Tobias started working at Blacklane in 2015 as a customer happiness officer. Three years later, he shares his experiences so far.
A last-minute booking, pickup time is in one hour and we have no driver assigned to it yet. I start to call drivers. The first one can’t be reached, the second has no availability. Time is running out. The passenger is expecting the driver’s details. Finally I have a driver on the phone, he has time and we agree on a price. He presses the button and done, sold, the driver presses “on the way to pickup” and the passenger gets an SMS with his details. I punch the air, YES! If you could see me you might think I just scored a goal. Well, that’s exactly how it feels. There was a challenge and I found the solution.
But let’s start at the beginning: my name is Tobias, I am 28 years old and I started working at Blacklane in November 2015. It is my first job in Customer Care. I never really had this kind of job on my radar. I asked a good friend if he could give me a tip for a job, something temporary. He told me about Blacklane and I applied for the Customer Happiness Officer position. I remember looking at the job description and thinking: “Perfect, this job is asking for skills I have.” After applying, everything went pretty fast. I quickly understood what I had to do and I really loved the interaction with customers, working in a team with my colleagues, and finding solutions together.
I never felt alone in a tough situation, except one time on a night shift, a lady was very upset. It was very overwhelming in that moment. Afterwards I asked for feedback, and had a great session with my Team Lead about it. That helped me a lot for future calls. I like that when we make mistakes or face difficult cases, we receive constructive feedback and are encouraged to learn.
After 10 months, the opportunity opened up for me to move to a second-level team, Service Control. Service Control is all about making sure we have a driver assigned to every single ride, that our drivers are on time, and that our customers get the driver details in time.
It is a completely new challenge, a much smaller team with more decisions to make. As an athlete who comes from team sports, every single shift is like a game. And I want to win!
We give our best every single day to have a driver assigned to every ride worldwide. Calling drivers, assigning rides, creating backups if necessary. Every single solution feels like a win. Sometimes you feel like you’re about to have a goal scored against you – like if a driver is unable to make it due to unforeseen circumstances. We always try to find an alternative solution though, like in the scenario I first described.
Whatever the challenge, whatever the outcome, at the end of a shift, I know I gave my best. The pressure of meeting customers’ needs and the spirit of teamwork makes every shift a new and rewarding challenge.
