“The combination of really deep-diving into a subject and, on the other hand, the communication and collaboration with other departments, is the perfect balance for me”
I’ve been with Kramp for a year and a half now. I wasn’t looking for a new job, and I didn’t know Kramp had a vacancy or that there would be the right job for me anyway, but I was contacted directly via LinkedIn by the person who is now my manager. Kramp is well-known company very locally as a big employer, but my father was a farmer, so I already had some awareness. That personal link, the farming background, was another reason the role was interesting to me.
During and after my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communications, I had worked for a design agency. After that, I spent five years as a consultant for a company which specialises in improving customer experiences. I spent my time examining and improving user experiences on digital channels. My experience was exactly what Kramp wanted to add to the team. That original LinkedIn message from my boss was really detailed, very personalised, so I was keen to visit Kramp. I was shown around and the conversation was really two-way; I had the chance to talk about what mattered to me in the role as well as what Kramp wanted. I got to meet other members of the team and find out more about how they operated.
From the beginning, everything felt right. Quite soon I noticed that you do have a voice at Kramp, that when you have something to say, people really do listen, they’re not too busy with their own agenda. In those first few weeks I went out with account managers to visit customers, got to know the processes, saw how easy it was to have conversations with other departments in Kramp as well as with customers. It was a real eye-opener.
For the first six months I was helping to make the customer experience easier than ever on the Kramp webshop. I carried out a lot of customer research – which is something I particularly enjoy, and which is straightforward to organise because Kramp has so many loyal customers all over Europe who are keen to contribute and like to be involved. We ran all sorts of tests and came up with new concepts for web pages and new user flows which emerged from our research and testing. It was good to be given the freedom to contact customers and focus on new functionalities shaped by real data and customer feedback. I think everyone at Kramp is aware that we need to base decisions and design on good data, which makes my job easier.
About a year ago, we began working on the Kramp App. We started by defining the strategy and then, when we started working towards development, I was asked to take on the Product Owner role for the app. It has been a really enjoyable experience, creating something genuinely innovative, and working with smart and forward-thinking developers in the Kramp Hub and an external agency. I am based in Varsseveld, but at the moment I spend around one day a week working closely on ongoing app development with the technical team at the Kramp Hub in Utrecht.
I am part of a team working in e-business marketing, and we collaborate with other teams across Europe. It’s one of the things I really like about my job and Kramp – working with so many people in so many locations, from so many different backgrounds. You are always learning. And even when it is challenging, people do want to make things happen.
As for the future, at Kramp you are always encouraged to explore ways of enhancing your skills and knowledge. I have attended useful conferences and I am looking at the moment at training which will help me become even more effective in my role and meet my personal career goals.
