Gatalina Sasaki is a Customer Sales and Service Representative at our corporate Smart City Networks office. She’s been here seven months and recently had the chance to venture out to the San Diego Convention Center, one of our partnered convention centers, to train and gain valuable hands-on experience while working with the field team. It was truly a wonderful corporate to field adventure. We caught up with Gatalina to talk about her experience! Read our full interview below!
THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME! SO TO BEGIN, HOW DID YOU FEEL WHEN YOU FOUND OUT YOU WOULD BE TRAVELING TO SAN DIEGO?
G: I didn’t think they were going to send me off on a trip so early in my career, but it was awesome!
HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT?
G: Basically when I signed up for this job, I was told that customer service reps go out into the field to learn hands-on experience. I’m told the goal is to send us out at least once a year, but this kind of fell into my lap. I got a text before work one day asking if I wanted to go and I jumped at the chance!
AND FROM MY UNDERSTANDING, YOU’D NEVER BEEN ON AN AIRPLANE BEFORE RIGHT? HOW WAS THAT EXPERIENCE?
G: It wasn’t too bad of a process! Onboarding took the longest, but luckily, turbulence treated me well!
SO WHAT DID YOU GO OUT TO SAN DIEGO SPECIFICALLY FOR?
G: Mostly to get a feel of how fieldwork is performed. My job entails making it essentially easier for field customer service and field techs to do their jobs. So being able to get my feet in and learn more about what exactly it is they need from me at the corporate office was the overall goal.
WAS THAT BENEFICIAL TO SEE HOW THE OTHER SIDE OPERATES?
G: Yes definitely, especially when it came to trouble tickets. I got to see the whole process.’
ARE THERE ANY BIG HIGHLIGHTS THAT ESPECIALLY STOOD OUT WHILE YOU WERE THERE?
G: Yeah, it was great communicating with the other customer service person that was there. Her name is Emily and she works at the San Diego Convention Center and the Los Angeles Convention Center. It was cool to get her insight. Our jobs don’t really differ that much, but I had to lean on her for a lot of questions, and I was appreciative of her for being there.
But in that same regard, before I left, I had the opportunity to speak with her about what she needed as a field customer service representative. It was great hearing exactly how I could be of best assistance to the field.
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE BIGGEST THING THAT YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR TRIP?
G: The biggest thing I learned… Keep all my electronics in my to-go bag! But other than that, it was just learning about the overall process of what field technicians need. I strive to help the field in any way that I can, so being able to communicate with them was super cool.
WHAT DO YOU SEE IS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CORPORATE TO FIELD LIFE?
G: The pace of things was the biggest difference between corporate to field life, you know what I mean? At corporate, we definitely have a bigger and longer timeline to work with. But once you’re onsite, you’ve got to deal with issues as soon as you speak to the customer and resolve things as soon as possible.
DO YOU WANT TO DO MORE TRAVELING IN THE FUTURE?
G: For sure! I’m definitely open to continuing assistance over in San Deigo, especially since I already have this rapport with the whole team, but I’m definitely open to any other convention center.
ANY FINAL THOUGHTS?
G: Overall, everything was super great. It was cool to hang out with the techs and get to know about the whole daily work function. Being able to experience the overall camaraderie San Diego has within their own center was a lot of fun.
Thank you to Gatalina Sasaki for her time! For more insightful Smart City Spotlight, click here!
