With 12 years at SMS Susanne Skarfors shares her time between our partner relations and marketing communication teams. As Team Leader for partner relations she makes sure our partners and customers get excellent service. When she is not working she hangs with her family, goes for the occasional jog and dreams about owning an allotment for gardening.
How can a typical day of work look for you?
The partner relations team are six people with one of us working in the US and normally we start the day with a morning meeting over coffee and then the day is filled with calls, meetings and emails. We talk to a wide range of people on a daily basis. Everything from partners and production plants to end users and distributors and resellers that sell our products. In a way my days look very similar on paper but in reality it always depends on what is currently happening and what issues need solving.
What makes working at SMS fun?
At SMS we work toward common goals and even if we have our separate teams we are also one big team. When it comes to my job I like that our partners are long term partners so you get to know them well. Also I really like that I have the support from management to give really good service even at a cost for us. We are generous in our service and that is really important to me. In general I laugh a lot during my days. Even if there are problems to solve, it is always a nice atmosphere making work fun. Having been here since 2009 is a receipt that I think it is fun to be here.
What are you working on at the moment?
As part of the marketing communication team I plan events and trade shows which is a lot of what I do right now since our industry is opening back up again. We have the whole fall planned. I am really looking forward to meeting in person again. It is always easier to solve issues and communicate after you have met in person. In the partner relations team we are constantly improving flows and processes and now we are looking into how our email handling can be more efficient. We want to have an even better overview of the e-mail requests and questions coming in.
How does SMS work with customer service/partner relations?
SMS products are sold through distributors and resellers and we export a lot of our products so we have partners all over the world. All of us in the team are happy that we are allowed to give excellent service since it makes for good, longterm partnerships. We also have the mandate to decide how to best help the customer ourselves. We talk all the time between ourselves and work together in a really good way. I think I have a super team.
Why is good customer service so important at SMS?
True partnership och true service is one of SMS corner stones. And for me that is also a confirmation that what we do in my team is really important. SMS cannot always compete in pricing but we compete with excellent service and quality and for me that is the key. If you purchase an SMS product you can trust that it is good quality and that if you have questions you can always reach out to us. When it comes to service we have the possibility to be the best.
