The pathway
How you actually get there, here
How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.
- 1
Customer Service Representative / Agent
1-3 years in a frontline roleSkills to master
- Deep understanding of common customer pain points, excellent communication and empathy, ability to identify recurring issues, basic use of CRM/ticketing systems.
You're ready to move on when
- You're constantly flagging systemic issues you see in support tickets, not just solving individual problems.
- You've shown initiative in suggesting improvements to processes or help articles based on customer interactions.
- You're known for your ability to calm upset customers and turn a negative experience into a positive one.
- You're comfortable navigating our CRM and pulling basic reports on ticket types or customer sentiment.
- 2
Junior Data Analyst / Business Analyst
1-2 years in an analytical roleSkills to master
- Data cleaning and manipulation, basic statistical analysis, report generation, strong Excel skills, ability to spot trends in numbers.
You're ready to move on when
- You've worked with customer-related datasets and can draw initial conclusions from them.
- You're comfortable building basic dashboards or reports that track key metrics.
- You're keen to understand the 'why' behind the numbers and how they relate to actual people.
- You've shown you can present data clearly, even if it's just to a small internal team.
- 3
Marketing Coordinator / Research Assistant
2-4 years in a marketing or research roleSkills to master
- Understanding of customer segments, basic survey design, qualitative research techniques, report writing, stakeholder communication.
You're ready to move on when
- You've been involved in collecting customer feedback (e.g., through focus groups or surveys) and summarising it.
- You understand how customer insights can inform marketing strategy and messaging.
- You're good at translating research findings into actionable recommendations for other teams.
- You're naturally curious about customer behaviour and motivations.