Finding Serenity and Security with a Remote Position at Support.com
In our “Meet the Support.com Agents” series, we sit down with Support.com Agents to hear their stories and experiences and to learn how they came to join the Support.com team. In each blog, we’ll get to know a different agent and will learn more about why they love working with Support.com.
“Joining the Support.com team was a really good move in my life. It allowed me to find myself.”
How did Devona Shuford come to find the Support.com team and begin a new chapter in her life? After working at a traditional brick-and-mortar company for two and a half years doing clerical work, Devona was ready for a change. She had long been seeking to branch out of the conventional office environment and find a position that better suited her interests and lifestyle.
Searching for a new professional challenge, Devona was inspired by watching her sister work.
“My sister had recently started a new work-from-home position and seeing what she was doing really inspired me. I loved watching how she interacted with customers—it was a very comfortable feeling.”
Shortly after, Devona applied for a position at Support.com, and she’s now been with the company for three and a half years.
For Devona, the biggest benefit of joining the Support.com team is the work-from-home environment. “Not having to commute back and forth every day and get to a brick-and-mortar-type job is really important to me. I don’t have the daily aggravation of dealing with frustrating and unpredictable traffic—and I can save a lot of money on gas, too.”
Besides cutting out the emotional and financial stress of a long work commute, Devona also says that her job with Support.com gives her a collaborative work environment and support from her teammates and supervisor (something that’s traditionally lacking in most other work-from-home jobs). And Devona says she found that support right from the beginning.
“The training process was very hands-on. I liked being able to interact with the trainers, and I love my supervisor—he’s very compassionate, and he works with us a lot.”
For communicating internally with her team, Devona also likes the Support.com “workbench,” an internal application where agents get notifications to collaborate with their team and help each other get to support systems faster. “It really helps me stay in tune with the whole team,” she says.
Before joining Support.com, Devona had never worked as part of a tech support team, but her experience in clerical work gives her a unique perspective on the customer-agent relationship: “In my clerical work, I was the one doing the outreach, so it’s really interesting being on the other side.”
She also appreciates the opportunity to touch base with all kinds of different people throughout her day. Providing support for all connected devices—from smartphone to computers to printers to video game systems and more–Devona says she communicates with people on all different levels who vary in their experience with and knowledge of technology—but she enjoys the challenge. “There are all different kinds of customers coming in, and since you can’t see their facial expressions, you have to try to read the environment through the phone. It always keeps it interesting.”
Inspired by her sister, Devona’s entry to Support.com’s team of work-from-home agents was a welcome change, giving her a dynamic, new professional challenge and a sense of serenity and security in her everyday work life. “It was a really good move in my life,” she says. “It opened a lot of flexibility for me and allowed me to find myself.”