PPB November 2020

ANNA PACZKOWSKA CREATIVE Promotional Marketing Agency Creative Director Years at this company: 15 A nna Paczkowska realizes the importance of customer service, having learned it in a job where her livelihood depended on it—waiting tables. For 10 years, she held down two jobs—freelance graphic designer and waitress. “I know how good service translates to happy customers. This experience allowed me to understand the importance and value in providing exceptional customer service,” she says. Fifteen years ago, Paczkowska joined Edmonton, Alberta, distributor CREATIVE Promotional Marketing Agency as a graphic design specialist. Currently, she’s responsible for design associated with company events, marketing campaigns, web development, SEO, company culture videos, project galleries, graphic design, brand management and more. Kelly Tran, one of four colleagues who nominated Paczkowska, explains her interaction with the entire team. “Anna works to understand the purpose of each project to ensure what she designs or creates is exactly what the client wants—sometimes even making recommendations that exceed clients’ expectations of what they were wanting. The more creative a project, the more Anna thrives.” Nominator and colleague Rob Mandryk says, “Anna is integral in the creative and developmental process of these projects and comes up with amazing solutions to make them successful. She brings amazing creativity, gumption and perseverance to give these projects life. Any roadblocks she hits are met with tenacity to figure out solutions.” One-On-One With Anna Paczkowska How the pandemic has affected her approach: I am busier now than I ever was before. Most of my design work was already mainly via email communication so that has not changed much. We pivoted early in the pandemic into new digital marketing services and virtual marketing assistance. These days, I am busy as we navigate around many challenges our clients are having with marketing during this time and supporting them as they are trying to reinvent themselves. Her inspiration to deliver great service: I truly love my job. Because I love design, marketing and brand communication, I set a high standard for myself in every project. I try to look at each final project, not just through my client’s eye, but their audience’s eyes because most of the time those are the people whose attention we’re really trying to get. No. 1 tip to share with others: You are a part of the brand. A person’s opinion of a company is not only shaped by the visual aspects of the brand but also by all of the interactions with their people. And in the moment when you are providing customer service to the client, you are shaping their overall view of the company you work for. You are providing value to the company brand and you have the power to influence the client’s opinion of it. Best personal customer service experience: I personally run an ecommerce site and drop-ship my products. When I first started, I used to stress so much about the possibility of my clients receiving a damaged product in the mail. What I realized through a few times when it actually happened, is that my producer/drop-shipper had my back, no questions asked. This shows me that they care and have the success of my business top of mind. Now, on the rare occasion that my customer notifies me of damage that occurred during shipping, I can confidently let them know that a new product will be on the way, priority mail, and no cost to them (or to me). This sort of assurance is so rarely found and means the world to me as a small-business owner. This obviously would not work for every business model and service provided, but if you can make your clients understand how much you care about them and their business, they will come back to you again and again. FEATURE | Service Superheroes 24 | NOVEMBER 2020 |