“This is not a one-man show”

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Talking Northmill’s culture with CRAFT Awards winners

Northmill’s company values are summarized in the word CRAFT that stands for curious, relentless, active, focusedand thorough. Every year at our conference Northcon a team and an individual employee are named as the CRAFTiest Northmillians. This year the chosen ones are the Finnish Customer Center and Erik Holting who works as Customer Center Manager in the Swedish team. Since it is such a great honor, we asked Erik and Waltteri Ahokas from the Finnish team to reflect on Northmill’s values and what it means to win the CRAFT Awards.

What does it mean to you and your team to win the CRAFT Awards 2019?

Waltteri: To be named as the CRAFTiest team really means a lot to me and my team. Personally, I am very proud of my team and the way we have worked throughout this year. There have been some challenges this year but we have solved everything together. And as a bonus, we got to know each other even better. This is not a one-man show; the only way to success is to work together as a team.

Erik: I am proud and thankful for the opportunity to work at Northmill and that I have been chosen as a winner of this year’s CRAFT Awards from among our 125 employees. I know that everyone in our company works hard, so this is a great honor for me and the prize inspires me to continue Northmill’s journey.

How do Northmill’s values influence you and your team’s everyday-life?

Waltteri: As an example, we are continuously curious and active regarding the new ways and processes of customer care. We review basically all our processes on a weekly basis and concentrate to achieve our targets every day. Relentlessness shows in the way we solve problems and always aim to find the best possible solution in customer interaction. We really are the first interaction our customers have with Northmill, so having this mindset really is the key to maintain such high customer satisfaction as we have.

Erik: I think that the best way for us to take care of every single customer at Northmill is to be inspired by Northmill's values – especially in this phase where Northmill is experiencing strong and rapid growth. In my world, all of the values are equally important, but in the day-to-day operations it is extra crucial to stay thorough and focused over the whole working day since we have a lot of customers who all need our love.

What are the key challenges in your daily work?

Waltteri: For me, they are related to everyday communication within the team. It is crucial that we manage to constantly communicate inside the team. Otherwise, it is not possible to deliver the best possible communication towards our customers either. Since we are continuously launching new products and updating the existing, it is really an everyday work identifying new ways to improve the communication flow and evaluating our processes.

Erik: Northmill operates in a very high-paced and competitive landscape and at the same time our team is growing fast. This role requires me to be able to help and support everyone in need, so I have to do a lot of prioritizing which can be challenging but also a lot of fun!

Which one of Northmill’s values is the most important for you and why?

Waltteri: If I have to highlight one, then I would choose the letter “R” that stands for relentless. In my opinion, relentlessness builds a basis for being curious, active, focused and thorough. To our team, relentlessness means the attitude of a challenger we need in order to keep finding new solutions and ways to improve ourselves. Relentlessness makes it possible for us to learn from our mistakes and keep moving forward.

Erik: Focus is the most important of our values to me and my team. It is crucial to keep being focused on our everyday-work but also to our mission and role at Northmill. The customer center is the face towards our customers and we become the reflection of these values every time we talk to our customers. Every call counts, so by staying focused we are prepared to offer help and support at all times.