Category: [MEET METROQUEST]

At MetroQuest, one of our top priorities is to proactively support our clients. It is important to us that everyone who uses our software is successful and happy with the outcome. This is what makes our relatively new Customer Success branch so essential to the MetroQuest team! The role of our Customer Success Managers (CSMs) is to ensure our customers have a smooth onboarding process, answer any questions, resolve issues and overall improve the customer experience.

MetroQuest’s CSMs are a valuable piece of the puzzle and are always one step ahead of the game: any trouble you may run into, they already have the solution! They guarantee our customers are successful and care about building a trusting relationship.

I would like to introduce you to one of the expert CSMs on our team, Emily Margitan! As a MetroQuest CSM, Emily plays a significant role in our customers’ journey to creating a successful survey! Continue reading to learn about what a CSM’s day typically looks like, what the best approaches are to supporting clients, the key differences between Customer Support and Customer Success teams, and more!

Emily, can you give us the 10,000-foot view of your role at MetroQuest?

As a Customer Success Manager at MetroQuest, I support customers throughout their subscription period, from initial onboarding to survey development and results analysis. My goal is to ensure that our customers have the information, resources, and guidance they need to effectively engage their communities with MetroQuest. I act as primary contact for a subset of customers, so they know who first to contact if they need to seek advice on a survey.

The Customer Success team is relatively new! What’s your experience been like so far?

It’s been excellent! When I first joined MetroQuest, I worked in a coordinator role with the existing Customer Experience department, which was a great way to become familiar with our software. Now that I’m a designated contact for a portion of our customer base, I’m able to focus in and provide individualized support for each agency or project team.

Prior to MetroQuest, I worked in public engagement, developing surveys for major infrastructure projects. It’s been a great experience to work in a role closely aligned with what I did in the past that offers me a new perspective to learn and grow.

What does your day to day look like?

Every day is different, but a typical day usually includes responding to customer emails and proactively reaching out to different project teams. I may have an onboarding session with a new customer or a meeting to kick off a team’s subscription year. When I’m not helping customers, I write our monthly Survey of the Month blog where we highlight quality surveys. I’m also regularly in touch with our broader client services team to ensure we are aligned in the support we provide.

What is the major difference between Customer Support and Customer Success, to you?

To me, customer support and customer success go hand in hand. Our customer support team is the backbone of MetroQuest. They work with software users daily to quickly respond to technical questions and ensure surveys are prepared for a successful launch. In success, we are less reactive and more proactive in our approach. We are focused on the customer’s success from a broader perspective and work with customers to help them realize their engagement goals.

I’m lucky to work closely with the support team to help our customers facilitate quality virtual engagement surveys!

“I try to deal with every situation that comes across my desk with empathy and look at it from their point of view.”

What’s the most important thing that CSMs do to support clients in their success?

As a CSM, I believe the most important thing is to be perceptive and empathetic in all communications with customers. I know from experience that public engagement programs are not without challenges. It can be stressful to plan and execute a full consultation program, and even more so if you are also involved in the design or planning of the project! Whether a survey needs to launch on a tight schedule, a customer’s client is demanding a certain feature, or the public response is not as expected, I try to deal with every situation that comes across my desk with empathy and look at it from their point of view.

Do you have a favorite customer interaction story you can share?

Part of why I love my job is I get to interact with amazing, intelligent people daily.

I recently met with a customer who was taking over a survey which was already in draft form. We identified ways the survey framework could be improved by changing the Screens and reworking some content. It was very rewarding for me to work individually with this person to determine what they needed to get out of the survey and agree on a new format. I enjoy any opportunity to exercise my passion for quality survey design. Additionally, it is even more gratifying to see a survey launch and gather thousands of responses!

What do you like to do outside of work?

I’m very fortunate to live in British Columbia. I enjoy going for short hikes and love to ski. Growing up, my life revolved around horses, and I hope to bring riding back into my regular routine sometime soon.

