Kristina 'Tina' Cartmell is one of our longest serving colleagues, having been with the media group (now owned by Reach Plc) for some 35 years.
When not at work, Tina loves eating out (or anything to do with food), socialising, walking her dog, spending time with family and holidays. Tina is just beginning to learn how to play golf.
Tina began working in advertising 35 years ago and eventually became a Team Trainer due to her wealth of experience. Tina now works with the Funeral Notices team, training both Customer Service Advisers and Account Managers. Tina recently moved departments from the Contact Centre under Darren Minns to join the wider training team for Reach Plc, but she still focuses her time on the Funeral Notices team.
Training the Funeral Notices team is different to commercial sales training of course as the role is not sales focussed, rather it focuses on excellent customer service, team & individual development and improving the customer experience.
Customer Service Advisers on the Funeral Notices team are responsible for inbound and outbound calls and emails to Funeral Directors - taking details to book funeral notices on their behalf. The team books notices in to over 100 print newspapers across the country as well as publishing them to funeral-notices.co.uk.
Around 70% of Funeral Directors book notices themselves using our self-serve booking portal. The team are responsible for supporting these Funeral Directors with booking notices. In addition every single notice received is checked by a dedicated team of moderators. Part of Tina's role involves ensuring the team are confident to guide Funeral Directors through this booking process by providing regular training and refresher sessions.
There are 4 Account Managers on the Funeral Notices team. Each is responsible for 100 + Funeral Directors, contacting them via telephone, video call or in person and ensuring they are getting the most from their Funeral Notices account. Tina is responsible for developing the Account Managers, making sure they have the tools, knowledge and skills to demonstrate the website fully and explain the statistics behind their notices and online donation totals.
Tina's aim is to ensure the team always provides the best service to Funeral Directors, Tina enjoys her job:
"I enjoy the variety of my role, I love how it is constantly evolving because of how the newspaper industry has changed over the years.
"Our website, funeral-notices.co.uk is the future of the industry, as people move to online for their news and announcements. Funeral Notices provides a place for people to refer back to and look at old memories, photos and tributes.
"We also provide a premium service to Funeral Directors all over the UK. We are able to help promote their business in our 'Find a Funeral Director' directory which is a free service we provide them with.
"Funeral Notices has a huge and growing audience and it allows us to connect Funeral Directors with their communities. I am proud to be a part of that."
Tina is also involved in recruitment, interviewing candidates and providing induction training for the Contact Centre as a whole. In addition Tina helps to coach people within the Contact Centre as they move into new roles or new teams. Tina is well regarded by everyone in the Contact Centre, particularly for the care and support she provides them with and the encouragement she offers, helping people to be the best they can and strive to reach their goals.
Tina will be at the National Funeral Exhibition 10-12 June 2022. If you are in the industry, why not pop over and say hello?
Don't forget to
Follow funeral-notices.co.uk on social media to see when new articles are published:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
LinkedIn
