In this month’s ‘A Day in the Life’, it’s the turn of Associate Director of Customer Success, Tori Bell. Tori lifts the lid on what it’s like to work with our hosts (spoiler: she loves it), talks about her love of a to-do list and how family, friends and colleagues have been more important than ever over the last year.
Can you tell us a little bit about your role?
As Associate Director of Customer Success at HeadBox, my primary role is to look after our hosts and oversee all things venue related. This includes looking after our Power Hosts, Lead Feed and Smart Book customers, along with overseeing our 3D shoots – so just a few spinning plates to balance.
On a day-to-day basis, this means speaking to our hosts about how things are going in their packages, understanding their pain points and then working with Product and Marketing to ensure a smoother, more seamless customer experience. Ultimately, I want them to be happy with HeadBox’s service so I frequently question everything with ‘what would our hosts say about this?‘
What is life like at HeadBox? How has it changed over the last year?
I’d be lying if I said that last year has been ok, in all honesty, it’s been incredibly hard as I’m sure everyone working in hospitality would agree but through all that, HeadBox has been amazing at keeping the team engaged! From weekly coffee mate catch-ups and HIIT classes to monthly poker games (who doesn’t love to win some money and beat the boys from time to time), there have been lots of activities to help keep everyone positive whilst working from home.
From a work perspective, I actually think it’s been one of my most productive years yet, even saying it sounds incredibly strange but stay with me. HeadBox had been growing very rapidly at the beginning of 2020 but the slow down of pace allowed me to look at all our team processes and evaluate how we can make them more efficient and ultimately, improve our customer experience. As a bit of an organisation lover, it’s been brilliant looking at our customer journey flow to see how we can make this better! We’ve now created some lovely product explainer videos and new training emails to help improve our onboarding process, along with creating a whole new tracking system which the operational side of me adores.
How do you look after your wellbeing when you’re working from home?
For me though, the last year has taught me to keep my eyes open, it’s often easy to get swept up in the hustle and bustle of life and forget to take a second to breathe, re-evaluate what’s going well and most importantly, take action on what you want to be doing!
With that in mind, I tried pretty much everything I could whilst working from home to work out what would make me happy, which ranged from French classes and colouring to watching all the Avengers films and also some meditation. Still, after looking at the same four walls for weeks at a time, I realised I was still going a little stir crazy. I ended up coming to the conclusion that what I needed was to be outside as much as possible. That meant morning workouts in the garden, lunchtime walks and weekend treks across various areas of South London. This is something I’ve continued to do post lockdown with daily walks being a must.
I’ve also been on flexi-furlough for the last few months which I’ve found extremely beneficial to my mental health! Working a four day week has made me more productive and really made me think about what needs to be prioritised. Although I’d love to say I’ve been super productive on my day off, I’ve mainly been using it to relax and catch up with my family and their new puppy.
What skills do you need to do your role? How did you get into it?
I didn’t quite engineer my move into Customer Success; it really was just the right place at the right time. At my last company, I was working in Marketing when the role of Customer Success opened up. My boss at the time thought that I’d be perfect for it. I loved the idea of having a more diverse role where I got to interact with customers and also with a variety of different internal teams, so I jumped at the opportunity.
Since joining HeadBox, I’ve continued my career in Customer Success and am still loving it as much today as when I first started. I find it so satisfying knowing that I’ve helped kick off people’s journey with HeadBox and love building long-lasting relationships with my clients.
As a relatively ‘new field’, people often ask what skills you need to work in Customer Success so I’ve summarised what I think are a few of the key characteristics below:
You have to love people! Working in Customer Success, you’re frequently out of the office meeting new people and even when you’re in the office you’re always talking to different teams to feedback on what you’ve learnt.
Be organised. Although there is a lot of socialising, the operational side of Customer Success is equally important so make sure you keep on top of it. I personally love an old school to-do list written in my notebook but you do you – just make sure you stick to it.
Never stop questioning. Part of Customer Success is always looking at how you can improve things for your customers so to do this you need to constantly be questioning what you’re doing and if there is a better way to do things.
Always be glass half full. Things don’t always go right but you can control how you respond to it. So my recommendation for Customer Success (and life) is to always stay solution-focused – what can you do to solve this?
What do you like most about your team?
I think the only way to answer this is that the people are what make HeadBox! I think it’s fair to say that we all had our downs over the last year but we were always there to pick each other up whether with a glass of wine over Zoom or a group call, therapy-style. We have all shown our strength and perseverance to keep pushing through and aim for brighter days.
I feel I’ve got to know my colleagues even more over the last year, with some lovely tours of their flats and extended calls into the night. We’ve really bonded and aligned on our goals. Back in the office a few days a week we’ve gone from strength to strength and are now all looking forward to the rest of 2021 and making it a year of success for HeadBox.
What are your goals for the year ahead?
As we start to open up, I’m really excited for what’s to come this year. As a team, we’ll be focusing on ramping up our customers on Lead Feed as we look to expand across the UK. We’ll also be looking to ensure the successful launch of our latest platform, Smart Book, which allows corporate clients to quickly book meeting rooms and private dining rooms with consolidated contracts and payments.
Keep your eyes peeled as 2021 promises to be an exciting year for HeadBox as we continue to reinvent the global events industry through technology. Personally, I’m really looking forward to a holiday whether that’s a staycation in the UK or (fingers crossed) for something a little more exotic with a trip to Europe for some sun. Au revoir!
Join us next month for the next instalment of ‘A Day in the Life’.
