“Head of Customer Care at VBET Ukraine Daria Ivaschenko told about her professional path and the specifics of working with clients of a licensed operator to Logincasino’s joint project with LC Work gambling job search website.”
Tell us about yourself and your career path.
By a lucky coincidence, my first job was directly related to customer service when I was still 18 years old. It was a five-star restaurant in Kharkov, where my mentors immediately set a fairly high bar in the service provided, communication, and most importantly, in sincere love for people. After the restaurant, I could no longer imagine a job for myself where there would be no opportunity to work with the service. Then in 2017 I moved to Kiev and got my first position in support - account manager (if I'm not mistaken, it sounded like this officially). It was an agency providing concierge services for the Mastercard payment system. It was hard to call myself just a manager there, it was a VIP-level service, and for most of our clients we (the concierges) were actually friends. We organized birthdays and romantic surprises anywhere in the world. We helped in difficult situations, and sometimes we just showed support. Something like a personal assistant - a friend on the phone who will never say no. In a year of work, I pretty much went through all possible types of requests, and I wanted something more. Fortunately, the company had a great opportunity then - I became a trainer for all future concierges. It was this practical teaching experience that helped me quickly and from scratch build a training system already at Vbet Ukraine. After teaching activities in the concierge sector, I radically changed my field and went to work for a large Kiev marketing agency, where I was the right hand of two managing partners. It was an invaluable experience before becoming a leader myself. After a year and a half at the agency, I took a break for the so-called Jobbymoon and wanted to think about what I would do next.
How did you get into the gambling industry? How many years have you been working in this niche?
My appearance in the gambling field was a big surprise, first of all for myself. After the marketing agency, it seemed to me that somewhere in this field (marketing) I would stay and develop. But instead of that, one fine day, a little over a year ago, I received a call from the current COO Vbet Ukraine with an offer to meet because as he said there was a position that was perfect for me. And he was not mistaken. For over a year now, we have been building a great customer care team, where everyone does what he knows and loves.
What is your main job?
In fact, the range of my responsibilities has been changing quite actively over the past year. Since the team and processes are built from scratch, at the very beginning it was necessary to do just everything: interviews, training, supervision, motivation, building processes and standards, and so on. Now, of course, everything has changed dramatically. I have a large talented team of like-minded people you can rely on.
Now I have managed to emerge from the operational work and routine. I am focused on optimizing the work of the team both within the support and between the support and other departments, so that everything works like clockwork by the date when Vbet Ukraine will be able to start full-fledged operational activities in accordance with the licenses received.
How did you learn your profession? Have you read any books on your specialization, have you taken courses? What advice can you give readers for learning?
In my opinion, one can’t pass by at least the following books: Leonard Berry "Discovering the Soul of Service", Tony Shay "Delivery of Happiness", V. V. Volsky, O. V. Veselova, N. K. Zolkina "Call Center Operator. From hiring to firing." Here, some of the recommendations should be based on year of publication of the book, but, basically, many things can be easily adapted to our reality.
And, of course, don’t forget about the development of your internal clients: I recommend “5 dysfunctions of a team” and “The Truth About Employee Engagement” by Patrick Lencioni, “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel Pink.
Has there been any prejudice towards gambling or betting field before? Has your opinion about the field somehow changed after a year of work at Vbet?
No, there have never been any prejudices. In my opinion, making any conclusions about what you are not familiar with is useless.
Therefore, I came to Vbet Ukraine with great interest and openness to everything new that awaited me here. So, my whole experience and path to Vbet Ukraine is a blank slate of my life without any prejudices. During a year of working here, I learned to spend hours talking about what free bets and free spins are, and what's more important - to explain that gambling is not evil, but the same kind of entertainment as millions of others.
How did you look for a job? Is it true that most great companies find employees through referrals? Are there any other options besides the well-known job sites?
As I said earlier, frankly - this job found me.
As for other positions, I can’t say that "everything is on referrals." Most of our vacancies are publicly available on job boards; you can submit a resume and meet at an interview. Telegram channels for job search are also popular now. It also happens that people who want to work for us just contact us by e-mail, sending their resume and cover letter. We definitely pass this on to the HR team. So, it seems to me that the main thing in any search is desire, and there are always opportunities.
In your opinion, has the legalization of the gambling business affected the public's attitude towards gambling and betting?
Definitely yes - in a positive sense. But all the representatives of the gambling business still have a lot of awareness-raising work to do in this direction. Since stereotypes about the sphere have been formed for more than one year, and it became legal in Ukraine only a year ago.
In this regard, our entire team is looking forward to the completion of the legislative initiative on draft legislation № 2713-д, which, in my opinion, has been under consideration for quite a long time.
Do you have principles that you are trying to adhere to in your work? If so, which ones?
Yes, of course. In our team of customer care the standards are as follows:
- Responsible attitude to the level of product knowledge - it must be perfect. We are working a lot on this.
- Honesty towards clients and the internal team + the ability to admit their mistakes.
- Attentiveness to each individual request. All processes and materials are built in such a way that allows not slide into quick stereotyped answers in the future.
And if someone is not good at this - such people will not stay with us for a long time.
What do you think is the key to a strong team in any field?
That’s the presence and sharing of common human values, working principles and goals, as well as a good leader who can adjust the intended vector of the team if they accidentally deviate from it.
Are there any difficulties in working with a gambling niche that representatives of other spheres don’t face?
I don’t know if there are other areas for which it is so difficult to carry out legal activity, like gambling. This is probably the most painful question for all representatives now.
You are currently working as a Head of Customer Care team. How do you see your further career path? Do you plan to associate your future work with the gambling niche?
My heart is now wholly and completely owned by the Vbet brand and team, so I see all my immediate prospects and career right here.
We look forward to the adoption of the bill that I mentioned above in order to fully implement all plans and prospects.
If you had the opportunity to give advice to all client managers in the country, what kind of advice would it be?
Perhaps it would not be about working with clients, which is strange. It would be about working with yourself: if you feel that it has become difficult for you to work, to cope, to remain empathic in dealing with clients - immediately tell your management about it. You are the first line of defense for any business, and if you don’t have the strength to invest in quality service, it will be hard for you and the business you represent.
And also write down in your notebook all the compliments that clients will tell you, and re-read them if you feel sad. Unfortunately, everything good that people tell us is forgotten faster than statements that hurt us.
Source: https://logincasino.work/