A day in the life of a Vpress Account Manager…
and how it’s changed!

February 2020 Tuesday morning:

Early morning start at 5.30am coffee bring the feeling into my body and a piece of toast on the run to the train station. Slow train into town, I am hoping for a seat this morning, just to give me the chance to open the laptop on the way. The first meeting, central London 9 am requires the 7.08 am train in to get through to it.

Great meeting with Client A, lasted a little longer than expected, but coffee break time to catch up some emails and calls to other clients. Seems Client B is needing some help with a tender they are doing, they have asked if I can quickly complete a few questions for them. There are 54 IT and security questions ranging from hosting details through to some quite technical encryption questions. This is going to require me to gather at least 4 people from within Vpress to help answer these questions, nothing quick about this but will start with our Technical Director on that one.

Coffee is going down well and a sneaky cheese toastie, onto another request from Client C, do I have time to help with a client demo next week? Of course, that’s something I love doing and could say pretty good at if I say so myself, probably because I enjoy it. Argghh, agreed to next week and Client C has replied quick that they do not have a demo site ready could we help with this. Professional Services team also love me on these requests, “NOT” no artwork, no brief, but can I have a branded demo site by Friday!!

Right, time to move, quick bus over to the east side of town for my next meeting. This is one of my quarterly client reviews, a run through their sites, usage, new features we now have and plans for the future. The client also has a couple of exciting opportunities coming our way, it’s great to see the client thinking of how we can help them more, makes my job a little easier. Wow, where has the day gone, already 2.30 pm.

Another coffee shop, emails, missed calls, well actually 12 missed calls, need to call Client D back asap it seems. Interesting call, their client has realised that one of their users has been ordering far too much print material and wondered if there is something Coreprint can do to help. I have suggested putting this user on authorisation so their orders can be controlled, great idea, but how? A quick run-through over the phone and followed by an email with our help sheet on it works.

Ok, finally cleared the most important emails, looked up and 4pm is arriving. Do I start my journey home through rush hour or wait a while? Let’s give it ago.. bus back to Waterloo Station, arrive two minutes after the train home leaves, so 30-40min wait until the next one. I suppose it gives me more time for more emails. Finally on the train, no seats so it’s a standing challenge for the next hour and 15min. Home 7pm-ish, but at least it’s not the same tomorrow, drive down the coast.

 

June 2020 Friday morning:

Well here we are locked down, but Coreprint is still running and clients are receiving jobs and work through, so support and account management are still here.

No travel, but I have a full diary with Zoom, Goto Meeting, Team meetings as well as emails and calls.

9 am first meeting of the day on Skype – the account management meeting to see how everyone is doing with these new times, interesting to see everyone’s homes. Didn’t realise Dave, the other account manager at Vpress, has such a great lounge with bi-fold doors!

A few laughs and discussions, now on to client work.

10.30 am Webex with Client A to discuss how we can help with workflow from Coreprint through to their printing presses. XML order job submission to their MI and FTP transfer of artwork into their hot folders is just the trick.

11.30 am Go to Meeting with Client B to demo our new Modal module, which allows for Coreprint templates and products to be used within other platforms and systems without the need for the user to be transferred into Coreprint. Good webex be long.

A quick sandwich and onto the next webex.

1 pm Webex to Client C’s client demonstration of the system and answering question to secure the project for Client C.

2 pm Zoom with Client D in regards to a new project they have coming, this included 2 of my technical team.

3 pm Teams with Client A again, a couple of issues from the webex this morning, but easily resolved.

With a whole day of back to back Webex, its time to catch up on emails missed calls.

Ok, the last webex of the day coming up, 4.30 pm with one of my US clients. The only time they could do.

It’s strange, I have not driven or left the house, but I feel exhausted. If this is going to be the new normal I think I am going to have to manage the Webex and calls differently. Maybe 45 min calls to enable a break and catchup, certainly allows me to be in contact with more clients in a day, but hard work.

So here is a before and after COVID sample day in the life of an account manager. I hope this has been of interest and useful to all, one thing which would be good to understand is if your account manager doesn’t answer your phone immediately or reply to your email immediately please allow an hour or so, we are probably on a call or webex which may last for an hour or so. We will be in touch though as soon as we can.

Thanks for reading.