Saana Peiponen, who works in Fluent’s customer support and personnel management, feels that she has been able to develop her own skills in the direction she wants at Fluent. The most rewarding part of the job is producing genuine value for customers.
Saana Peiponen, 34, ended up as a Fluent Progress service specialist partly through networks and partly by chance in the spring of 2023. Saana’s professional path in customer support stretches back seven years to Fastroi, where Fluent also has its roots.
“I worked in Fastroi’s customer support for several years, and at that time I had many colleagues who have since moved to Fluent. Through them, I happened to hear that Fluent had a position opening up in customer support that might interest me, and I decided to apply for the position”, says Saana.
At first, Saana only worked in Fluent’s customer support, but later the job description was also supplemented with HR matters, which Saana says she is happy about.
“Actually, it has been my dream to get to work in HR at some point, but I have no previous experience in that, so now it has been nice to be able to try out, even on a small scale, what all the work entails in practice.”
From support requests to organizing breakfasts
Saana’s education is BBA or Bachelor of Business Administration. After her studies, Saana says that she dreamed of marketing and that she also worked at Fastro in the marketing team at first, but soon her career path began to focus on customer service tasks.
“At the time, the helpdesk was understaffed, so I decided to try it when I got the chance. I’ve always known that I wanted to work with people because I’m so social anyway. The work turned out to be really good for me and it immediately started to feel like my own”, recalls Saana.
It has been my dream to get to work in HR, but I have no previous experience in that, so now it has been nice to be able to try out, even on a small scale, what all the work entails in practice.
According to Saana, in Fluent’s customer support, the days are filled with versatile tasks, the most important of which is responding to customer support requests. Support requests come both by phone and e-mail, and they are often related to the functionality and usage problems of Fluent’s applications.
“If bugs appear in the applications, they must of course be reported internally. I collaborate a lot with, for example, the product manager, who, if necessary, takes the matter forward to the software development team leader”, Saana describes.
On the HR side, Saana’s everyday life includes various running matters of the office, such as organizing shared breakfasts and keeping employee benefits up to date.
“Sometimes everyday life is quite hectic, and the things to be taken care of overlap badly. However, it’s always just a matter of days, weeks at the most, after which more relaxed times come again. A person can’t be in two places at the same time, that’s just the way it is – everyone knows that, so you have to try not to stress about it too much”, says Saana.
Communication skills are everything
According to Saana, work in customer support requires, above all, good communication skills, the ability to listen to the customer and connect threads to solve problems – quickly if necessary.
“You have to be able to understand the whole and, on the other hand, also pay attention to the details. You also have to dare to ask the customer and say your thoughts out loud.”
It’s the best when I can make the customer’s job easier.
Technical know-how in customer support is required to the extent that you have to know your own applications and how to use them superficially well.
“I have to be able to tell the customer what happens or should happen with each button, and what can be done in each view. Instead, so to speak, I don’t need to know how to do things under the hood, that is, the usual technical know-how is enough”, Saana says.
The most important advantages are agility and job description flexibility
According to Saana, the work of a service specialist is quite social even within the company.
“In addition to the product manager, I’m also in contact with the team leaders and, on the other hand, with sales – the salespeople know first of all what the customer has been promised,” Saana thinks.
According to Saana, the most rewarding part of a service specialist’s work is producing genuine value for the customer.
“It’s the best when I can make the customer’s job easier.”
With Fluent’s customer support, the work takes place on weekdays during office hours, which, according to Saana, has been easy to fit into the work schedule of a family with children. He describes Fluent’s corporate culture as a very low-hierarchy culture, which he finds particularly positive.
“Working here is agile, which I like. In addition, I have been able to develop myself freely in the direction I want, which is a really big advantage”, Saana sums up.