Meet a WEXer – Sarah Dolloff

What do running a high-end baby store and working in a call center have in common? More than you might think if you ask Sarah Dolloff, a customer service rep for our OTR Fleet business. Before joining WEX, she owned and operated a children’s specialty boutique, where providing great customer experience was a big part of every sale. She notes that same level of personal attention comes into play with every call she takes at WEX.

“I’m a people-person and I love talking to different kinds of people and knowing that I helped someone solve a problem. It always feels good to know you’ve helped someone out or turned a call around, and I use a lot of the skills I developed helping customers at my shop in my job at WEX,” says Sarah.

What it takes to succeed

Sarah notes that people calling customer service usually want to be heard and validated. To accomplish that, active listening is a key skill she uses during every call, tempered with a good dose of empathy. A response of “I agree, that doesn’t sound right – let me see what I can do to fix that,” can help Sarah acknowledge the customer, defuse any frustration, and get quickly to the job of resolving an issue.

Personalizing the interaction is also a nice touch, whether it’s with information pulled up from the database or by “reading” your customer to know if he’d like to make small talk or hear a joke. Sarah says that to work in customer service, you should also be comfortable not always being in control and being a little outside your comfort zone at times. Most important quality needed for the job? You really need to be someone who enjoys helping people.

WEX call center culture

Sarah is a relatively new member of our call center team – she initially started as a temp, and within three months was hired as a permanent employee. New customer service reps get extensive classroom and hands-on training so, as Sarah says, “you never feel thrown to the wolves.” Incoming calls are triaged into three tiers, so customers are routed to a rep with the appropriate skills to help them. Even after training, there’s always support staff available to help with calls.

In fact, Sarah just completed a one-month stint as a mentor, training staff to take tier 3 calls that can include complex customer questions related to financial issues. As a mentor, she was 100% dedicated to working with mentees to help hone their “soft skills” like phrasing, how to work with an angry customer, and how to turn a call around. She also sat in on calls, provided feedback, and helped identify strengths that can be further developed.

“At WEX, everyone is so helpful to each other – it’s like a family. In the call center, we have support whenever it’s needed, either during a call or later in a debriefing. We also feel connected to other parts of the company through events like our town hall meetings and the shared goal of delivering great products and customer service,” observes Sarah.

After just seven months, Sarah feels like she’s found her niche at WEX. In addition to doing work she loves, and having the opportunity to share her expertise with others, she values the culture of fun and respect. And while the work they do is serious, she’s happy to note that “there’s always laughter” and that both managers and entry-level employees are treated with the same level of respect. It sounds like a perfect fit!