Customer Experience Manager
Siemens Financial Services

I joined Siemens Financial Services in 1999 as a graduate trainee and spent five years in sales roles before becoming our customer experience manager in September 2004.

I manage the customer services team based at the main Siemens Financial Services offices in Harrow. Like most businesses, we have recognised that excellent customer service is a key business differentiator and fundamental to our success. I also represent Siemens Financial Services on the steering group for Think Customer, the UK-wide customer excellence programme for Siemens.

I'm incredibly results-driven and set myself high standards for getting things done. Persuasive skills are also important – at times you need to convince the business to take a leap of faith to realise long-term goals when the impact of good service on the bottom line isn't always immediate.

There’s usually something challenging to deal with each day, but if you don't put yourself in difficult situations, you won't ever get out of the comfort zone or learn new things. When the going gets tough, tomorrow is always another day. When I'm playing Spiderman games with my four-year-old godson in the evenings, who doesn't care about my customer service targets, it makes you realise that no day is really that tough.

Having regular dialogue with people in similar roles in other parts of Siemens with common challenges is extremely useful - we can learn a lot from each other. It's reassuring that there is a group of people committed to ensuring that everyone at Siemens puts the customer first.