Christina’s passion for working with people and leading a team started when she was a young figure skater. As one of MoveSpring’s first hires and now the leader of the Client Success team, Christina tells us about her journey and where she’s looking forward to going next.
Hi Christina! I heard you were one of the first people to join MoveSpring?
Yes! I think I was the fifth or sixth employee to join MoveSpring (or StrideKick, as we were called back then). It’s interesting because I actually started out as a community manager back when we had a more consumer-facing product, so I was tasked with building out our groups, trying to get affinity for the product, and figuring out how we could get more people on board and engaged, so I wrote a lot of content as well. But as our product evolved, my role evolved too into more client-based work and I loved it. A few years later, now I’m the leader of MoveSpring’s Client Success team.
What does that mean you’re doing day-to-day?
The Client Success team with MoveSpring is a little different to Reward Gateway, as everything we’re doing is post-sale. So once we’ve welcomed a new customer, we’ll be with them from implementation all the way through to renewal. We’re essentially acting as the client’s relationship manager; helping them understand the system, optimizing their usage, and basically making sure they’re getting the most from the platform and have a great reason to stick with us year after year.
Has that role changed significantly since MoveSpring was acquired by Reward Gateway?
It’s similar — we still work quite autonomously and work with the same clients. But we’re also really looking forward to finding out more about Reward Gateway’s clients; they really overlap with our offering, so we’re excited to introduce more of RG’s clients to our platform, and hopefully vice versa!
If you’ve been with MoveSpring from the early days, I imagine it can be a bit alarming or scary to join a bigger company like RG. How’s that process been for you?
You know, when you hear the word ‘acquisition’, it can be kind of scary, especially as I’d heard bad stories from friends at other companies who’d been through that process. But the more I learned [about Reward Gateway], the more I felt like there was such an overlap between the two companies. And I realized that we wouldn’t just be benefiting RG’s clients, but as a team we’d also benefit too — we have access to so many more resources now and we're getting more mentorship opportunities, plus our values just align really well. So thankfully it's been a really easy transition and I haven't met anyone I haven't liked — they’ve all been really welcoming and eager to share their ideas. I've loved it.
The other thing to note is that RG has been super transparent through this entire process; they communicate a lot, which has been a huge benefit and relief. I feel like sometimes in acquisitions you’re often kept in the dark, whereas Reward Gateway has been an open book. Even now, they still do blog posts every week about their decision-making and planning, so you can find out what’s going on and get involved as much as you want. And now Rob [Boland, Reward Gateway’s COO] is doing this really cool series of videos about why RG partnered with MoveSpring. It’s refreshing and I haven't really heard of many other companies that do things that way.
Have you taken advantage of any of RG’s benefits since joining?
Yes! The Wellbeing benefit has been really useful for me. I really wanted to focus on relaxation recently, so I used the benefit to book some massages, which was awesome. And I’ve taken a lot of advantage of the Book Benefit, too — I’m currently listening to a book on Audible called Atomic Habits, by James Clear. I’ve loved it so far.
Finally — if you were looking for someone to join your team, what’s the biggest thing you’d want them to know? What do you really value in your teammates?
I would definitely say come with an open mind and be ready for change — especially at MoveSpring. Things in tech are changing all the time; whether it's the technologies we use or our processes, everything like that means you need to be on your toes.
And it might sound a little out there, but I think something we're learning all the time — especially in MoveSpring’s space and as part of RG’s team now — is just to be vulnerable and not be afraid to share your ideas. It’s such a good way to get to know your team and make an immediate connection. I know that doesn’t sound like a requirement, per se, but I do know that the best connections you can make are when you can lean on each other to learn something new.
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