10 OCT, 2016
When the tavisca Office in India starts buzzing at 9:00 AM at their Pune (India) based delivery center, Singapore has already woken up and started their work day. Dubai is seeing the first rays of the sun, while Europe is still asleep. A part of North America is well past into midnight, while some of them are working late post dinner. At tavisca, the software delivery teams have gone into a huddle to discuss the tasks to be completed during the day & the account managers are busy keeping a track on their e-mails to monitor the health of each client account.
A Key Account Manager at tavisca is the customers’ voice within the organization. They are responsible for an overall customer success within the company. Their primary responsibilities include:
- Manage the post-sales commitments
- Service the Client needs
- Find opportunities to mutually grow the client account
On an average, every client account manager works with 3-4 different accounts. These accounts belong to customers who have signed up for one or more of tavisca’s products and originate from varied geographical backgrounds. I personally have handled customers from Dubai, North America and India all at the same time.
Typically, when a client is handed over by the sales team, The Customer Account Manager’s first responsibility is to take a complete download of the commitments made & build a plan to deliver them on time as per expectations. From a broader perspective, this means that the Account Manager is in charge of making sure that the business goes online in the least possible time with all commitments adhered to.
Since the product rolled out to our customer is to enable him do business online on the internet (Book travel for their customers), the very first task of an account manager within tavisca begins by looking at the booking numbers generated over the past 24 hours. If there has been a significant change on either side, the account managers try to look in at the Inbound Traffic at Number of Bookings ratio for that particular client’s website. If there’s something amiss, the delivery teams are immediately alerted to investigate more.
Once that is out of the way, the account manager goes through their e-mails to check for escalations made by the client, new issues raised or resolved, new requests made by the client & general status updates.
Since, there’s a work load from multiple clients, The customer success manager, prioritizes between the tasks lined up, meets with the delivery and support teams to let them know about the client needs clearly.
Once the website is up & making bookings, the account manager plays a dual role by servicing client requests and finding ways to grow the client account further.
Regular conference calls are scheduled with each client to cover either of the following agenda:
- Demonstration of tavisca’s product – This activity is to help the client and their team use the product and all its features effectively
- Governance Calls – These calls are reserved to discuss various issues & new requests made by the client
- Strategy Calls – A Strategy call is reserved for all activities concerned with the growth of a client account. Typically, the client and their account manager would discuss advisory about impending decisions & new methods to grow the business. Some typical questions discussed on this call may include – Which Hotel supplier should we choose (HotelsPro or Expedia) and why? How can we lower the overall transaction fees in the system so as to increase profits? And so on.
Since every client manager handles customers from various geographies, the conference calls are interspersed with all other activities throughout the day.
On days when clients visit the delivery center, the account manager stays with them through the day attending to all their business needs.
The job has its perks. One gets to wine and dine with the clients, interact with people from various geographies and learn more about them, visit client locations & attend travel trade shows to meet interesting new people.
As the old adage goes, People do business with People. That’s what every account manager at tavisca strives to be – The go-to person for their client.
For any queries please contact: info@tavisca.com
“The author of this blog is an employee of our organization. Today, we are a cxLoyalty Technology Platform, building products and solutions that, empower some of the world’s leading customer engagement and loyalty programs.“
