What does Raidboxes look like from the customer's perspective? How do you manage to make support seekers happy? And who has been snoozing happily and contentedly in the office under the palm tree recently? 10 questions for our supporter Chris.
Chris, you've been a customer and FREE DEV at Raidboxes since 2016 - and have now virtually switched sides. What have you learned about us during this time? What was your impression?
While looking for a good host for a demanding customer for whom I had just implemented a WordPress site, I stumbled across Raidboxes by chance. What convinced me (and ultimately the customer), apart from the significant performance boost, was the fast, competent and relaxed support. Fast sites, happy customers and the commission as a FREE DEV was an unbeatable combination for me.
What I had to get used to at first was the different approach, in contrast to the usual "mass hosters". No web-premium-extra-plus-packages with countless, sometimes useless lists of features, but ONE WordPress installation, but consistently focused on performance and security. Period.
Raidboxes continues to grow - be part of it
This "minimalism" also continued in the backend. Few, simple and - at least initially - sometimes poorly explained buttons that do exactly what they say. Sometimes I just didn't know whether I wanted them to do what they said 🙂 But the support from Raidboxes helped me out time and again.
Why Raidboxes?
What ultimately convinced you to apply to us? With your portfolio of skills, you are certainly in high demand in the working world...
I generally observe the start-up scene with relative interest and many great start-ups have either completely drifted away after initial success or have been sold (e.g. Wunderlist). What I liked about Raidboxes was that, in addition to all the business news and specialist articles, it also became clear that the company values sustainability and the common good. In my last time at the agency, I mainly dealt with customers from the agricultural and heavy transport sectors.
One day I came home and realized the hypocrisy of what I was doing: on Fridays I go to the Fridays for Future demo with my son and help him paint posters with polar bears and on Mondays I make sure that even more, even bigger trucks clog up our roads with great landing pages. You're on a daily treadmill and do your job to the best of your ability - but at this point I realized that I wanted to change something. I already liked the company philosophy and product at Raidboxes - so why not just apply?
What generally makes a workplace and employer where you are happy?
In addition to the things I just mentioned, such as sustainability and the common good, and a product or service that I can stand behind, open communication is important to me - even across departmental boundaries and at eye level. An interesting team and training opportunities round off the whole thing.
From self-employment to the agency
You were a freelance web designer, photographer and lecturer for many years. Then you switched to an agency. Why did you do that?
The question is easy to answer: I've become a father! As a self-employed person, you can work on a project for three months and then wait another two months for your money. That's fine if you're responsible for yourself - with a family, a regular income and paid health insurance are important factors in being able to sleep peacefully.
Apart from that, I have never completely let go of my freelance work. I've been lucky enough to have been able to look after some customers in the web, print and photo sectors for years. And I still take on interesting projects from time to time.
You work in 2nd level support at Raidboxes. How specifically does your agency experience help you? And are you more patient with our customers because you know both sides?
Whether I am more patient remains to be seen 🙂 In any case, my agency experience and also my experience as a FREE DEVand hosting customer helps me to understand the background to support requests.
Thanks to my training, I now know why some things are the way they are. But that doesn't mean that I now find them more logical or self-explanatory. But it certainly helps me to explain exactly these things and to answer inquiries empathetically, effectively and, above all, to the satisfaction of the customer.
What makes good support
How do you deal with inquiries where there is very little knowledge on the customer side?
Little knowledge is always relative. With a developer or an agency, you naturally expect a certain level of technical understanding and can talk on a similar technical level. But even a florist who doesn't have the big bucks for an agency and wants to set up a new domain herself can of course expect help with support. But then again, I don't know anything about flowers 🙂
What constitutes top support for you personally, how do you measure the success of your work?
As a support customer, two factors are particularly important to me: competence and speed. If I have the opportunity, I always use chat support. Because I hate being stuck on hold on the phone. With emails, I don't even know whether my query has been received, let alone when it will be answered.
As a supporter myself, I try to live up to my own standards - and that's not easy because I can be a really demanding customer. 🙂 I feel successful when those seeking help feel they are being taken seriously. And when, after our conversation, they know what steps they need to take to resolve their issue. Helping them to help themselves, so to speak.
If customers no longer need support the next time they have the same or a similar issue - then I think I've done my job right.
What is your first impression of the team and your induction?
The Raidboxes team welcomed me in a friendly and open manner. I see a variety of very individual professionals. The variety of characters is at least as great as the variety of clothing styles and hairstyles. Everyone seems to bring their experience, personality and expertise to the table. And when it comes to the matter at hand - namely to keep improving the Raidboxes product and to live the Raidboxes values - everyone pulls together intensively and constructively.
You brought a new RAIDBOXER with you: Flecki. How did the trial day with him in the office go, and can we still look forward to him?
Flecki, my little white family dog (a Maltese), first got to know everyone on the trial day and checked out who would give him cuddles or treats (or both @Leefke!).
In fact, he got quite a few of them and was quite disappointed the next few times that he wasn't being fed continuously. All in all, though, he likes it. And he has his own little area in the support room directly under the palm tree.
What do you do when you're not helping our customers?
When I'm not working for Raidboxes or freelancing, I'm mainly a creative family man from MĂĽnster. Spending quality time with my family - and preferably as much of it outside as possible - recharges my batteries. That's the most important "pastime" for me.
My interests are all geared towards the digital age and how to combine the digital with the analog. That's why augmented reality, for example, is a topic that fascinates me. If I had to name specific hobbies, it would be anything to do with film. And then recently - thanks to the Urban Sports Club membership sponsored by Raidboxes - sports and fitness again. Above all, however, there is photography and digital image processing. Years ago, I got together with a few photographers and digital artists under the name MĂĽnster-Foto to realize projects together - at that time even partly in the darkroom with 35mm film.
The fact that almost everyone involved now has families and many are no longer in MĂĽnster has meant that this has pretty much fallen asleep. Whenever I can, I still go out and take photos or edit pictures from my own archive in Photoshop. Some of them can also be seen at www.muenster-foto.de. Recently, I've been out and about with my new 360-degree camera, testing how the digital results can be transferred to the analog world.
