People Spotlight – Meet Account Manager, Lou Couling-Woods
The peoplevalue team is made up of friendly and professional individuals who work together to help our business grow every day. In this blog series, we’re taking a closer look at some of the names and faces behind our brand. Today, we’re saying hello to Lou Couling-Woods, one of our Account Managers.
Introducing Lou Couling-Woods, Account Manager
In her role, Lou is the main point of contact for a proportion of our 450+ clients. She works with the wider Account Management team and Head of Client Success to improve the overall user experience, ensure that client needs are understood and satisfied and that their schemes are constantly being optimised.
Before joining the PV team 4 years ago, Lou spent 13 years at a utility company as Sales Operations Manager. She is now a key player in our business, with one of her most notable achievements being her work with Civica during the pandemic. She helped to set up a charity on their scheme to support their colleagues in India which received £10,000 worth of donations.
When she’s not working, Lou enjoys spending time with her family, Hailey and Zackary. She enjoys cooking, eating out and drinking wine. She also gets talked into a lot of football in the garden!
What does a typical day look like for you?
“My day starts early. I make sure school uniform is ironed, packed lunch is ready and everything that should be in the school bag is – but I usually forget something! Once I start work, I try to structure my day first thing so that I have a plan. I prep for any client calls and try to answer as many email queries as possible. We try to walk the dogs every lunchtime, which is the benefit of home working, and the afternoon is usually spent catching up on actions from my calls. Although I have this structure no two days are the same.”
How do you like to start your working day?
“Always with coffee – plenty of coffee!”
How did you get into your current job role?
“Random story really. I was looking for a new role and had been offered a couple of positions in other companies but nothing felt quite right. My father-in-law is a tiler and was doing some work in our CEO, Andy’s, house. When Andy mentioned that they were looking for people in the Oxford area my Father-in-law mentioned that I was looking for a new role – long story short, I applied, interviewed, got the job and haven’t looked back since!”
What is your favourite thing about working at peoplevalue?
“The flexibility that allows me to balance being a full time working mum. I can do both a full-time job and be a mum and I don’t feel like I’m compromising on either. That and all the fantastic people that I have met!”
What one word would you use to describe peoplevalue’s culture?
“Flexible – I can’t tell you how many times I have been told ‘Family comes first.’ This is so important to me and very rare to find in an employer.”
What do you most enjoy about your job?
“Working with some really great clients that are doing great things for their employees. I love being part of the change when we take on a new client and implement one or all of our fantastic schemes or add a new scheme to an existing client. It is not a one size fits all approach which gives me the flexibility to try different things with different clients depending on their needs.”
What is your favourite quote?
“You can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle three things; a rainy day, lost luggage and tangled Christmas tree lights.”
What is your favourite memory from working at peoplevalue so far?
“The Peaky Blinders Christmas party was so much fun.”
Are there any projects you’ve worked on that you’re particularly proud of?
“Peabody PeerUp Perks is a new platform that we have designed, built and implemented alongside that fantastic team at Peabody to support their residents. This project gives many people access to discounts and wellbeing resources.”
Read next: Meet Enzo Silvestri, Head of eCommerce
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