Rozek is the technical support manager for Truition, an e-commerce business that hosts solutions for online storefronts, online auction sites, and sales distribution to marketplaces such as eBay. Through its CMS platform, Truition powers the sites of some respected brands and companies, including the NBA, Dell and Sirius Satellite Radio.

Why Rozek is a startup star
Rozek and his team handle everything under the tech support sun – from investigating and resolving customer issues to tracking and reporting case trends. Working alone and just four months in to his tenure with Truition, Rozek established and trained customer support teams in Germany. He also introduced structure to the tech support process, developing a notification system in the catastrophic instance that Truition’s server goes down. If their server fails, then so do all of their clients.

“Every minute of [our clients’] down time costs them thousands of dollars because they’re losing sales,” says Rozek. “[So my job is to] provide them timely updates and statuses to let them know how we’re dealing with it and how we’ll prevent it in the future.”

System failure is obviously the worst case scenario. But Rozek believes that in the field of tech support, you have to prepare for the worst. Preparation, he says, mitigates the effects of an otherwise disastrous situation.

It’s this approach to challenges that make Rozek such an expert in tech support.

“With my soft skills, I’m accomplishing much more than my colleagues who were more technical but who couldn’t share their tech knowledge,” he says.

Although Rozek admits that technical knowledge is not his greatest strength, his ability to sympathize with customers and address their needs, gives added depth to the “support” part of “tech support.”

From B.A. to IT
It wasn’t the tech side of things that attracted Rozek to IT.

“Originally, I turned to help desk purely for economic reasons. I had my student loan to pay and after two years with a B.A. degree, I couldn’t find a meaningful job,” he says.

So Rozek decided to go back to school and earn a diploma in computer networks and systems support from Shaw College.

Since graduating eight years ago, Rozek has moved up the ladder quickly.

His first job in the tech industry was at CIT Corp, In September 2001, Rozek joined Changepoint as the team lead, customer support. When Compuware acquired Changepoint, Rozek became the manager of the technical support team. Today, he’s enjoying the challenge of doing more with less in the busy environment of a young company.

Rozek at Truition
When Rozek joined the company in August 2006, Truition didn’t even have a technical support department. He jumped into the typically chaotic atmosphere of a young company, one he describes as having a “lack of structure.” It offered a challenge that Rozek embraced.

“[The lack of structure] is what gives it spice and makes it interesting,” says Rozek. “And your goal is to have control over all the processes, or to create processes.” At the same time, however, Rozek realized that lack of structure also meant lack of organization.

Rozek’s main task since working at Truition has been to create that organization—and maximize efficiency for customers.

“Eventually, I hope to have a few account managers who aren’t necessarily technical, but are able to provide some degree of mentoring for the customers,” says Rozek. “The technical team will help them with their problem and the account manager will help to reevaluate how they use the product, or suggest other modules of the product so they get more return on their investment.”

Rozek also plans on developing better post sales support for customers—and that can mean extra revenue. He’s currently drafting a proposal for multi-tier support that outlines how Truition will deliver support and how customers will pay for it.

“Right now, it’s pretty much unregulated,” he says.

Rozek likes to compare what he does to waiting tables, in the sense that his job is to serve customers. The only difference is that his customers only come in when they have something to complain about. But when Rozek is able to raise a grumpy-sounding voice up an octave, it means Truition has earned a client’s trust. For an early-stage company, Rozek’s organizational and soft skills are vital to long-term success.