The internet landscape is changing. Evolution is occurring, much like it does in the animal world. Customers become more active and interested in new areas of the internet and continue to require help. Subsequently, forced by outside influences to adapt, support people also evolve and learn new software in order to better serve their customers. One of these new customer-first skillsets is the ability to use omnichannel software and methodology in order to provide a better experience to customers.

Yesterday, February 5th, was Basecamp‘s 15th birthday. As a company we’ve been around for 20 years (we used to be called 37signals), but one random Thursday back in 2004 marked the beginning of Basecamp, the product. And we launched it right here in this post on this very blog, Signal vs. Noise. The blog looked a lot different then, but the spirit’s the same. And here’s a link to the original home page, as well.

It can be hard to predict, especially in the tech industry, the jobs and skills of tomorrow. Still, it’s possible to build a solid foundation in the meantime—especially for those honing widely applicable skills as front-line support agents. Take it from Leah Guest, whose training ground in Tier 1 support became a jumping-off point for her current position as a Voice of the Customer Platform Coordinator at Zendesk.

Asking for help should be easy. And fast. Faster than typing out emails. Faster than opening chat windows and typing out the problem. And faster than opening an app and searching for the solution. Can your customers ask for help easily? And how fast can you deliver? Till recently, it was difficult to furnish this instant voice support in a scalable, accessible way. Then voice bots came along.

To build best-in-class teams, win the competition, and, ultimately, create the next big thing, organizations are hiring talent from all across the world, making teams increasingly distributed. Some companies open hubs in booming cities to attract professionals from the region. Others, many of them leading tech companies like Automattic, Buffer, and InVision‚ prefer to create fully distributed teams, allowing their employees to work from anywhere.

Live-chat is a stellar way to improve customer service and support success for any business. And increasingly, chatbots are becoming a way to automate vital business interactions with potential leads and customers any time of the day, even when workers aren’t present. Typically, to fill live-chat spots, you will need more manual labor. More employees and increasing overhead.