At the heart of atrify are our customers - and hardly anyone interacts with them more on a daily basis than our Customer Service Team. A few months ago, we decided to give all atrifyers the opportunity to become part of the Customer Service Team for a day and experience our customer inquiries (and answers) live. Through this "Customer Impressions" session, you not only get to meet new colleagues, but more importantly, you get to know our products and the questions and requests ofour customers. Something that helps us all in our daily work. We now wanted to know in more detail what a so-called "Customer Impressions" session looks like. Our colleague Luisa Basler (Expert Global Customer Support) and our colleague Holger Thiemann (Product & Leadership Coach) reveal this in a short interview.
Luisa and Holger, you had your "Customer Impressions" session yesterday - why don't you tell us about how that goes?
Holger: I sat next to Luisa for half a day and was able to listen live to all customer inquiries. Of course, we always informed the customers in advance that I was listening in and obtained their consent. I found it incredibly exciting to be so close to the customer. Regardless of your own role in the company, it helps a lot to develop more empathy for the customer: What do you like, what don't you like? What questions and problems do they have? This understanding helps us all in our work later on.
Luisa: At the end of the day, yes, we support that the products that have been purchased work. If things go completely wrong, it can happen, for example, that a truck is rejected on delivery at the supermarket - and that has very clear consequences for all of our daily lives. I think that's something we can also convey well with the customer impressions. As abstract as our products may sound at first glance - they play a very central role in our lives. At the end of the day, it's a matter of all the adjusting screws in our company having to work well together, and the sessions help all sides . - the customer on the phone, but also the atrifyer sitting next to you and getting insights: What are they actually doing there all day? Who are the customers who call us here?
Holger: For me as an employee, it becomes much more tangible what the effects of problems actually are. I found the example with the truck particularly impressive, because it is so pragmatic! For me, I took away once again: Only if we understand the customer can we build the right products for them - and customer impressions help enormously in this, of course.
Holger, what was your impression? What did you take away from the session?
Holger: Mainly two things: One is an internal learning. Of course, you know that we have a support team. Nevertheless, I was deeply impressed by the depth of knowledge about our products and systems in the support team or Luisa. Especially as a new employee who is just learning it all, it's really impressive! It's all so insanely fast the way she does it: a click here, a click there, a quick chat message here, a call there. And at a speed - you can't even look that fast!
On the other hand, I thought it was great how relaxed and level-headed Luisa was about her job. I myself once worked in the service in the complaints department and things were very different there. Friendliness and working in partnership with the customer. - these are no sales ploys here, but absolutely authentic, honest and thus characteristic for atrify. Luisa's attitude here is genuine: we do this together and are looking for the best solution together.
I also found it exciting how different some of the customers* were: There were customers who were very interested, had really dug into the content and were really deep into the topic. They also had very specific questions about the background and no fear of contact at all. At the same time, there were of course customers for whom the whole thing was totally new and who therefore still felt very disoriented. And we were able to help both of them in their own way. - that's the beauty! I also found it exciting that Luisa was able to prepare some of the topics for her sales colleagues. There you can see once again how everything at atrify meshes together!
And Luisa, what was it like from your perspective?
Luisa: For me, the session started off a bit turbulent. I like to be well prepared, and then came the classic: IT didn't want to go our way. But fortunately we got that sorted out quickly. In the meantime, I was a bit worried: "Oh dear, what might Holger be thinking?" Because from the outside, it can seem a bit chaotic from time to time, with so many things happening ad hoc. Just as I was about to explain something to Holger, a phone call came in. Of course, this has priority! The customer comes first. It is a live session and of course unplanned things happen. That's what makes the whole thing so authentic and exciting.
Apart from that, I found it very interesting to do a session like this with a colleague I didn't know very well. It's so much fun to pass on your own knowledge and I was really thrilled how interested Holger was in our work and how many questions he brought: Who calls you guys? What kind of companies are they? How do you guys feel about it? Our session was well in flow and thank goodness the technology played along too 🙂 .
A session like this is also a good opportunity to be a member of another team for a morning. How was that for you?
Holger: What I found extremely cool about the team was the appreciation and the team dynamics. There were a few problems here and there, e.g. with the technology, but the good mood was still noticeable in the team. Everyone was always able to coordinate briefly(either in person or via chat), you got answers quickly and everyone was very helpful. I felt very comfortable.
Luisa: I can confirm that. We really do have a very friendly way of dealing with each other in the team. We make a joke here and there, and that brings a certain lightness to everyday life. We have avery uncomplicated working relationship, which we have maintained and strengthened during the Corona period.
That sounds like an exciting work environment with lots of nice colleagues!
Thank you very much for taking the time for this interview and the Customer Impressions session.
Curious about atrify products and what we do? Then head over to our career page! Customer Service is looking forward to the first customer impression session with you as a new atrify team member!
* Aus Gründen der besseren Lesbarkeit wird auf die gleichzeitige Verwendung der Sprachformen männlich, weiblich und divers (m/w/d) verzichtet. Die männliche Form verwenden wir stellvertretend für alle Sprachformen und sie versteht sich explizit als geschlechtsneutral.
Cover image: Laptop. keyboard and headphones on grey wooden desk. hand with pencil and notebook.(...) by TaniaSV, Adobe Stock
