Christina Harrison Uses Technology To Focus on Helping People
By Sarah Smith
When Christina Harrison graduated from college with a major in telecommunications and computer information systems, she knew she wanted to use her expertise to work in the technology field, but she also wanted to work for a company that valued people over hardware.
She thought this business attribute might be hard to find. “I really wanted to work in an environment focused on people, and especially on helping people,” she says. “With a lot of technology companies, it’s just not like that.”
But now, as an Operations Specialist with Millburn, N.J.-based Infinite Conferencing, Harrison says she’s found the best of both worlds. “This is a great place, because I can use what I learned in school and work with technology, but I can also work with people,” she says. “It’s all tied together, and that works really well for me.”
Coming on board in May of this year, Harrison has found a home in Infinite Conferencing’s operations department, where the goal is to make conferences run as smoothly as possible. “Our main responsibility is to assist clients and satisfy their needs,” Harrison says.
Operations Specialists work closely with the sales team to make sure every client is taken care of. “It’s great for the client,” she explains. “They’re not only getting an Account Manager, but they’re getting an Operations Specialist, too. It’s like a two-for-one deal.”
Helping the Client is Everything
When friends ask her what she does all day, Christina replies simply that she helps clients. What does she help them do? “Anything,” she says. “If there’s a noisy line, we take care of it. If their billing needs to be set up differently, we take care of it. If they want a conference set up in the next five minutes, we take care of it. That’s what we do.”
Having such a multi-faceted position means there isn’t just one typical problem, or one most common request she gets on a regular basis. “People will call in and say, ‘I forgot how to dial out to a participant,’ or, ‘I started the conference late, will you help us?’ But there’s not one big thing per se that people always call in about. It’s responding to all of these different issues that makes my job interesting.”
Being a problem solver in this way, Harrison says, is one of the most rewarding things about her position. “It’s a fun part of the job when you connect with someone and you can hear the satisfaction in their voice when we’ve fixed their problem,” she says. “That’s definitely a great feeling.”
She also likes the fact that she can be talking to people anywhere in the world, because Infinite Conferencing has an international base of customers. “And you know we may never meet, but when they had a question or a concern, we were there and we helped them,” she says.
Loves the Team Spirit
Another aspect of the job Christina truly enjoys is the team atmosphere. “I love how we all come together,” she says, explaining that there are times when numerous conferences are running simultaneously and the staff from several different departments pitch in and work together to make them all go smoothly. “We can all pretty much do what the other people do, so if it’s an emergency or time of crisis or a computer’s down for some reason, someone else will help out and get the job done,” she says. “I love that it’s really interactive.”
Infinite Conferencing is different from other conferencing companies, she believes, because not only does it have dedicated Account Managers, but they’re people who you can actually talk to.
“They aren’t just going to say, ‘here’s your account number.’ We’re real to our clients; it’s not just about the technology,” she explains. “I mean, yes, we work with equipment and bridges, but it’s about the client, it’s really about the people, and they come first.”
The staff is ready and willing, for example, to sit with a client on the phone as long as necessary to explain everything they need to know about using Infinite Conferencing’s services. This is just one more reason Harrison enjoys her job.
“Just knowing that even if it’s something tiny, that we’re still able to help, and we’re able to make them feel better, that’s great,” she says, adding that there are a lot of things like this that Infinite Conferencing holds “near and dear” to their service. “And whether or not any other conference company is doing it, we’re doing it,” she says. “We wouldn’t do it any other way.”
About the Author
Sarah Smith is a contributor to ConferencingNews. Based in Los Angeles, Sarah has reported and written for leading telecommunications and technology publications. She may be reached at sarah.s@betuitive.com.
