Next up in our Activate Allstars series speaking all about how she’s developed her career over 13 years at sopp+sopp is Sian Smith, Customer MI & Project Manager!
Sian started as a Call Centre Handler at sopp+sopp back in 2011, naturally progressing into the expert role she’s in now by growing with the business and learning everything she could along the way.
Take a look below at Sian’s impressive 13-year-long journey; she shares her experience of finding a role that suited her abilities as she developed at sopp+sopp, and the support she received from those around her…
Interview with Sian Smith
When did you start at Activate Group and what role were you in?
I started before Activate acquired sopp+sopp, in 2011 as a Call Centre Handler. sopp+sopp was very small then, with only a handful of staff doing almost everything manually – literally handing over physical files from FNOL, through to repairs and then to invoicing!
What first attracted you to your initial role within Activate Group?
I had just finished my A Levels, working part-time at McDonalds and looking for an office job without evenings and weekends. Sopp+sopp was a small, family run business around the corner from where I lived which fit exactly what I was looking for.
Why did you want to progress within the business?
I think my progression within the company was organic – Callum Langan was my manager and started asking me if I wanted to do some extra work for him, which is when I started to pick up admin jobs and began to look after alleged claims.
The business grew its customer base, and the more I was exposed to, the more knowledge I gained on all of our customers. The increase in workload essentially created a new role for me to take, then a dedicated team for it, and I just carried on progressing from there.
I feel like I’ve grown with the business – it naturally happened to me as I gained expertise whilst sopp+sopp gained customers.
What steps did you take to move forward into the role you wanted?
Mine was not a clear-cut journey – I didn’t have a particular goal set in my mind for what career I wanted to have, I’ve always just completed work that suits my ability and gone from there.
As I had gained so much customer and system knowledge, performance coaching seemed like a great role for me, but I didn’t enjoy it as I thought I would. Project management is much more suitable – I get to use everything I’ve learned to work on lots of projects including updating the knowledge bank and helping to move customers over to Quartz.
What support was offered to you in order to help you progress?
My main source of support has always been Callum Langan, all the way from our call centre handling days to where we both are now. I completed a project management course with his support, which helped me learn the full process from the setup to delivery of projects, the latter of which is the main role I perform now.
I’ve also appreciated the support I’ve had from Gary Champion when he joined the business. I worked with our Tesco customers a lot, so Callum and Gary took me under their wing and allowed me to shadow customer review meetings where I could keep learning and growing in my role.
What are all the different roles you have had in the Group?
This will need to be a long story short! Some of the roles I’ve undertaken aren’t well defined either, just because I was doing a variety of work which didn’t fit neatly into one position.
I started as a Call Centre Handler, then when I took on admin responsibility and management I earned the title of Client Service Controller. I also supported Callum with some account management during this time, too.
I tried my hand at performance coaching but quickly decided this wasn’t the right step for me, so I moved into project management instead. The role I do now really suits my abilities; I think I’m seen as the go-to person for lots of different things relating to the systems we use and customer knowledge now.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to progress into a different role within Activate Group?
You’ve got to give it a go, haven’t you! It’s an ever-growing business with opportunities and new roles coming all the time – you just have to take a risk sometimes and go for it.
Try the Day in the Life scheme to find out more about other areas of the business and see what interests you and what you might be good at. First and foremost, people need to know you’re interested in opportunities for you to be able to get them.
What is your proudest moment as part of the business?
It would probably have to be the fact that I’ve built my whole career and essentially grown up here – 13 years of developing what was just a job into a role that I’m excited to do every day.
What is the greatest challenge you’ve faced within your journey so far?
This is a tough question – I really can’t think of anything that has been such a challenge for me, I’ve progressed at a really natural speed during my time with the business and enjoyed all the projects I’ve worked on!
What do you see for your future at Activate Group?
Honestly, I’m really happy in the role I’m doing now. It’s been a very hectic year personally and I’ve been so busy, so I’m just content to keep going with that and continue working with the best team!
