What is a ‘BeeKeeper’? What do they do? Are they human? Do they actually look after bees? These are just a few of the questions we regularly receive at PensionBee! A BeeKeeper is a customer’s personal support, who’ll be on hand to help them with any questions throughout their pension journey. BeeKeepers can be easily reached via live chat, email and phone. And yes, we are indeed humans! Here’s what an average day looks like for a BeeKeeper at PensionBee.
A-Team Stand-Up
At 9:05am every morning (we allow an extra five minutes as commuters are sometimes delayed), the entire A-Team meets for our morning meeting. The A-Team is formed of the customer-facing team which consists of the BeeKeepers, Nectar Collectors and their Team Leaders. In this meeting we discuss any problems or challenges any of us have and share what we’ll be working on through the day and week.
A Nectar Collector will liaise directly with external agencies and pensions providers, handling the paperwork and administrative decisions involved in a successful pension transfer. They work extremely closely with BeeKeepers, who in turn keep the customer updated on any matters concerning their pension.
Team Leaders manage the BeeKeepers and Nectar Collectors, closely supporting them with their daily tasks and queries. They work closely with the VP Operations and help to develop structures and processes which will improve the A-Team’s overall efficiency.
General Stand-Up
At 9:15am we have our company wide Stand-Up which is made up of the A-Team, and our colleagues across the business, from Marketing and Product to Finance and Operations. Similarly to our A-Team stand up, each team briefly discusses the projects they’re working on, and what they’re planning to action in the day ahead. After each department has spoken, we do “shoutouts” where anyone can announce news such as promotions and new hires, any awards we’ve picked up the night before and whether there’s any birthdays in the company. (Yes, all 100+ people regularly sing Happy Birthday!)
Each team briefly discusses the projects they’re working on, and what they’re planning to action in the day ahead.
Live chats
Live chats take up a good proportion of a BeeKeeper’s day and are always different! Answering them in a prompt manner is essential at PensionBee as we aim to give our customers the best experience, and we understand your time is very important to you! We try to make our team of BeeKeeper’s as knowledgeable as possible to help our customers get the information they need, fast. We have a “Fingers-on-Buzzers” Slack channel to help us with any difficult questions we may come across. Our CEO, Romi, is in the channel and is always happy to answer any questions there may be, along with other colleagues who know pensions inside out.
Emails and calls
As each customer receives their very own BeeKeeper upon sign up, on an individual level we need to make sure we’re available as quickly and easily as possible. The main way customers contact their BeeKeeper is by email or over the phone. We strive to answer all inbound calls, and aim to hit our 100% call answer rate every day. With emails, we try our best to respond within 24 hours of receiving them. Calls and emails from customers can range from questions regarding plans and transfer updates to what we offer and so much more!
Happiness! meetings
A Happiness! meetings are between a BeeKeeper and their Team Leader. Happiness! meetings occur every four weeks and offer an opportunity for a catch-up where the manager can see how the BeeKeeper is doing. Each meeting is centred on the BeeKeeper’s happiness and can cover any challenges they’re facing in or out of the workplace, ambitions for the future and sometimes just a chit chat! We tend to hold these meetings outside of the office to feel more relaxed; local coffee shops are usually a popular location!
Donut
At PensionBee we have another Slack channel called “Donut”. Everyone in the channel gets to meet up with someone random within the company, and you get to go out for a donut! This is an excellent chance to get to know other members of the company and find out what they do! Donuts are especially fun if you want to understand different departments within PensionBee and how they work, including the A-Team!
Everyone in the channel gets to meet up with someone random within the company, and you get to go out for a donut!
Bee-Storm
A “Bee-Storm” happens every other Thursday and it’s where the BeeKeepers, Nectar Collectors and Team Leaders will meet to discuss any ideas they believe would improve the processes at PensionBee. This is important as we’re the ones who are constantly engaging with our customer and really want to make their experience as good as possible. This can involve adding automation somewhere to save time, suggestions for our app and any niggles which can be easily fixed by our brilliant team of developers. All the ideas get discussed and are prioritised, then a couple of days or weeks later you’ll see the fixes live!
Lunch & Learn
Lunch & Learn is exactly what it sounds like! It’s a session held once a month and consists of a member from the Senior Management Team talking about a particular topic within their job role. Previous Lunch & Learn discussions have been on mental health, diversity, the systems we use, communication and our value of quality! We have a Lunch & Learn coming up soon with our chairman Mark Wood, which will be very popular no doubt! Having company-wide transparency is essential to our value of honesty and is a brilliant way to engage everyone!
