There’s been some exciting Sparkie news this month, and we’re delighted to announce that our Associate Director, Liss has moved into the role of Customer Success Director here at Spark.
A move from London back to her homeland of Yorkshire saw Liss join Spark in October 2020; initially as Insight Manager on the research team before rising to Associate Director last year. She has experience in both qualitative and quantitative research, and her blend of agency and client-side experience is perfect for understanding the needs of clients and making sure insight is actionable and lands effectively within an organisation.
Justin Healy, CEO said “As Spark continues to grow in the UK, US and further afield, Liss is the perfect person to have as the conduit between our clients – new and old – and our research team. Our projects are increasingly global and digital which means we need the right person to champion our clients’ objectives. Liss’ natural empathy as well as her research expertise is what makes her perfect for this role. She’s also lovely which of course always helps!”
We sat down with Liss to chat to her about her new role and what she’s looking forward to…
What’s the secret ingredient to good client relationships?
For me it’s all about action. Clients nowadays have so many decisions to make, and so many potential information sources with which to make those decisions, so cutting through the noise and offering clarity is invaluable.
If you’ve done the work to get to know a client, and really get to know the challenges faced within their organisation and can give them the evidence they need to make decisions and drive action, then you’re on to a winner. At Spark we always like to say if the work we’re doing doesn’t make clients look good internally, then we’ve not done our job right.
Also, you’ve got to genuinely care and be interested – about your clients, about their organisation, and the research they’re commissioning. I’ve sat on the other side of the fence in client-side roles and when someone isn’t interested it can soon become obvious.
What are you looking forward to as Client Success Director?
As a true people person, I’m obviously looking forward to meeting and getting to know even more of our clients at Spark – I know many of them from my time in the research team itself but I’m excited to meet some new faces and get to know them and their business challenges.
I’m also looking forward to continuing to get the Spark name out there to both new and existing clients and talking to them about some of the exciting new developments we have coming down the line for the rest of the year!
What do you look forward to achieving at Spark in the next 6 months?
With everything going on in the world right now – emerging from the height of the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, talking of recessions etc. it’s a challenging but exciting time to work in research.
Now more than ever brands need to stay close to their consumers and understand how this impacts them. So, I’m looking forward to helping clients understand their customers and arm themselves with evidence to weather what the rest of 2022 might have to throw our way!
What makes Spark different from other workplaces?
Earlier I said the secret to success is genuinely caring about the work you do – and our Sparkies care like no team I’ve ever met! Two of our core values are curious and engaged and the Spark team embody those daily. I always like to joke that we’re just a big group of nerds who are great fun to work with and I like to think our clients agree.
If you want a team who are going to get to know your organisation as well as we know our own, and who genuinely care about the research we deliver making a difference, then there’s no better team for the job. I also love that being part of the Audience Collective means we can help client with questions beyond just research – there’s a whole wealth of expertise across marketing just waiting to be tapped into. Being able to say to a client ‘I can’t help you with that, but I know just the person who can’ is invaluable.
We’re thrilled to have Liss join this new role and look forward to what’s to come over the next few months. Congratulations Liss!
