In this interview, we meet with Alice Beeby, Client Director at Appointedd. She discusses the role of Client Partners and Client Success Managers and how they provide proactive and strategic support to clients – from onboarding and training to data reviews and client feedback.
Hi Alice, could you please tell us a bit about you and your role here at Appointedd?
Hi, I am Alice and I am Client Director here at Appointedd and I’ve been here for just over three years. I started at Appointedd actually just before covid hit, so I got three months to get to know the product and team, and then we all went remote.
I lived in Edinburgh for just over 11 years. I’ve been lovely living back up here. My family is from here originally, and I have a wonderful big black labrador whom a lot of my clients have seen. He bounces every so often at the back of my calls just to say hi sometimes.
I started at Appointedd in 2019 as an Account Manager and I worked my way up to being promoted to Client Director in summer last year. My role is something I always want to do more of. I started off when I moved to Edinburgh in events, then I moved into business development specifically, but there is this part that I really love which is being able to build relationships with clients and watching them grow from that very first meeting, all the way through to seeing them years later.
What does your role involve on a day to day basis?
Like many other jobs, there is no day that is the same in my role. A lot of it is working with our existing clients, having calls with them, understanding how they are using Appointedd, making sure they are using all our features that are relevant to them so they can really make the most of it. But also looking at how they are using it so we can see where we can make further feature enhancements as well.
I also absolutely love working with new prospects so what we do with them is really to get under the skin of what is that they are wanting to achieve; why they are looking at the booking platform; and how Appointedd will be able to really help them improve their customer experience but also help them reduce their staff admin time as well.
What’s the structure of the team? And how does the team support new clients?
We have a few Client Partners and Client Director such as myself. We will be the ones who will engage with prospects from the beginning so we will go through the discovery process with them to really understand what the use case is. Then the Client Success Managers who, as it’s in their titles, are there to ensure the success of each and every one of our clients that comes in. They are much more an operational contact. They will ensure that the setup is exactly how the client is expecting it to be and the Client Partner or Client Director is there to really build that relationship, be more strategic about how they can be using Appointedd in many other areas of their business.
What does client onboarding look like at Appointedd?
As soon as a client has come onboard with Appointedd, we will introduce them to their Client Success Manager. We really feel that the continuation of the relationship is really important, and we will have what we call our kick off call. That’s when we will introduce our Client Success Manager to the new client, walk through what we understand the use case to be, and what the critical path is, which is our six stage implementation plan. So that it is really clear to our clients and us that we’re all on the same page, but we will work with our timings with them to make sure that it’s really fitting in when they are wanting to go live, taking into consideration other projects that they have going on at that time. We really want them to see us as part of their team, like we’re this other project team that is working alongside them to get them going and get them live.
How long does it take for a client to be onboarded and start using Appointedd?
We can actually set up a client in a little as two weeks, obviously depending on the scale and size of the project, but the great thing is that we are able to work with them to really refine this process down. So we will do a bit of discovery initially, we will then do user acceptance testing to make sure that the way we’re setting up and the way we’re building the journey to be is exactly how the client is envisaging it to be. After that, we will make sure that all the subsequent setups are working in exactly the same way.
We will then do training with the client’s team to make sure that they are fully comfortable and confident using Appointedd, they can ask any questions and then we will ensure they’re all primed and ready to do for their live date, when they can start using Appointedd with their customers.
How does the role of the Client Partners and Client Success Managers add more value to clients than the usual account management?
We’ve had a lot of feedback from our existing clients on the fact that their account management with us has been so much stronger than any other provider they have worked with previously.
For us, it’s not just about bringing on a client and having that initial kick off call with them. We make sure that we stand by them not only during implementation but also all the way through their lifetime with Appointedd. So we will be on close stand by when they’re going live to ensure they have everything they need. And when they’re up and running and they’re much more fluid with how they’re using Appointedd, we also do regular data reports with them to make sure that they are able to view what’s happening – when their bookings are being made; what time of day; from which source or which channels they are being directed through.
We will also look with our customers at where we would be able to make further recommendations. Every so often we do booking audits with them, where we will go through their customer journey and their staff journey as well, to see where things can be improved, such as better communications or reduce down the time to make bookings. All things that we’re able to see by looking at their data to make better recommendations for them.
Do clients play a role in the development of the Appointedd platform?
We’re an evergreen platform so something that is very important to us is our clients’ feedback. We have a feedback form that our clients can complete, wherever they’ve come across anything or if there is something they’re just thinking about and it would be helpful for them. That feedback go then straight to our Development Team. They work in 6 to 8 weeks sprints. They look at all the feedback that we’re getting, and when there are common themes coming through, then they will scope that project.
What’s fabulous about that is that we will then be able to add our clients in at that point when we’re doing any user testing for them to be able to give their feedback at that point. This is really helpful as they feel much more part of the development of Appointedd, rather than it just being a software that we bring to them.
Any exciting new project you’re working on at the moment?
Yes, we’re just in the process of onboarding one of Britain’s oldest retailers, who are going through a big digital transformation process at the moment. So we’re really really excited to be working with them. One that everybody would have a story from possibly when they were kids growing up in the UK. Very excited to be working with them alongside one of our partners as well to be getting them live later this year.
Thank you, Alice.
Want to find out more about Appointedd and our enterprise offering? Speak with Alice or one of our enterprise experts by booking a call here.
Published on 30 January 2023
