Meet the Kalibrate team: Robert Gardner, Technical Engineer

At Kalibrate, we believe our success is driven as much by our people as our technology. So, as part of our meet the team series, we’re showcasing some of the talent and expertise within the Kalibrate family. This installment features Robert Gardner, Technical Engineer.

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What’s your role at Kalibrate?

I’m part of Kalibrate’s Technical Support Group. As a Technical Engineer, my role is to work with clients to resolve any problems they’re experiencing while using their Kalibrate software.

For example, a client could contact us because they’re unable to receive push notifications to their Kalibrate Mobile app. They’d be able to get in touch with us by raising a ticket through our Jira Service Desk portal, or emailing us at TechnicalSupport@kalibrate.com. I could then let them know that this issue is due to a change in Android functionality, and the solution would be to download the latest version of our app from the Google Play Store, which contains a patch that will solve their problem.

What does a typical day look like?

Each morning, I start my day by reviewing the technical support queue. I prioritize the items that are most urgent, and then work through the list of tickets. Often, I’ll contact the clients to further understand, or recreate, errors to help find the solution. If my team and I are unable to solve the issue right away, I’ll collaborate with other relevant teams within Kalibrate (such as the development team) to resolve the issue.

I joined Kalibrate in the late 1990s, meaning I have an institutional knowledge of current and historical Kalibrate products. This knowledge allows me to understand any issues from an internal, technical point-of-view, but more importantly, from the client’s business perspective. I can really get in the client’s shoes to guide them to resolve their problem quickly and avoid issues in the future.

What do you love about your role?

I’ve been at Kalibrate a long time and served in a variety of different capacities — both directly client-facing and behind the scenes. I love getting to work with different people inside and outside the organization to help clients with their questions about Kalibrate Pricing and Kalibrate Planning. Every day I start work and I’m greeted with a new challenge, and at the end of each day I’m proud of the help I’ve provided to both clients and colleagues. Problem-solving is my passion, and I believe I’m one of the hardest workers out there. My track record at Kalibrate speaks for itself — during my time I’ve worked across so many teams: planning production, project management, technical services, customer support, project implementation, and I’ve even helped with sales support.

Why did you choose to join Kalibrate?

I graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Meteorology, a minor in Astronomy, and a boatload of Mathematics classes. A friend who worked for MPSI (Kalibrate’s predecessor) recommended me as a Production Database Analyst for the network planning solution. All those math and map-work classes really helped me get into the role. 22 years later here I am, having worked across many different departments, met hundreds of people in the industry, and traveled all over the world.

Working at Kalibrate has, and continues to be, a really rewarding experience for me — in an industry that I’d never really considered until I graduated.

What are the greatest challenges and opportunities in Kalibrate’s Technical Support Group?

COVID-19 has obviously been a huge challenge for our customers this year, but interestingly, the technical support team has transitioned quite easily to the new working environment. I’m based in Tulsa, but the clients or colleagues I work with could be based anywhere in the world. Remote interactions were already the norm for my team, so we’ve been able to maintain our high level of customer service and professionalism while working from home. Kalibrate’s global team also means there’s always someone on hand in any time-zone to assist with a software issue.

The greatest opportunity for my team this year has grown out of Kalibrate’s customer satisfaction survey. This year, the company has begun running semi-annual Net Promotor Score (NPS) surveys to customers to understand which parts of our service are making clients happy, and where we can make improvements.

The feedback we received was incredibly useful and has driven some changes in our processes. Two Customer Service Engineers joined our team, allowing us to improve our client interactions and communications.

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