The most exciting time in Baridi Baridi is morning--James Marro 【Baridi Baridi employee interview vol.6】

This time, we interviewed James Marro, Customer Success Mgr. in Baridi Baridi Tanzania.

Baridi Baridi members appearing in this interview

James Marro
Born in Kilimanjaro Region. Experienced more than a Six years in the Customer Service industry and Sales Operations. After that, worked as customer Care Agent in Tigo Call Center. Experienced as a team leader that being involved in creating and maintaining hospital management systems. Joined Baridi Baridi as a call center officer in 2021. From January 2022, assigned as a Customer Success Mgr.

Shuto Sakai (Interviewer/Editor)
Currently a graduate student at Kobe University. Joined Baridi Baridi as an intern in October 2020. Experienced working as an intern at Baridi Baridi Tanzania from August to October 2021. 

One of the reasons that he changed job is his family

--Thank you for taking the time today. I will ask some questions about you.

James: Okay.

--Let's start. First, please tell me about yourself.

James: Okay. My name is James Marro. I work as a call center officer (Position at the time of the interview in October 2021. Currently, positioned as Customer Success  Mgr.). I was the first person on our CS team.

--Okay, thank you. I want to ask about you before joining Baridi Baridi. What were you doing?

James: Okay. Previously, I worked as a regional channel executive at a solar light company. The company's main business was to provide solar panels on a monthly payment basis and, more specifically, to sell TVs and mobile phones in combination with solar panels. So, customers pay little by little until they finish the payment, Then, finally, customers can get the device afterfinishing their loan.

James: I worked as a regional channel executive at Mtwara. I've been working so hard for six months. I recognized anything assigned me to ask for another task in the Tanga region. In the Tanga region, the position of regional channel executive was vacant because he went to another position. So, I was selected to establish the infrastructure in the Tanga region while following up my former region. That means I was in charge of two regions.

-- I see. You were a success at the former company.

James: (Laughs) It was a success. I think it was an experience.

--Okay. What brought you to Baridi Baridi, although you had good experiences in that former company?

James: The first thing I can say is I chose my family. My family is based in Dar es Salaam. I have a wife and a 2-year-old child. During my previous position, I traveled a lot. I spent most of the three months outside of Dar es Salaam. It was such a struggle.

The second reason was that the business model of my previous company looked like Baridi Baridi because it also had a subscription plan. So, according to my experience, that was not going to be a problem for me, but it was an excellent experience handling those types of business.

--I see. But you know Baridi Baridi’s business model is different from that company in whether customers can own the product.

James: Yes.

--How did you think about Baridi Baridi’s business?

James: Actually good. If customers can calculate their AC usage fees, they can find tthat buying their own AC is higher than subscribing to Baridi Baridi. There is a lot of advantages like free maintenance. If there is a problem with the AC, we will replace it.

The most exciting time in Baridi Baridi is morning

--I would like to ask you about the current job in Baridi Baridi in the CS team.

James: Okay. Currently, as a system, you know, we are in charge of explaining our service to customers and managing site checks (site check is deciding whether we can install AC at the customer’s site). We also handle calls from customers who start to use the service. Then, of course, we take the customer's problems after installation. .
We have a lot of tasks at once. But we are doing our best to make sure we can achieve our goals.

--So the CS team is the first touchpoint from our customer, right?

James: Yes. If we compare it to a battlefield, it is like a soldier fighting on the front lines. All challenges come from the customers.
We need to get practical experience and data. Customer feedback is helpful in the work of any CS team, and we have to learn. It can make us more efficient in responding according to the actual situation.

--Okay, thank you. I know you have lots of tasks. Do you enjoy your complicated situation?

James: It’s good. I was assigned as a leader of Customer Success and got various experiences. But another experience I can get from the marketing team is that the CS team cooperates with the marketing team. So people are coming to me to consult. So it's an excellent experience for me because I can receive different feedback from each team at the same time. 

--So, how are you managing the CS team?

James: I can't do it all by myself. If Baridi Baridi grows, my team will grow. It will be better if we can segment our team. It means establishing sub-leaders. Then that will be easier to manage the team. There will be like 15 or 20 people in each team.
So, we will be able to create a structure in each team and some leaders.

--When is the most interesting time when you work in Baridi Baridi?

James: In the morning.

-- How come?

James: It’s when colleagues come to the office and do some small tasks, eat breakfast, or talk together before starting work. I think the mental health of employees is significant.

So, I greet everyone because I believe that mornings are crucial. Greeting each other with a smile in the morning makes me feel fresh and gives me a perfect morning. From this point of view, the mornings I spend at Baridi Baridi are excellent because everyone is cheerful.

--Finally, I want to ask about your goal and your team’s goal..

James: I want to visualize team scoring system. The first thing is to serve an excellent experience to our customers as it always has been and always will be. We need to collect feedbacks so that we can see it. The second thing is we must expand our customer base. From any source of the data that we get, we can contact a person and see potential customers. So that's very important to make sure we get customers.

We faced some challenges inuploading customers’ information. Currently, some systems are not uploading directly automatically. So, we have a manual task. However, it's not a significant challenge because we're able to solve the current, in the next time, it can be able to update at the same time automatic which can be easier task.

And I said that to make a more structured organization, we need to create another leader in our team. My dream as a CS team leader is to create other people who can be humble looking at us.

--I see.

I care about my family more than anyone

--You said one of the reasons you changed job is your family. What are you doing on your weekends and holidays?

James: Most of the weekends, I spend all my time with my family, especially on Saturdays My wife and I can stay with my child. On Sundays, we go to church. In the afternoon, we have a small exercise at the playground. We usually run, and I do some pushups. It is very important for me to spend time with my family. I want to stay close to my family for the rest of my life.

--Nice.

James: And I usually read some books.

--What kind of books?

James: Most of them are motivational ones, foror example, Robin Sharma and Robert Kiyosaki.

--Nice. Thank you.

The Baridi Baridi Times will be posting interviews with Baridi Baridi employees on note.
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