Customer Success Manager Steffen talks about his career at Local Brand X

Hi Steffen, nice that you took the time today. Please introduce yourself briefly.

Hello, my name is Steffen, I am 26 years old and have been working for Local Brand X for almost exactly one year now. I originally moved to Mainz for my business studies in 2021. In my free time, I enjoy doing sports, whether it's running, working out in the gym or playing soccer.

What exactly do you do at Local Brand X?

At Local Brand X, I am currently working in Customer Success, where we take care of our customers. In principle, support starts with the step of onboarding new customers onto the local marketing platform. Onboarding is followed by regular jour fixe calls to be able to talk about current concerns and exchange information via our ticket system.

You've already gone through a few stations. How was your development at Local Brand X?

I started out in summer 2023 as a working student in the area of Customer Success. After my onboarding, I then worked in the background to actively support my colleagues in servicing customers. As a permanent employee, I also benefit from this today, as I was able to gain insights into all areas of the customer and was able to learn about new topics over and over again. For several months now, I have been working full-time in Customer Success and looking after my own customers.

You recently wrote your bachelor thesis. Which topic did you decide on and how did Local Brand X support you?

I wrote my bachelor thesis at Local Brand X in spring 2024 and have already submitted it. Basically, two things were important to me: On the one hand, I attached great importance to practical relevance, because this was also important during my studies, and on the other hand, I wanted to deal with a topic that is current and relevant. That's why I reached out to our founders Yannik and Simon in December 2023 and signaled that I would like to write my bachelor thesis at Local Brand X about artificial intelligence. Yannik was very convinced of this and then we sat down and discussed a rough direction. In the end, I then conducted expert interviews with a selection of our customers on the implementation of AI-supported functions in the local marketing platform. Overall, it was particularly helpful for me that I was able to approach Yannik again and again and that he supported me in the entire process of my bachelor thesis in the best possible way. I think you could say that it was a win-win situation for both sides.

Did you always know that you wanted to get into this area, or what was your dream job as a child?

As a boy, I think becoming a professional soccer player is often at the top of the wish list. In fact, I wouldn't have said no to that, but I also enjoy doing the sport as a hobby for over 20 years. However, through my commercial education and economic studies, I have also noticed that the area of key account management, i.e. customer support, is very interesting for me. I like the constant contact with people, the organization of projects and the coordination between internal departments. That is also what I currently enjoy so much in the area of customer success.

How did you come to Local Brand X?

I got to know Local Brand X 2023 at Companies Day at Mainz University of Applied Sciences. There I got into conversation with current colleagues Jule and Laura. They completely convinced me and I then applied for a job in the Customer Success area.

What can you share with future applicants or perhaps other students?

Basically, as I had already mentioned, the practical connection was very important to me during my studies, always with the ulterior motive that my studies did not suffer as a result. You should therefore consider whether you don't want to invest the certain amount of free time that you also have in addition to studying to work while studying.
You will never again have the opportunity to carry out an internship or a working student position so flexibly and to be able to orient yourself accordingly. Local Brand X offers many career opportunities, such as marketing, sales, HR, product management or customer success. There are many great areas and you should simply see which of them appeals to you and then simply apply. Local Brand X in particular, with its flat hierarchy, also offers the opportunity to develop within the company in various departments and to promote personal development in addition to the professional aspect.

 
Thank you for the interview, dear Steffen. I wish you continued fun and success with Local Brand X!