Meet a WEXer: Lisa Estenson

From the moment she walked into our Fargo, North Dakota office for her customer service rep job interview, Lisa knew that WEX was a different kind of company. The sense of enjoyment in the people she saw and met with was different than anything she’d experienced in more than 12 years working in call centers. So when the job offer came in, she said yes, and has been on a remarkable growth path since.

In 2015, Lisa began working with Evolution1, a healthcare payment technology solutions company that became WEX Health after our acquisition. Like most new call center employees, she started fielding calls from people holding Health Savings Account (HSA) and Flexible Spending Account (FSA) cards from one of our partners. First, though, she went through training to understand HSAs, FSAs, the basics of health accounts, the role of compliance, and IRS guidelines. After that, one-on-one training with seasoned reps helped get Lisa up to speed on the partners she was covering.

“One of the biggest differences I noticed working the phones here was the focus on customer service and helping answer questions or resolve issues. The ability to translate the voice on the other end of the phone into an actual person is part of the success of the company,” observes Lisa.

Career Growth Comes Quickly

Eager to learn more about the business, Lisa requested a move to the account management team within six months. There she worked with employer groups and continued to handle customer calls. She worked directly with employers to get their HSA and FSA plans set up for the coming year and to help with employee enrollment. Account management allowed Lisa to dive more deeply into her partner business relationships, with a focus on finding ways to streamline processes.

Lisa says her drive to learn everything she could about the business led her to create process documents that captured useful information she could use again in similar situations. This documentation is also a useful way to share knowledge in account management, where many people serve as a single point of contact for their employer groups. As Lisa says, “I wrote up these processes to make it clearer for me, and once I’d done it for myself, I thought they could help other team members find answers to their questions.”

That initiative caught the attention of hiring managers when Lisa recently applied for a client manager position. She got the job and has started transitioning into her new role, which involves working directly with WEX Health partners as the primary point of contact for their day-to-day business needs. Part of the job requires Lisa to be able to talk with partners about how a variety of WEX Health processes work, so that’s meant learning about everything from our claims group to accounting. Gaining exposure to the bigger operational picture has been a great experience for Lisa, and has helped her see the interconnectedness of all of the departments that create the total partner experience.

“A lot of things that made me successful in consumer services and account management translate into my new role, and an extreme willingness to learn will be even more important for me now,” says Lisa. “My ability to think on my feet and problem solve will be top priorities, as will communicating to my clients just how much I feel that WEX Health is the best choice they’ve made.”

WEX Health Culture

Lisa’s initial sense of the company as a place people enjoy has only grown in her two years with us. She feels the family atmosphere really makes the company special, and creates a workplace where it’s normal for people to help each other. Key to this supportive atmosphere is the fact that people come together both to celebrate accomplishments and to pitch in during challenging times. As she notes, “We support each other and enjoy and take pride in everyone’s achievements. We’re all working together for success, as a team and as a company.”

Looking to the future, Lisa says, “I look forward to continuing my growth with the company and am excited for every single day. If people out there are thinking about joining WEX Health, I want them to know that it’s a good choice.”