Recently, The Start Up Growth interviewed our CEO, Michelle Joosse, in a segment labelled, Pop Quiz Monday. The questions and answers are below – enjoy the read!
What is your job role?
CEO or some may say, Chief Nerd Herder. Working in IT you employ a lot of Geeks (they wear that term as a badge of honour), and so a lot of what I do is making IT sound less techy and more engaging and point out how we can use technology to make people’s lives easier in running their businesses.
Tell us about your company?
Hotline IT prevents technology headaches for businesses. From the day to day management of their IT network to identifying where technology can make their life easier and even save them money. We work with businesses on a strategic level to ensure you have the best solution for you now and for your future plans.
What do you love most about your job?
Making people’s lives easier and showing them the benefits of technology. I’m passionate about educating business owners and managers in seeing technology as an asset to their business, not just a cost.
What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?
Knowing that I am making a difference. Hotline IT has always been about developing long term relationships with our customers and so engaging with our customers and feeling like we are valued gives me my spring in my step each morning.
How do your co-workers inspire you?
My team are very innovative and inspire me when they come up with a solution to a problem or a way to make things easier.
I love that they are not afraid to make suggestions of ways we can improve and deliver a better service to our customers.
How do you have fun at work (team building, pranks, etc..)?
The technical guys love to shoot each other with nerf guns when they are not busy working. We have an Active social club with outings, BBQs, Pizza. In our weekly meetings, we chat about our weekends and usually what computer games they are all playing.
What are some of the challenges of your job?
I am keeping all the plates spinning. I have a lot of responsibilities so ensuring they all get the attention they need. I need to be careful not to focus too much on only one area of the business. I need to ensure I am addressing all eight P’s of the business – Price, Product, Promotion, Place, Production, Process, People and Profit.
What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?
Keep it simple. Sometimes the simplest option is best. We tend to think things over sometimes and come up with a solution that over complicates the issue. We have found by engaging the relevant stakeholders, rather than just the decision makers, within the business, we get a clearer idea of what the underlying issues and the wish list is and come up with a solution that works first time and addresses everyone’s needs.
What advice would you give to someone who is starting in your industry?
You need to have people who know tech, but it is more important to ensure they have great customer service skills. After all, regardless of the technology, we are still dealing with people.
We always say that we are a customer service business that does IT, not an IT business that delivers customer service.
If you’d like to experience our exceptional customer service skills first hand, contact us today.
