In March, we shared with you the journey of our Axway colleague, Piyush Gupta, from India to join our Paris team. This month, we bring you another inspiring example of commitment, achievement, journey, engagement and work ethic. Meet Iolanda Marin.
As a Customer Experience Specialist at Axway, Iolanda’s job is to listen to the voice of the customer, share customer insights with internal stakeholders (customer success management, sales, R&D or product management) and work on improvements. She does this via a series of customer surveys and follow-up interviews.
In her role, she also shares customer-centric best practices that help every employee offer a world-class experience to our customers.
Culture of Customer Experience
What Iolanda likes most about Axway is that the company’s culture has evolved from a culture focused on products to a culture more focused on customer experience. As we move to a subscription economy, customer loyalty becomes critical.
Iolanda feels the importance of knowing how we can continue improving customer experience at Axway. An effective way to do that, Iolanda found, was to leverage Axway’s internal social network. With offices in Europe, Asia, America and South America, connecting globally is crucial.
“With better knowledge, we have better solutions.”
Iolanda Marin: Approach to the job
Iolanda considers herself as a “data cruncher.” She analyzes quantitative data gathered through online surveys and analyzes scores and trends.
Beyond the numbers and spreadsheets, Iolanda likes to think about the people she works with every day. The way customers score us ultimately reflects how they feel about Axway.
“Feelings are not rational. Feelings are perceptions of customers’ interactions with us.”
Iolanda would like everyone at Axway to realize their impact on customer experience through their role. For example, our R&D teams develop solutions that are used by our customers; the easier to use and the more reliable, the better the customer experience. Also, our IT department helps us have the right tools to manage customer data which ultimately impacts our knowledge of our customers.
“I like helping people realize they have an impact on customer experience, even if they are not customer-facing. Realize your work has a purpose. People want to know why they go to work every day, why they do what they do.”
Career advice
As a former Erasmus student (an exchange program between European universities that started more than 30 years ago), Iolanda recommends studying abroad. She spent two years in Toulouse, France as a student, from 2010 to 2012 before moving to Paris for work.
Besides having access to academic resources and practicing a foreign language daily, Iolanda says studying abroad teaches you how to adapt to cultural differences and embrace diversity. Furthermore, it helps you gain empathy by interacting with other people who are in the same situation as you. It helps you be more sociable and gain social maturity.
Also, be curious! Iolanda also advises new employees to not just stick to a day-to-day routine.
“Be willing to look around and understand how your organization works and what your colleagues work on.”
Lastly, she says, stay connected with your professional community. What do professionals in your industry talk about? How is your industry changing? Iolanda recommends using LinkedIn to follow leaders in your field, read their blogs, attend conferences and stay up to date on what’s happening.
Philosophy for life
Iolanda’s philosophy for life is to not be afraid to step up when you have the chance. Embrace opportunities and be bold. It’s better to regret something you did than something you didn’t do.
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
Downtime
Iolanda is a citizen of the world. She loves traveling. She started visiting countries in Europe, then she broadened her horizons towards the Caribbean Sea (Cuba, Martinique) and Asia (only India so far, but she looks forward to visiting other countries).
Describing Iolanda’s homeland…Romania
Iolanda comes from Bucharest, Romania. She left her home country when she was 20 years old to study in France and pursue her academic goals. Many things have changed since she moved to Paris. Iolanda returns to visit her family at least twice a year. She sees the changes on the streets of Bucharest, this capital city is developing fast–more people are cycling, more foreign tourists are visiting. She finds this new European vibe and identity that have evolved over the years very positive.
Experience moving to another country
The most difficult part for Iolanda was learning a new language—French. Her hard-earned achievement helps her as she interacts with colleagues daily in French.
It was also difficult to adapt to a different life: different cultures, different systems, different ways of how things work—from the paperwork to the French humor. But in the end, it all comes in handy as this knowledge helps Iolanda adapt easily when working with customers and colleagues from other countries.
Her proudest moment at Axway
For Iolanda, her proudest moment is when she launched the CX Heroes Spotlight Series internally. Each month, she features employees who go above and beyond to provide a great customer experience. She also published Spotlight articles for public blogs with Axwegian achievements.
For the past two years, Iolanda has also been organizing internally a Customer Experience day at Axway to mark the International CX Day. Many people attended the celebrations, which included a treasure hunt in different offices around the world. In a short amount of time, she put together an engaging event that united employees around customer-centricity.
Thanks, Iolanda for all your great contributions to Axway.
Read more Life at Axway stories here.