition. Understanding industry-specific terms, mastering technical tools, and showcasing transferable skills are common challenges you can encounter while transitioning to a new career.
Moreover, if you love being in the service industry and are looking for a new challenge, don’t be scared to join a customer support team, or show business owners how you can help them.
As always, I am happy to connect with businesses, freelancers, and customer support professionals.
What career did you transition to recently and how did you navigate it? Do let me know!
Bon courage! (in French)
