At the moment Bilot has an open position for Customer Service Representative and I wanted to find out what that work is like in real life. One possible title for this position is Customer Lead. But what do they do in practice?
I interviewed some of our Customer Leads, Heidi Lahtinen, Riikka Makkonen, Päivi Hellsten and Jonna Pikkusaari. Let’s hear their thoughts about their work.
Just to get to know you a little bit better, what do you do at Bilot?
Heidi: I started as a Customer Lead after I had worked three years as a Delivery Coordinator at Bilot. That was a pretty easy step as I already knew the customers. Now I have three years of experience as a Customer Lead. On top of that, I get to do BI reporting.
Riikka: I have been several years a Customer Lead. Besides that, I help in many internal tasks and I am the Data Protection Officer at Bilot.
Jonna: I have worked as a Customer Lead about five years now. In addition to that, I work as Lifecycle Services Lead, Project Manager, Lead Consultant and Key Account Manager.
Päivi: I started as a Customer Lead one month ago. I still work as Project Manager or Scrum Master in some ongoing projects.
Let’s start with the term “customer”. Who do we mean by that?
Heidi: The customer is Bilot’s customer, which is a company. At the customer, I have a contact person with whom I work closely.
Riikka: I feel that in addition to Bilot’s customers I serve also our people, who I call our internal customers.
Jonna: Customer in the ‘Customer Lead’ role is the Company and its representatives to whom Bilot offers Lifecycle Services in one or more solution and service areas.
What is your day-to-day work like as a Customer Lead?
Heidi: A Customer Lead has quite many tasks: customer satisfaction surveys, reporting, invoicing. The operative working consists, for example, of monitoring tickets and finding right persons both from the customer front and at Bilot. We also create ideas about how to develop collaboration. We work closely with the customer and consultants. Actually, I work with about 60 consultants! Everyone can turn to me when they have questions or problems.
Jonna: Follow up of customer deliveries, administrative stuff (invoicing, reporting, contracts), customer meetings, communication with the customer and Bilot team. The team composition varies by the customer and includes Key Account Manager, Lead Consultant, several Consultants, Project manager and in many cases Delivery Coordinator. The contact person at customer is usually the CIO or Product Owner or both.
Päivi: In my opinion, the goal with the daily tasks is to keep customer up to date. I see this as a mix of technology know-how, sales and administrative work.
Riikka: With our work, we build the trust. We are always there for the customer and it is important that they feel comfortable to call us with every matter. We monitor the schedule and make sure that the work gets done according to the contract.
What is great about being a Customer Lead?
Päivi: I can ensure that our customers get the best possible service. I’m excited to work close to our customers, to be able to understand their business and their technological infrastructure.
Heidi: I have the freedom to create new procedures and develop the ways of working with the customer.
Riikka: In this position I get to use a diverse set of skills.
Jonna: Yes, I agree, the tasks variate a lot, there is no ordinary day. You get to use your people skills, business understanding and IT knowledge – a great combination I’d say.
What has prepared you for this position?
Heidi: I have experience with the everyday work in ICT sector. For example, I know service level agreements like the back of my hand. It also helped a lot that I got to be the right hand of a Customer Lead before becoming one. And I have courage to carry out the plans and ask help too, if I feel I don’t know something.
Päivi: My project management experience and technological understanding have grown by working in development projects. In addition to the technical background I have business education and I see that as an asset.
Riikka: Also, life experience gives perspective. Wide business know-how and having worked together with many people are concrete examples of that.
Jonna: I have a vast experience in IT consulting, in different roles. I have also technical understanding about provided solutions, including SAP ERP and SAP Commerce as well as business process understanding in different business areas. IT process management requires also delivery methodology skills and understanding and continuous follow up of the trends.
It seems that we have a lot to talk about, so let’s spare some topics for the next blog. Thank you for your answers so far and next time we’ll talk about the skills you need to succeed at this position. See you then!
