CriticalThinking

Being a dedicated account manager for four years, Michele Bagileo knows a thing or two about handling clients. These days, she’s a Senior Account Executive and “head honcho” around the office. Despite the hundreds of contracts under her belt, Ms. Bagileo is always cool and collected, leaving us to wonder, “But how does she do it?”

I sat down with the dedicated account starlet to ask just that:

We all know handling clients all day long can be a tiring feat, yet four years into account management and you’re still as dedicated and ambitious as ever. What would you attribute to your success at Critical Mention? What key factors are essential to remember in leading a career in account management?

Here’s what she had to say..

The most important thing necessary to leading a successful career in account management is having patience with clients and listening to exactly what they are saying. This is essential to providing them with what they need, when they need it, and how. It’s my job to make their job easier, and the only way I can do this is by paying attention to and caring about their needs.

You really want to build a strong relationship with your client, and to let them know you’re always here to help. The key to this is having great interpersonal skills and relating to your client. Once you build this relationship, you can better understand their needs, allowing you to manage their accounts more effectively and efficiently. It also allows you to customize how you work with each client differently, because everyone has different needs. No one company works the same.

As far as my success here at Critical Mention, I can attribute it greatly to my ability to be a team player. We have really built this fantastic account management family, and I know I can rely on my team just as much as they can rely on me. We each bring something to the table, and each contribute to the common goal of making our clients happy. Knowing you can rely on a strong team definitely helps the process run more smoothly.

Overall, my best advice would be to have fun with your clients, and be personal with them. Take the time to really get to know them, because a face is much stronger than a name when building a relationship with clients.