Why the customer support industry is ideal for liberal arts students

The Indian customer support industry is essential to the domestic economy because it generates employment and makes a significant contribution to the country's GDP. The growing number of adults entering the workforce and falling employment opportunities mean there is considerable demand for jobs in the customer support industry. Today the industry is being transformed by smart young professionals having a liberal arts education. Industry insiders recognize that a liberal arts background is ideal for working in customer support. Hence students who have studied the liberal arts are in demand by the industry. Reasons liberal arts students have the perfect background to work in customer support are provided below.

Creativity

Albert Einstein once said, "Creativity is seeing what everyone else has seen, and thinking what no one else has thought." These words highlight the importance of thinking out of the box. Liberal arts students can view challenges from many perspectives and arrive at an optimum solution. Because of competition among organizations in the customer support industry, there is a need for customer support managers and agents who can think creatively.

Such professionals can understand customers' requirements and fulfil them with ease. Managers with a customer support background excel at reviewing recordings to instruct others how to manage individual customers.

Empathy

Liberal arts students can empathize better than students of any other background. They've read classics by western and eastern thinkers and are mindful of cultural differences and thoughts. They understand people better than most engineers and science graduates can.

A customer support organization needs employee's who can contemplate questions like, is this product useful to me? How was my experience using a product? How can I help a customer who is facing challenges with a newly launched product? What is the best way to manage an angry customer who is continuously facing issues? The nuances of such situations are harder for those with STEM degrees to understand because they require empathy rather than rationality and logic.

Gathering information

Students of liberal arts learn to gather information to support their views. Working in customer support requires employees to conduct research.

They do by listening to information given to them by coworkers, managers and especially consumers and the general public. Collecting data from strangers is an art, not a science. There are guidelines for collecting data, but no foolproof formula. It is a nuanced skill in which listening, responding appropriately, and asking questions must happen effortlessly. Liberal arts students excel at such interpersonal tasks.

Communication

Managers with excellent communication skills are vital to the success of every organization and to talk effectively to customers. Every liberal arts program is committed to improving student's communication skills. Through papers, presentations, and critiques, liberal arts students practice excellent communication and become terrific communicators and presenters.

Critical thinking

A liberal arts education expands the minds capacity to think critically and analyze information. It helps the brain connect seemingly disparate ideas from multiple disciplines. Critical thinking helps a customer support person connect the dots, draw connections, piece together puzzles, and confidently assume various stances.

Many times biases, hinders people from making the best decision. A liberal arts education helps students think critically about situations, circumstances, and people's behaviour, motivations, and tendencies. Equipped with knowledge about different types of people, liberal arts students can rise to the challenge in even the most challenging customer-facing roles.

There's ample real-life evidence that the customer support industry is ideal for liberal arts students. Those at the helm of large customer support organizations value the creativity and interpersonal prowess of liberal arts students. Their ability to think on their feet and capacity for developing out-of-the-box solutions make liberal arts students a considerable asset to organizations that serve lakhs of customers every day.