In this Event Temple series, we highlight members of our team who are the drivers to our success. Find out about the people behind the desk, what they do inside and outside of work, and their take on Event Temple’s journey, from their unique perspective.
In this week’s feature, we meet with Katie Knight, our Customer Success Advisor and hero to many hotelier clients! She’s our beloved Aussie and beer connoisseur and you’ve probably seen her name featured in all the positive reviews we get. Tune in to see her thoughts on what makes good CS and her journey with Event Temple!
Q: Hi Katie! Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do at Event Temple?
Heya, I am a winter appreciating, time-management game playing, travel loving cheese-eater! As noted, I definitely enjoy beer but am also quite partial to wine, just one thing to remember…. A.B.C (Anything But Chardonnay!)
At Event Temple, I help our customers to learn the ins & outs of the system and make sure things go smoothly during their onboarding process. Once they’re up and running, I continue to provide ongoing advice and support to ensure they are getting the best use of the system for their organization throughout their ET journey.
Q: Can you describe your journey on how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always had a love for hospitality and tech, so it’s just naturally where I’ve been drawn to and the majority of my career I’ve worked in Hotels or Hotel-related SaaS.
Most recently a couple of years ago, I moved from Australia where I was a Systems Coordinator for a boutique hotel group to pursue my dream of living in Canada (for the third time!) and staying here permanently. When I first arrived, I worked in customer support for a PMS before starting with the wonderful team at Event Temple.
Q: What are your favourite things about what you do?
Figuring out solutions to customers' niche needs. Although a lot of areas may be the same at a high level, at the end of the day every one of our customers is different. Since Event Temple is so customizable and ever-changing it’s great being able to help our customers navigate Event Temple with that in mind to make sure it doesn’t just ‘work’ - it works specifically for them.
Seeing the wins! When a customer has an ‘aha’ moment, or when a new property has their first event. Seeing someone that describes themselves as ‘not tech savvy’ picks up the system in next to no time and is so proud of themselves, or seeing how excited a customer is about a new feature. Moments like these are absolutely golden!
Q: What are the main challenges that hotels are facing on the CS front right now?
Staffing & time, for many organizations things have gone from 0-100 very quickly. Everyone is trying to ramp up to full speed with many people having the job of what 3 or 4 people previously did, all with ongoing uncertainty in some countries where they can close or re-open at any time.
Q: What do you think makes good Customer Support?
Giving customers the tools they need for success and listening to your customer and making sure you understand their end-goal.
Sometimes there’s an easy answer to a question, other times it’s not until you dive deeper and know the ‘why’ behind things that you can truly understand what they’re needing. It’s especially important here at ET since we are always working on enhancing the customer experience.
Q: We hear you're a die-hard Simpson’s fan - favourite Simpson episode and why?
By default, it’d have to be “Bart vs. Australia” so many classic lines that have become part of my regular vocabulary (anyone else use the term dollarydoo?)
But also, who can go past “You Only Move Twice” Hank Scorpio is the ultimate Boss (Sorry, David!)
