Customer service representatives are professionals who help new or prospective customers solve problems or answer questions related to a product or service.
The Skills Customer Service Professionals Bring to a Business Analyst Position
Customer service professionals tend to be excellent communicators and relationship builders, and this prepares them to handle the more challenging aspects of discovering requirements and negotiating what’s in and out of scope inside a project. They also probably have a lot of experience solving problems and coming up with creative solutions.
Experienced and senior-level customer service professionals also develop a deep experience in a specific industry or tool set, which can prepare them to take on a variety of specialist roles within business analysis.
Opportunities for Customer Service Professionals to Expand Their Business Analyst Experience
To grow into a business analyst role, customer service professionals need to explore the following types of opportunities:
- Get involved in project work as a subject matter expert so they can see how projects flow, and volunteer to take on business analysis tasks.
- Look for more expansive and long-term, big-picture solutions to problems reported by customers, instead of work-arounds that meet short-term, urgent needs.
- Hone written communication skills by documenting meeting notes and practicing requirements documentation.
In general, as a customer service professional you need to look beyond the day-to-day and hour-to-hour issues and take steps towards bigger picture solutions to long-term problems.
Case Study: From Customer Service to Business Analysis
Learn how Adam got more confident in his business analysis skills, mined his career for relevant experiences (even without the job title), volunteered for more business analysis work, and, after sending out hundreds of resumes, landed the second business analyst job he interviewed for.
>Click here to learn how Adam moved from Customer Service to Business Analysis<<
Case Study: From Support Analyst to Business Analyst
in 4 Weeks at the British Red Cross
“During The Business Analyst Blueprint®, I held a workshop with people in the organization so that we could collaboratively document the business process, and then improve it. As a result of this words spread in the different teams. Not even the teams that I, necessarily, worked in, but the teams that are containing the people who I helped the workshop with. People were saying, “Oh, this is really good. It’s really good.”
And what happened was that I contacted the program manager for the project off the bunch of project lists that were related, and he introduced me to another, to a project manager who was thrilled when she heard that I wanted to do business analysis. She was looking for someone to help her. As a result, my manager approved that part of my role would be business analysis going forward. So, it wouldn’t just be support analysis, which was great because that’s what I wanted.”
– Roshni Dominic
“During The Business Analyst Blueprint®, I held a workshop with people in the organization so that we could collaboratively document the business process, and then improve it. As a result of this words spread in the different teams. Not even the teams that I, necessarily, worked in, but the teams that are containing the people who I helped the workshop with. People were saying, “Oh, this is really good. It’s really good.”>> Click here to listen to Roshni’s case study <<
More Case Studies of Support Professionals Moving Into Business Analysis!
To further explore how the transition from customer service to business analysis works, check out these career transition success stories:
- From Desktop Support Technician to Business Analyst: A Journey-In-Progress – Rob shares how he started thinking and acting forward towards his business analysis career goals while working in desktop support.
- From Sales Support to Quality Assurance to Business Analysis – Martin shares how pursuing a transitional role can help you move into a business analyst career.
>>How to Learn the Foundational Business Analyst Skills
When you join The Business Analyst Blueprint® certification program, you’ll gain real world experience in the industry-standard techniques and business analysis processes.
>> Click here for more information about The Blueprint <<
