A day in the life - Rapid Response Team
If we were you, we’d want to know a day in the life of a given job before we take the time to interview. So here it is.
QUICK BIO
Our product, Cloud Retailer is mind-blowing tech for small to medium liquor stores.
We are about 30 employees. ~10 are in our Sartell office, the others are remote. Some in the US, some in Poland, India, and the Philippines. Altogether we have people from 7 different countries on our team. The people in these remote countries are NOT cheap labor. We are NOT a call center. The teams outside the US are talented and real people. They work hand in hand with our US teams every day. We see their faces – we know the names of their kids. We are an ethnically and geographically diverse group – and we love that. Though we don’t spend much time focusing on it since it’s second nature.
One place we lack diversity: our values. We celebrate underdogs, geekiness, hard work, and people who put their team first.
If you want to understand the types of people you’ll be working with, the history of the company, and what we’re trying to accomplish we invite you to go to our mission page. There you can see the case studies published by Microsoft on our work and the awards and milestones we’ve achieved.
Our objective in a nutshell is to be unquestionably – the best computer systems for small to medium (1 to 50 locations) liquor stores. The aim is for people to say “You’re a liquor store? You’d be crazy not to use Cloud Retailer.”
Start of the day
The day begins at 8:30 AM CST, most start with a 15-minute standup meeting led by Greg – the tech team manager. This is an opportunity for the team to share information. Something we learned yesterday that may be valuable today.
Monday morning is training day. Often, it’s 1 hour where we discuss a customer scenario that took place and as a group break it down. What was done well, what could have been done better. We invest tens of thousands of dollars a year in our teams’ education.
Wednesday morning is our “Level 10” meeting. This is an opportunity for everyone on the team to raise issues and help resolve them.
The day
On the RRT team, you split your attention between 3 possible types of work:
1. Be someone’s Hero!
Our customers call in for all sorts of situations. From “I can’t get my POS to start!” to “My database has crashed!” – these are critical moments for a customer’s business. You have the chance to be their hero and save them from disaster. You also have the opportunity to help the rest of your team be a hero the next time by making sure our knowledge base is stocked with relevant information.
~40% of the team’s workload
2. Help make our product even more amazing!
In the course of working with our customers, identify issues with the software and log these for our development team. Test software fixes pushed from our development team, and update our customers with the fixes.
~40% of the team’s workload
3. Executing strategic company initiatives.
We’re a growing company – constantly evolving our processes and our product. When we do – you’ll very likely be a part of the group that came up with the idea and the people who will be executing the change. For example, our Rapid Response Team is the fundamental driver of updating and changing our test environment, which affects our ability to ensure product quality from top to bottom!
~20% of the team’s workload
The day ends at 5:30 PM. The last three tasks of the day are: (1) double-check that we’ve kept all the promises we made for today. If we told someone we would get back to them by the end of the day – then we make darn sure that happens; (2) clean up other loose ends; and (3) figure out what the #1 thing we need to get done tomorrow.
Our customer: "Bob"
Bob is a liquor store owner and is the avatar we created for our ideal customer persona. He owns that nice store down the street with a huge selection of bourbon. His store does between $2M and $6 million dollars per year. Not too shabby.
Bob knows he needs technology but it's not his favorite thing. If he can count on you, he is your best friend, if he perceives otherwise, he won't pull any punches. If it doesn't work - he's losing profits, customers, and employees. He counts on his tech to watch costs, speed up checkout lines, and be easy for his staff. He won't admit it (he thinks it would make him vulnerable) but the POS system is the lifeblood of his business.
It's critical to his survival and when things go wrong it's a huge deal. That said, if he can count on you, if he has confidence in you - he will treat you like a gem.
You will recognize that technology is only a hammer. A tool that helps you do your real job of creating HUMAN-based solutions for HUMANS.
Why are we talking about customers now? Because the customer is at the center of every good company. The fact that our clients are challenging (but worthy) is a huge opportunity. The team you are about to join has the level of talent to go further than ANYONE else in our industry. Find out more about why we 
Bob head to our mission page.
Let's talk
If this is starting to sound like your cup of tea – let’s talk. We invite you to send us your questions and/or your resume to [email protected]
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