Full Name: Jessie Benson
Job Title: Client Services Manager
Start Date (Month & Year): July 2021
Tell us a fun fact or something interesting about yourself? I live in a small town named after a gun (Rifle) and have two daughters with the same birthday — but they are not twins!
What is your position at Silverline?
Client Services Manager within Managed Services.
What does your average day look like?
I start off the mornings with a fresh cup of coffee while I go through emails and review my calendar for the day to make sure I am able to prioritize anything urgent. From here, I try to address those urgent items, whether that be by setting up additional meetings to get to the source of an issue, or calling in the big guns for development related bugs. In the mornings, I typically block a half hour on my calendar in order to take my oldest daughter to school. I love the flexibility that Silverline offers to be able to have that time with my kiddo to see her off every morning. Throughout the day I try to keep up with emails and incoming requests while hosting various types of meetings:
- Status calls with customers where we review budget, resources, risk items, and upcoming enhancements
- Internal stand-ups where we check the status of current items, confirm we have the time available to do the work we have planned and that we have no blockers
- Solutioning calls where we dig into requirements and decide the best plan of action and level of effort that the plan will take
- Internal team calls where we plan out our resources, review budget on open projects, and learn about both upcoming features and newly developed enhancements within the Salesforce platform
- Fun internal calls setup by Donut where we get to spend a little time getting to know team members that we might not normally work with
As the day comes to an end, I re-review items that were discussed on internal calls to make sure they are moving along as discussed, or check in with the team to see if there are new blockers. If I have a new project coming I will review upcoming resource plans, kickoff schedules, and budgets to make sure we are ready to roll as soon as the customer is ready to kickoff. Lastly, I will wrap up any outstanding emails that I was not able to get to throughout the day before logging time and logging off for the day.
How did you find out about Silverline and your current position?
I have known the Silverline name for a long time. When I was looking to make a change I wanted it to be for a company that had the same beliefs as my own and valued their people as much as their customers. I felt Silverline checked those boxes!
What motivates you at work?
Two things:
- I am motivated by my customers, I love coming into an existing business process and being able to find ways to make their day to day lives easier.
- I am motivated by my team. For me, being surrounded by people who are smarter than me is the best way to learn and grow, and I definitely have that here at Silverline.
What are some interesting challenges you face?
I have a tendency to learn a business and ‘geek out’ a bit at all of the things that I know could rock their world. Sometimes my excitement leads to their excitement and can be followed by a wish to get everything done all at once, which is usually not realistic.
What new things have you learned since you began working at Silverline?
I’ve learned that being profitable and putting the customer first actually can be one and the same. Silverline has an amazing way of working around circumstances and making things work without making the customer feel like we are all about the bottom line.
What do you think makes Silverline successful?
In my opinion so far, Silverline is successful because they don’t put customers or their internal team in a box. They acknowledge that no person or organization is the same as the next and are very accommodating to different schedules, needs, and personalities, both within their own organization and their customers.
What is your favorite perk?
My flexible schedule allows me to work full time (sometimes more) and be able to balance my personal life with my family and the chaos that it can sometimes be.
What is your favorite memory from working at Silverline?
I am still super new so I have only had a month to really make any memories but I was able to go through onboarding with a super fun colleague and I get to meet with her and another new team member weekly. It’s turned into a really great “get to know each other” type call while also being able to ask those “dumb questions” that we might be afraid to ask anywhere else.
What do you hope for your future at Silverline?
I hope to continue to grow both in my Salesforce and project management chops as well as learning other platforms. I love that Silverline supports more than just Salesforce and allows their team the opportunity to be functional across multiple platforms.
What advice would you give someone considering a job at Silverline?
DO IT.
