The Job

I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Steve Jobs

Every 6 or 9 or 12 months, my office puts on a User Conference. It’s a chance for our customers to get together and learn about our software. Not only new features, but how to better use the existing features and functions. This past week was the first time we did an entire week… Had about 50 users attend the event. (out of how many total users? 1,000+ I think.. I should know this but i don’t. Sorry)

In my current position, I don’t get to see or talk with our existing customers as much as I used to. I’ve moved over to our Implementation Department and it’s a different kind of customer contact. A chance to develop new relationships. I love what I do, but sometimes I feel that I’ve left my existing customer base behind. I realize we have a perfectly capable support staff to provide the care our customers need, but I miss it. The conference is a chance for me to reconnect.

I was given the task to make two presentations this time. No matter how much grief and pain the preparation causes I never turn down the chance to do this. The pain and grief comes from thinking I don’t know enough about our software. From trying to formulate what I know into digestible information that they can learn from. Realizing that no matter what, the customer will always toss something my way that I don’t understand. Understand why they are asking it, or how they are asking it because we don’t yet have that common language. But I like that too… I learn from it. And both my customer and I get something out of it after we both understand one another.

The picture? It’s a selfie with one of my favorite customers. And I have to be like a parent here because who is my favorite customer? The one standing in front of me.