At home, you’ll usually find me in the kitchen listening to an audiobook and cooking up a storm. I’m also passionate about local history and the preservation of character homes; in my free time, I research properties and contribute findings to Vancouver’s heritage foundation.

Tackling a new software or developing an important survey can be overwhelming. Like Emily mentioned, CSMs are there to cater to what you need; they focus on your individual, short-term needs in hopes your survey is as efficient and accessible as possible. With someone there to personally guide you through survey development process, it helps ease any uncertainty you may be feeling.

There can be a lot of confusion on the difference between Customer Support and Customer Success. Emily lays it out perfectly here, but to further break it down: Customer Support is there to address incoming questions when someone needs help, whereas Customer Success is all about identifying and nurturing the customer’s goals. In the case of MetroQuest, our CSMs get ahead of the game because we want you to succeed and engage as many people as you possible!

We get excited about all types of urban and transportation planning topics here at MetroQuest. Sustainability is definitely something we’re all passionate about, but perhaps one of us tops the list. I’d like to introduce you to Norma Hogan whose pursuit of sustainability is inspiring others at work, home and in our community. Let’s get to know Norma a little better…

What drew you to MetroQuest seven years ago?

From the very beginning, I loved the intersection between sustainability and technology, particularly computers and online engagement. While I’m far from a programmer, I’ve always considered myself to be a bit of a closet computer nerd – and I mean that in the nicest way possible as the “nerds” around here are a fantastic group of brilliant people. Sustainability has been my passion for as long as I can remember, so finding a job that combined the two seemed like hitting the jackpot. To me, computers are a means to an end, the end in this case being sustainability and public engagement.

Norma, can you give us the 10,000-foot view of your role at MetroQuest?

I’ve held a number of different roles over the past seven years. I started as a configuration manager, which meant designing MetroQuest surveys for our customers. I was then promoted to project manager before MetroQuest became a Software as a Service (SaaS) company. Most recently, I worked as a Success Manager working closely with our customers to help them make the most out of MetroQuest. Since recently returning from completing my Master’s Degree in Environment and Management, I’m wearing many hats working on strategic projects and sharing my experience with the Customer Success and Support team and the Marketing department.

Are you able to draw on your passion for sustainability and utilize it in your role at MetroQuest?

Many, if not most, of the planning projects that our customers use MetroQuest for have elements of sustainability – from transit projects to climate change adaptation plans and everything in between. Especially as a project manager, I felt like a planner through osmosis. Having some knowledge in sustainability has definitely been an advantage. While working at MetroQuest, I’ve also had the opportunity to go back to school and complete my Master’s Degree in Sustainability and Management. I’m excited that I now get to write about sustainability for our marketing department and share the important work our customers are doing to move sustainability forward.

What do you think your customers do differently in terms of public engagement?

Our customers understand the importance of hearing from the silent majority: those who don’t attend public meetings or workshops … or perhaps do attend, but don’t necessarily make their voice heard. So many people fall into this category – youth, students, working parents, all of whom don’t have the time or don’t find traditional ways of engagement appealing. And yet, their opinions very much do matter.

By adding online engagement to their public engagement strategy, our customers get input from a much broader demographic. Not just for optics, because they genuinely want to get buy-in from the public to ensure they build a better plan that the public will support. To me, that’s a critical element of democracy. To bring it back to sustainability – we need a broad demographic to be informed, rather than just preach to the already converted, and everyone to be heard equally, not just the squeaky wheel. 

What do you like to do outside of work?

I volunteer in a couple of different sustainability capacities – on the Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee to the City of Surrey Council as well as on the Environmental Team for the Surrey Board of Trade. I also volunteer for the David Suzuki Foundation in more capacities than I could list here, from coaching families to live greener to tending to pollinator gardens. If I’m not volunteering or working, I spend time with my family, most likely doing something active and outdoors with my husband and my two beautiful children.

Stay tuned for many blogs on sustainability authored by Norma. I know I’ll be excited to read them…