PPB November 2020

SHERI MISCHKE Technical Support Representative BrightStores Years at this company: 2.5 D uring Sheri Mischke’s relatively short tenure at business services company BrightStores, her problem-solving abilities have earned her the admiration and respect frommany of her support and sales team colleagues. Among them, six nominated Mischke for Service Superhero citing her patience, knowledge and uncanny ability to remain calm amid the occasional crisis. “It takes a special person to be the lead customer phone contact of a company store software business,” says nominator and BrightStores’ vice president, Tanya Ignacek. “The topic is technical, but the clients sometimes are not. So, it’s important that this person is someone who is technical but also offers understanding and patience. Sheri is that special person. She cares about helping our customers and it shows in everything she does.” Before joining Denver, Colorado-based BrightStores, Mischke worked in technical customer support and project management, mainly with SaaS (Software as a Service) companies and supported a warehousing software product where she gained knowledge of the order fulfillment life cycle. Mischke always go above and beyond to solve a client’s problem, says nominator and technical support rep, Akhil Shastry, who was one of last year’s Service Superheroes. “We had a client come to us with a very specific scenario on how they wanted to offer something on their company store. Sheri worked with them on multiple calls to understand their needs and come up with the best solution to collect the data from shoppers. Sheri works diligently to solve challenging issues for clients every single day.” Colleague and nominator Lauri Rohan adds that Mischke never loses patience with clients, no matter how frustrating the situation might be. “One of my clients is particularly uncomfortable using computers, and I have overheard her walking them through the same process over and over again until they understand and feel comfortable using the feature. She truly is the person I always want on the other end of my support calls.” One-On-One With Sheri Mischke How the pandemic has affected her approach: Since we are based in Colorado, we were all set up to work remotely in case of a blizzard or other weather event, so we were able to seamlessly transition to a remote support model. As the world changed overnight, so did the promotional products industry and our client’s stores had to adapt as well. We have been busy helping our clients adjust their product configurations and stores to meet their customers’ new requirements. Her inspiration to deliver great service: I’ve certainly had my share of questions with software products I’ve used, and I know what it’s like to be in a position of needing assistance. I try to provide our customers with the level of service and professionalism I appreciate when I’m in their shoes. No. 1 tip to share with others: Listen and look a little deeper. I work hard to answer the specific question a client is asking, but as they are summarizing their requirements, I take a quick look at their entire store configuration to see if there is anything else I can offer, so they don’t find out the hard way that something is not configured to meet their requirements. Best personal customer service experience: My car had just been serviced and broke down on the way home. My mechanic came to my car on the roadside to fix the issue. I appreciated his willingness to admit the mistake and make it right. I still use his service years later. Service Superheroes | FEATURE | NOVEMBER 2020 | 23