Her Story
About Johanna
I started with my company almost 32 years ago as an agent because I love customer service, hospitality, and travel. What drew me to the company was being able to send someone on a vacation that is a great experience. I worked as an agent for about 2 years, then moved to the vacation assistance department where I worked on pending requests for about 10 to 12 years. After that, I became a supervisor for the work-from-home program, managing up to 40 agents and helping them build their revenue. I then returned to exchange as a supervisor, and later moved to customer service as a supervisor. I did so well in that area that the director promoted me to manager. From there, I was promoted again to manage both client services and customer service in my current position. What kept me with the company is that it has so much you can do - not only timeshare, but also travel, flights, and short stay options. It keeps the job interesting every day. On the customer service side, which I came over to about 5 years ago, I handle issues and solve problems. It's such a great feeling when you solve the problem, and even when you can't solve it completely to the member's liking, meeting halfway and having them say they understand and will continue with the company - those are the things I love.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Johanna
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think a couple of things attribute to my success. One is definitely mentorship, and that's something I love about our company - they have a strong focus on being able to cross-train in different departments and learn. Also, being able to adapt to change is crucial. I realized that with our company, it has changed drastically from 1994 when I started to now, and you have to be able to adapt to change and be able to move. I believe that's true in any company. I'm also not afraid of learning new things. I've learned so many different things, and any education that the company offers, I'm willing to take and learn. That definitely helps and attributes to the longevity of how I've been with the company.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Definitely mentorship. Once you get into this type of field, you definitely need to look to your leaders, especially a woman that's in leadership. That's the first thing I did. I looked at someone and asked, okay, how did they get to that position? What do they do? What do I need to do? When someone takes you under their wings, because you will find most leaders, especially women, they will say, you know what, I can help you, I can definitely show you the different things that I've done. Learn from that, go under their wings, take tips, follow their guidelines, have them show you whenever you make an error - okay, this is what you can do better, this is something that you can change. What did you see that you can change as well? So it's not only mentorship, but also showing you without actually being hands-on, but just letting you make the mistakes and also learn from it. So definitely mentorship, it's a big thing for me, for young women that are coming in here, just to learn from those leaders.
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