Meet Barbara, Customer Service Director at Kardinal
- October 15, 2021
- 2 mins
Curious and open-minded by nature, Barbara has been Director of Customer Service at Kardinal since October 2019.
In search of a job that values human relations
Barbara has a particular liking for human contact, and very early on she chose a job that would allow her to meet and exchange with new people on a regular basis. She started her career in London, then joined an international group specialized in business travel where she worked as a Project Manager, in charge of customer implementation and the introduction of internal tools.
After three and a half years, she decided to join the teams of a web and mobile solutions provider for business travel management. During the 12 years she spent at the company, Barbara had the chance to coordinate the implementation of these solutions for many of the company’s corporate clients, supporting and training hundreds of users.
Eager to work on a new project, Barbara joined Kardinal in 2019, seduced by “the energy and enthusiasm of the employees” she met. As Director of Customer Service, she is now the privileged representative of the company’s clients and helps them with their optimization projects.
At Kardinal, she is deeply involved in the “buddy” program that was recently implemented, reflecting her natural interest in human relations and interaction. This voluntary program consists of giving a warm welcome to a new employee who does not work in her team. Barbara is committed to helping new recruits integrate and takes time each week to bond with her “buddy”.
Unique and tailored projects for each client
At Kardinal, Barbara has implemented well-structured processes to best support clients in their optimization projects. She works upstream to present the project’s implementation in terms of planning, as well as the technical and human resources that will be needed to ensure its success. “It helps clients visualize themselves with us when they have in front of them people who can explain to them the milestones of a project”.
She collects the clients’ needs, their constraints and their objectives in terms of optimization and then passes them on to the technical teams in charge of the specific configuration of the solution for the client. “Each customer has a completely different vision of our solution and what they want to do with it, which makes the projects very diverse and exciting”. Barbara’s ability to understand how clients work makes her diplomatic and adaptable: “You have to be able to read clients and make them feel heard”. Above all, she emphasizes that it is essential to support change management by involving users from the start of the project so that they can be involved and quickly get feedback on the solution.
A close and customized follow-up to ensure that the project runs smoothly
Supported by the business teams, she works closely with Kardinal’s technical experts to ensure that the project runs smoothly. This collaboration also allows her to increase her skills on technical issues relative to the Kardinal solution such as API connections, necessary for its integration. “The project manager must become an expert of the solution and be able to answer questions alone”.
Once the customer’s requirements are defined and implemented by the technical team, Barbara helps them connect the Kardinal solution to their existing IT system. She is their main contact during the delivery of the tool and conducts tests with them to ensure that it meets their needs. This also allows her to verify that the business experts handle the tool properly. Throughout the implementation, she is available to monitor their use of the software by performing regular follow-ups, at least once a week. If necessary, she organizes workshops to address the various issues that clients may encounter. “The key is to be organized and thorough in the processes and discussions. A regular and clear follow-up guarantees the success of the implementation and the progress of the projects”.
She is available to clients in case of questions or incidents related to the tool. Generally, she is able to solve the problem directly, but if necessary, she can call on the skills of the Kardinal technical team. To help clients become autonomous with the tool and its features, she offers training and writes documentation for them.
At Kardinal, we are very happy and proud to have Barbara in our team!
