How did you start the role as a Customer Success Manager?
When I started at The Factory my first assignment was as a DevOps engineer. I started in a small team, this team was dedicated to one customer. I went to the office of the customer every week. I wanted to know who the customer was, how they worked and what they strived to. Why? Because I wanted to know how we could help them to the next level.
I tried to understand what the customer really needed, which resulted in adjustments in the requirements of ongoing projects and changes in our own way of working. This took a lot of time and was in my opinion a prerequisite before being able to deliver new solutions. At the same time I wanted to do what I was hired for, being a DevOps engineer. So, I was learning Terraform, giving GIT courses, renewing my Azure certifications and so on. This felt as an unsustainable challenge.
So after a while we created a new role, Customer Success Manager. Joep and Mike, the owners of The Factory, both helped me to create the role. For almost a year now, I’ve been enjoying my role as a Customer Success Manager. And of course, new challenges will come and go!
What do you want to achieve in this role?
As the name of the role already reveals…Create customer success in the Cloud Journey of the customer! How? First, by finding out what the needs really are of the customer. On the other hand I need to make sure that we have a high performing team, which can meet the needs of the customer.
To become or stay a high performing team each individual needs to contain intrinsic reliability, should be passionate about the work and keep on learning to stay well educated within the fast moving world of Cloud services. Trust, passion and craftsmanship are the core values within our team and what we radiate to the customer. By adhering to these core values in the team, we have a good foundation to meet the requests of the customer.
Are there other activities you do for The Factory?
I like to organize events! For example, last year I organized a team building day, where we went boxing and had some food and drinks afterwards. Boxing was a nice team building activity as you could really see how people react in certain situations. This year I will also organize an event, but of course I cannot tell you what we are going to do yet 😊
Besides this ‘event’, I think the small gestures or initiatives are as or even more important. From sending a card, emphasizing the importance of bodily movement especially as our work is mainly done sitting, organizing a lunch, to highlighting someone’s efforts.
What are you passionate about in your non-working life?
I’m passionate about Ashtanga Yoga. Before work, I step on my yoga mat, mostly at the yoga studio in Rotterdam and do my practice.
In the west we mostly see yoga as getting yourself in all kinds of weird poses, looking good in nice yoga clothes or just sitting and meditating. All of which is something you see from the outside.
But after years of practice, it has become much more to me than just a way of getting yourself in a weird posture. If you are interested you can google the following sentence, ‘yoga chitta vritti nirodhah’.
This one sentence is why I practice Ashtanga Yoga. It all has to do with a silent, clear mind. A clear mind helps me in everything I do and every situation I get involved in.
Besides the yoga practice, I like to be outside on a race bike in the weekend! Though, only when it’s not raining. We’ll have a BBQ from our BBQ master at The Factory soon! If the weather is good, I’d like to go there by bike and I hope I can persuade a few colleagues to join me. It’s going to take us probably three or four hours to get there.. so a bit of slip stream would be nice.😊
Oh and did I mention, I can really enjoy a good cup of coffee in the early morning. Until now, Giraffe in Rotterdam is my favorite coffee bar😊and just around the corner of the yoga studio.