Hi everyone, my name is Debojit Bhowmick. I am currently working with CollPoll, a B2B platform in the Ed-Tech space, as Lead Product Support of Customer Success Team wherein I’m leading Product Support. I was born in Siliguri and raised in New Delhi, India. Before CollPoll, I worked as an operations specialist at Dineout, a table reservation platform in the Restaurant Tech Space and spent a wonderful 3 and half years working there. Honestly, it was a much-needed kick-start to my career growth. But all good things come to an end! It was time to move on to new career adventures.
Then voilà! I luckily got an opportunity at CollPoll, initially as a tech support specialist to cater for the user as well as client-level queries and issues. “CollPoll is a web and mobile-based AI-powered campus automation, digital learning, and analytics platform designed to address the rising complexity, competition, and digital compliance of higher education institutions.” The company’s wide range of customers and constant efforts to improve in all aspects grabbed my interest. It has been around 5 months now, but I am glad to already have had virtual interactions with Hemant Sahal, the Founder and CEO at CollPoll and various advisory sessions with supportive supervisors. This is truly an interesting opportunity to have broad exposure to a wide array of industries!
The transition from being a tech support executive to handling and overseeing the overall support function has been nothing less than amazing. I’ve always had the zeal and hunger to lead an entire process and now taking on more critical responsibilities would only add up to my overall learning experience. I ensure that the entire support function is further streamlined. Thus, ensuring a strong foundation while building healthy client relations remains the priority focus.
My day goes like this:
8:00 am – Wake up. I’ve got an automation set in my phone which triggers the daily morning alarm, informs me about the weather, and shows the schedule for the day! After going through my texts while still in bed for a while, I finally get up. I check my email inbox to get an idea as to what my day is supposed to look like and schedule any calls if required from my phone. I’ll finish off my regular morning routine starting with a shower and setting up a calm but positive tone for the day.
9:00 am – To the Workstation, which usually is the dining table or my bed since pandemic started and working from home is a thing now. I’ve always liked working in a proper office environment as you get to see your co-workers and it’s always nice knowing team members in person. Keeping in mind, that is not an available option these days, I’ve learned to acclimatize myself based on the provided conditions.
9:30 am – Daily Customer Success + Sales Standup Call. Every day of the week at CollPoll, everyone in the Sales and Customer Success Team share their deliverables for the previous day and the current day. I am currently managing the day-to-day functions of Customer Support. My colleagues in Bangalore as well as those who work in other locations, such as Maharashtra, Lucknow give me valuable advice and feedback – to complete daily milestones across high-performance teams.
10:00 am – Daily Product Support Standup Call. This is a recurring call that takes place right after the morning standup call with my team members, wherein we ensure closing any pending tasks from the previous day as well as closing high-priority tasks for the day. I ensure that every aspect of the support function involving emails, calls, and app store reviews is catered to with extreme precision and accuracy. During this slot, we may have urgent calls with the respective stakeholders and clients, and we make sure to offer an in-depth understanding and knowledge of our product/services while maintaining the overall process sanity in check
1:30 pm – Lunch Time. I usually skip my breakfast, as I cannot eat a lot in the morning. This, of course, goes against the norm – breakfast is the most important meal of the day – but I guess that’s just how I function. So, I ensure having a fulfilling meal during this time. It’s usually a proper homemade “maa ke hath ka khana”, and that sort of fuels me to power through the rest of the day.
2:00 pm – Task-focused Afternoon. Refueled by lunch, I think I am most productive in the early afternoons. I focus on reading a vast amount of materials about Customer Support. So, I focus on gaining as much in-depth knowledge about the product we offer, and how it functions, which is the utmost priority. How the data flows from one module to another, playing around with the data in the database, teaches me something new every day. One thing I preach in my work is – Testing certain scenarios and issues at my end first before escalating it to our Backend Team.
5:00 pm – Daily Pulse Check. Every afternoon, I usually talk to a couple of friends who are close to me. We speak for a while about our day and catch up on old things. It’s like a breather which I feel is very necessary apart from work. From time to time I also have calls with my reporting manager Shiva, to share what tasks I covered that particular day and also my plan for the next day. He is very supportive and insightful, so I am enjoying this daily ‘pulse-check’. Even a small talk outside my project inspires me!
6:00 pm – Daily summarization and wrap-up. I work on a couple of reports during this time and work on sharing the files via email with notes that show the daily progress and challenges. I usually turn off my laptop after sending the last files, but sometimes there is more to work on!
7:00 pm – Overtime, but Fun. At CollPoll, we have a lot of clients from all over India. So, I have evening meetings from time to time. I’ve previously attended 1 am or 4 am meetings for GIRF Campaigns back in Dineout, so 7 pm or 8 pm is no problem at all. A few of my colleagues are really good at data analytics and insights, so I really enjoy interacting with them during this time too.
8:00 pm – Cool Down. This is the time I kick back and just relax! After having a light snack and going through the tasks completed for the day, I make an agenda for the next day and jot down the deliverables to be shared with the team in the morning standup call. I go through my email inbox and make a note of any pending tasks to be completed on a P1 basis, for the next day. Depending on the criticality, as and when required I complete that particular task the same day rather than moving it on to the next day.
Lastly, I spend some time on my hobbies, such as listening to podcasts and drinking beer. Some of my favourite podcasts I listen to in my free time are – The Mindset Mentor, Stuff You Should Know, Noah Kagan Presents, Not Overthinking, Naval, and The Tim Ferriss Show. I go to bed around 11 pm after having my dinner.
And that’s a typical day for me at CollPoll!
Connect with Debojit Bhowmick on LinkedIn!
