Day in the life at Clever: Sarah, Customer Solutions

Curious what it’s like to work at Clever? Here’s a typical day in the life of Sarah, a Customer Solutions Representative.

Name: Sarah Markowitz

Role: Customer Solutions Representative

Team: Customer Success Organization 

Start date: June, 2019

Previous experience: Teach for America

Favorite Clever tradition: Clevergiving, a big team dinner around the Thanksgiving holiday.

Commute: Podcasts

My commute is nice and flexible – I can either take BART, walk, or bike. I usually take BART, but love walking when I wake up with enough time. 

On my commute, I listen to the podcasts Up First and The Daily. This helps me stay up to date with what’s going on in the world. Podcasts get me energized for a successful day! I get to the office between 7:45 and 8 AM and start the day by grabbing coffee and chatting with my teammates.

Morning: Phone calls

I hop right on the phone at 8 AM and get ready to chat with customers! My phone shift is from 8 AM until 1 PM (with a lunch break) and I focus on answering inbound calls and the tickets in my queue. Our customers are from all over the country call in about issues like problems logging into Clever or their connected learning applications. It’s fulfilling when the customer and I are able to solve the problem in just one phone call. Customers are really grateful – one even made a bitmoji thank you for me!

I’m typically working on my own during this time, but I also have one-on-one meetings with my manager and attend Customer Solutions team meetings. These meetings are every Thursday at 11. During this time, I hop off the phone and gather with the team to talk about what is going on that week.

Lunch: To the roof

I love eating lunch outside, so when it’s nice out, I go up to the rooftop patio of our building. I am happiest when outside, so time on the roof allows me to get re-energized for the afternoon. If it’s raining, I sit at the long table in the basement and mingle with my coworkers. 

My favorite lunches are Thai-inspired meals, especially salmon with curry and rice noodles. There are so many lunch and snack options, which I love! You will often find me with a sparkling water in my hands, I try to stay hydrated!

Afternoon: Supporting teachers

During the afternoon, I continue to check on the tickets in my queue and catch up on answering any tickets that resulted from phone calls. I also schedule time on my calendar to work on various projects.

The CS team has projects every quarter that align with the company’s broader goals. Currently, I’m working to improve the self-service rate for teachers by making our Help Center really comprehensive and easy to navigate. The project entails analyzing the data from past teacher queries as well as making updates and additions to the teacher Help Center content.

I was a teacher before working at Clever, so I understand the challenges of the job and want to help make their lives easier!

The afternoon is my time of day to put on my headphones, listen to music, and focus. You’ll rarely find me at my desk as there are so many different places to sit and stand around the office. I typically opt for a cozy nook.

After work: Time to unwind

I typically leave the office between 4:30 and 5 PM. Since I wake up pretty early, I like to exercise after work. I walk to the gym and either take an exercise class or work out on my own. 

I also enjoy meeting friends for dinner during the week and unwinding with Netflix. I’m able to leave my work at work and don’t have to answer tickets after hours, so I feel that I have a good work/life balance.

Happy hour: Coworkers are friends

On Fridays, I’ll sometimes stick around for happy hour. It’s a great time to catch up with other Cleverites that I don’t often get to see during the week. It’s fun having that time to chat about interests, hobbies, and weekend plans while getting to enjoy music, snacks, and games! It’s particularly fun when we’re celebrating someone’s reunion at Clever, as we typically have additional activities. For example, once we had a dunk tank in the basement.

Want to join Sarah’s team? Explore open opportunities.