November 2019
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”Good morning, Raisoft, Sebastian speaking”

The friendly calm voice is familiar to many Raisoft customers. Most often the support calls are answered by Sebastian "Basse" Kivistö.

- I started in Raisoft in January 2014. I got a tip from Magnus Björkgren that the company was hiring software testers so I called Robbi (Robert Åström, CEO) who called me for an interview. At first I worked part time beside my studies in software testing, Basse explains.

The RAIsoft- programs quickly became familiar from every angle to Basse as he was testing them and soon he was proposed to move on to handling support calls, first during the holiday seasons and gradually more often.

- During the first couple of years here my work shifted from testing software to taking support calls. For the last 2-3 years I am in charge of the support.

His role in customer service fits Basse perfectly, who is used to dealing with customers from a very young age and is also fluent in languages.

- When I was 14 I started working summers and night-time in a ware house of a local electronics retailer. Soon I was making installations for customers and when I got my driver´s license at 18 I did ware house and delivery jobs. I have installed many Digiboxes in Kokkola homes, Basse laughes.

- After I graduated with a diploma in Business and Administration from the business school in Kokkola in 2009, I was working in various customer service jobs. I did my civil service at the Youth Centre Villa Elba doing everything from gardening to cleaning to waitering at weddings and working as a night guard at children´s camps. I was also working in the electronics department of a local supermarket and at the fore mentioned electronics retailer for a while before I decided to continue my IT studies.

Just call!

- The most common questions we get are about forgotten passwords or locked user names. In those cases I can´t help and the customer has to be in touch with the administrator of his/her own organisation. These rules have always been strict and even more now after the GDPR.

As for all other questions Basse encourages to call, sooner rather than later.

- It´s quite common that at first something has gone wrong by mistake, then is tried to be fixed in all different ways, making things even worse. By the time I get the call the customer is almost in panic mode, Basse describes and adds that most problems can be resolved easily.

- The best part of my job is when a customer´s problem is solved and you hear the relief in the customer´s voice. Usually when I have helped somebody once, it´s easier for the customer to call again even with small issues, before they grow too big.

For Basse, who has been playing and working with computers from a very young age it´s valuable to talk about software and computers to non-professionals.

- You realize and learn quickly that you can´t use the technical vocabulary but you have to explain things on a grass root level. Luckily we are also able to plug in to the client´s software if the problem is more complicated and phone support isn´t enough. These situations occur more frequently when there have been some major updates in the programs.

Calm at work – extreme at leisure

The calm and patient Basse at work is a complete opposite during his free time.

- Regular sports have never interested me. I´ve been skateboarding and snowboarding over 20 years. I did some parcour too for a few years. Now as I reach my 30´s I wanted to try a new hobby and got myself a BMX-bike. I´ve played video games since I was a child, I play a little bit guitar and sometimes I make some music with my computer.

Basse is married to Emma and they have three active miniature dachshunds.