Blog | Abcam: Origami, invoices and tested applications: a day in the life of Abcam's Customer Service
Origami, invoices and tested applications: a
day in the life of Abcam's Customer Service
Posted At : May 5, 2009 7:10 PM | Posted By : Jillian
Related Categories: Meet Abcam, Cambridge (US)
My name is Jillian, and I'm a Customer Service
representative in Abcam's US office. We're open
around the clock...(Well, not literally, but close!)...in
order to meet the needs of our customers!
In the US, we're here Monday through Friday, 8:30am
until 8:00pm (EST, of course). We're even open
Saturdays from 10am until 3pm! In the UK office
we're open 8:00 until 17:00 GMT Monday to Friday.
View contact details for your country
Since we're always trying to find new ways to connect
with our customers here at Abcam, we thought it
would a great idea to walk you through a day in the
magical world of Customer Service!
9:30am
I stumble off my bike, walk up to the 3rd floor, and
settle onto the exercise ball, which I use for a chair.
The phones have already been on for an hour, and
we've been receiving faxes since before I woke up, so I start processing the two fax orders I
found waiting on my desk, while I take my first call of the day.
It's a technical call, which I was recently trained to start handling. Customer Service fields all of
the technical calls, and we are trained to handle first line calls, such as questions about products
that can be answered by using the datasheet. This usually includes price, availability, reactivity,
tested applications, concentration, where to find Abreviews and much, much more! Feel free to
check out the datasheet of your favorite product on our website to see what I mean!
If you need info on things like positive controls or you're having a problem with one of our
products, then we would transfer the call so you could speak to a member of our expert Scientific
Support department.
11:30am
After returning from my 15-minute break, I examine the pink origami flower I just made as I
check our shared inbox. This is where we receive and distribute the inquiries and orders that
customers send to us via email. We work on these throughout the day, so if you need a quick
response try shooting us an email. Checking your inquiries while processing faxes and phone calls
keeps us busy, and out of trouble!
Blog | Abcam: Origami, invoices and tested applications: a day in the life of Abcam's Customer Service
As I started responding to a customer's email, a customer phoned with a few questions about her
invoice so I called up one of the lovely people in our Accounts department to give them a
heads-up before I transferred the call to them. We're really good at looking out for each other here
at Abcam. It's just better for everyone when we keep each other informed about inquiries that
affect more than one department.
2:30pm
Today is our weekly meeting, where everyone in our office (all 60 of us!) gets together for a short
meeting: to touch base, and find out what's going on in each department, in our other offices.
Don't worry, even during the meeting we have coverage in Customer Service and Scientific
Support! This week is my turn, along with two other reps, to stay back during the meeting and
cover the phones.
6:00pm
As another day comes to a close, I make sure I've completed all my work for the day before
leaving my exercise ball to rest under my desk for the night. When everything seems in order, I
grab my bike helmet and say "See-yah!" to the rest of our team working until 8:00pm.
So that's a day in the life of a Customer Service Rep at Abcam. We're busy little bees, but we do
our best to stay on top of our game and always put our customers first.