Sarah Macfarlane loves learning new things. “Every day is a challenge and I love to solve problems, but most of all I love the people I work with,” she says.
Macfarlane is currently the Business Intelligence and Customer Service Manager at Purmo Group UK, having started 11 years ago as Customer Services Assistant. She cites taking on the responsibilities of Customer Service Manager as the most memorable thing during her time with the company:
“In my working life, that has been one of the toughest roles, but also the most rewarding.”
She is now responsible for 14 employees, both in Customer Service and Administration. “Our main focus is to answer all inbound customer calls and process all purchase orders,” she explains.
Supporting the team
During Macfarlane’s typical day at the office, she manages all day-to-day activities and makes sure everything runs smoothly, adds in new sleek processes to improve the department, and looks after the staff welfare and develops and supports the team. She has a ’team first’ mentality in pretty much everything she does.
“I’ve learned at Purmo Group that if you work as a team, you can achieve all sorts of things,” she says, adding that putting in your personal best, day-in, day-out, is also a big factor.
I get a lot of job satisfaction as the position I am in now allows me to see the business from different angles.
“If you put 100% into everything you do, good things are bound to happen.”
Macfarlane is also a Champion of Microsoft Office 365, delivering training to all UK users. She says that Office 365 was a great project to be involved in:
“I knew the changes would be quick and my department would need to react, so I put myself forward so I could be hands-on within my site. This way, I got to help others with the new software and guide them through the system in a practical way, rather than from an IT perspective,” she recalls.
Inspired by problem solving
Originally, Purmo Group appeared to be an attractive employer in Macfarlane’s eyes as she knew the company – she did some research and found it appealing.
“As I had worked in Customer Services before, I knew I would settle in. Also, it was 40 minutes away from home at the time and suited my lifestyle which included two children,” she says looking back.
It was the right call to make. “I get a lot of job satisfaction, as the position I am in now allows me to see the business from different angles. I have a much better understanding and see the bigger picture,” she says.
After more than a decade with the company, she still gets a big kick out of people and simple human interaction. “In addition to people, I’m motivated by the fact that I get to solve problems and make things better every day.”
