Christine Phu: From Support to Strategic Operations

Welcome to Escalations, a series where I’ll be sharing stories of some amazing careers that started in Customer Support. While many of these will be compiled into a book, I will also be regularly sharing stories here, too. If you like this content, please consider subscribing or sharing. 

Introduction: The Starting Point

Christine Phu began her career journey at 16 in a humble call center, selling newspapers by phone. These early experiences helped her build resilience and empathy, even though they weren't easy. Balancing multiple entry-level jobs throughout her university years taught Christine crucial life skills, including emotional intelligence, adaptability, and perseverance under pressure.

The Growth Path

Christine moved steadily from frontline customer support into strategic business operations roles, fueled by her natural curiosity and determination to solve problems. After experiencing burnout from intense frontline support roles at GoDaddy, she recognized that the operational side projects she'd always enjoyed tackling could lead to something bigger. Leveraging her experiences, Christine transitioned to roles more closely aligned with her true strengths: process improvement, internal tooling, and strategic operational management.

Throughout these transitions, Christine overcame significant hurdles, notably around recognition and building the confidence to advocate for herself:

Implementing This in Your Own Career:

• Identify and proactively tackle operational problems outside your primary role.

• Consistently document your process improvements and quantify their impact clearly.

• Clearly articulate your transferable skills—like problem-solving and strategic communication—in your resume and conversations.

Breaking Through: Lessons & Key Decisions

1. Track Your Impact

Christine meticulously tracked the results of her process improvements, highlighting reductions in turnaround times and other efficiencies. She discovered early that having concrete data was crucial in advocating for herself and demonstrating the value of her contributions.

How You Can Apply It:

• Start small—use simple tools like spreadsheets and timers to track the impact of your projects.

• Quantify improvements clearly and regularly communicate them to leadership or your team.

2. Transferable Skills Are Everywhere

Skills gained in support roles—such as empathy, problem-solving, and clear communication—are highly valuable in more strategic, operational, or even product-focused roles. Christine discovered the importance of treating internal stakeholders with the same care and thoughtful communication she would use with customers.

How You Can Apply It:

• Develop and use communication frameworks or templates from support for internal situations.

• Consistently apply empathy and clarity in all professional interactions, recognizing internal colleagues as important "customers."

3. Data Builds Influence

Christine learned quickly that data is a universal language across leadership and departments. Her strategic use of data helped her gain leadership buy-in and shifted the perception of her contributions from purely reactive support to proactive problem-solving.

How You Can Apply It:

• Gather baseline data before making improvements to show clear before-and-after comparisons.

• Use concise, clear visualizations or summaries to present data effectively.

4. Volunteer for Growth

Christine frequently volunteered for side projects beyond her formal responsibilities. Taking initiative allowed her to demonstrate capabilities far beyond her official role, which opened up new opportunities for career advancement.

How You Can Apply It:

• Proactively identify areas for improvement in your current environment.

• Clearly document the results of these initiatives to highlight your leadership potential.

5. Building Confidence Through Action

Christine candidly addresses her earlier struggles with self-confidence, recognizing it as a barrier that once held her back. Overcoming it involved repeatedly stepping outside her comfort zone, learning new skills, and reflecting positively on her experiences—successes and failures alike.

How You Can Apply It:

• Actively pursue skills that align with your next desired career step.

• Reframe failures as learning opportunities rather than setbacks.

Actionable Takeaways

• Proactively track your impact.

  • Use straightforward metrics like spreadsheets and timers to start.

  • Regularly document your successes to illustrate your contributions.

  • Lean on existing tools; help desk software usually includes simple analytics dashboards.

• Practice thoughtful and strategic communication.

  • Approach internal conversations with the same empathy as customer interactions.

  • Spend extra time preparing messages, especially for challenging or sensitive topics.

  • Ask clarifying questions. In Support, we ask clarifying questions to understand the problem better. It's okay and super helpful to use this technique in interviews and other roles as well.

• Volunteer for impactful projects beyond your core role.

  • Recognize opportunities to solve problems proactively.

  • Document and highlight these projects clearly on your resume.

Where They Are Now & Final Words of Advice

Christine currently leads operations for EasyPost’s Professional Services team, focusing on complex strategic projects and continuous improvement. She remains passionate about advocating for thoughtful, data-driven operational changes that improve team effectiveness and employee experience. Her final words of advice encourage others to face self-doubt head-on:

Do you have a story to tell or insights to share? Consider having a conversation with me so I can share something like this about you!