Pedro Souza recently joined SmartBear as the company's VP Customer Care. We connected with Pedro for a Q&A to discuss why he decided to join the team.
Q: Where were you before SmartBear?
Pedro: Over the past two years, I led Paramount’s customer support team for their main streaming services, like Paramount+, CBS Sports, and Pluto TV. Prior to joining Paramount, I managed Visa Inc.’s Global Emergency Card Replacement service for six years, and before that I performed several technology functions for Citibank over a period of 28 years. I’ve worked in everything from technical support, software engineering, program management, and more.
Q: Why SmartBear? What drew you there and what have you observed in your first 30 days?
Pedro: I always want to be somewhere where I see an opportunity to help a company and its employees really exceed customer expectations and demands, and I saw that here very early. This was also an exciting career growth opportunity for me, personally. SmartBear is a great place to advance your career, no matter what stage or level of experience you come here.
Another big factor for me was how much collaboration I spotted here, and how much I continue to see between every team. I’m not just a believer in collaboration, I think it’s critical, especially when trying to continuously impress your customers. The teams at SmartBear aren’t just willing to jump in and help out in a situation, they seek out those opportunities, and leap at the chance to provide their own unique perspectives to help others solve big challenges.
Lastly, I have to be somewhere that welcomes people challenging the status quo. A place that looks at the way things have always been done in this area or that and really trying to uncover new approaches that might be faster or more efficient. You can do such an excellent job on something, and six months later, look at it again and wonder, “What was I thinking?” There’s always room for improvement.
Q: Tell us about your support team. What qualities make up a great support/customer care staff?
Pedro: Our customer care engineers all possess that quality I described above about challenging the status quo. They’re always willing to talk about and evaluate new processes, but they also understand the need to adhere to strong, robust processes, especially when dealing with enterprise-level support cases.
This team is also very passionate about resolving problems for our customers and coming up with creative ways of doing so. Being able to do this requires being technically savvy, of course, but it also requires a high level of curiosity. Curiosity to learn about new features, new products, new use cases, and more.
When this team is presented with a difficult challenge, they listen closely to the customer, ask questions, conduct research, try things out, and collaborate with each other to come up with impactful solutions.
If this sounds like the kind of work that you’d enjoy and would thrive in, I encourage you to check out our current openings, and to apply!
Q: Before we go, what’s something your passionate about outside of work?
Pedro: Lots of things. I'm originally from Brazil, so naturally one of my biggest passions is football, or soccer as it’s called here in the U.S. I really am completely crazy about both watching and playing football. I play on most Saturdays and am proud to still be able to keep up with my son during a game. I’m also super passionate about family and am very lucky to live near my children here in South Florida. I also enjoy snowboarding, and last but not least, going to concerts. Being close to Miami, there’s amazing live music here year-round. I’ve also been known to travel outside the country for can’t-miss concerts.
