In this edition of ‘Leadership Spotlight’, we meet our newest hire and an inspiring edition to the Singapore team, Alister Sheppard. We sat down with him to hear how he has been using his skills as a problem solver in the customer operations team to introduce initiatives that advocate for our customers and drive product enhancements our customers love.

Elevating our Customer First Policy with a New Role

Why did you decide to join Parcel Perform?

Parcel Perform has a unique and exciting product that I’m keen to get my hands on and make a real difference to our customers. Working alongside talented and passionate people is an added bonus for me to learn and contribute to nurturing others’ development. 

What are your immediate plans and goals as Head of Operations? 

Customer operations is the face of the company, we’re the front line. We want to create an environment where we keep building trust and assurance with our customers — both new and old — when they need help. 

Getting to know my team and our product is a top priority. I am fortunate to have a team of experts who can guide me through the processes and tools we use. I am keen to understand how I can improve these efforts to create a better high-level strategy. Aside from that, I am someone who loves to know my numbers to better understand the performance and health of my teams. I will be setting up dashboards, and refining performance metrics to establish success.

What are some of the challenges that you foresee for this role and how do you plan to overcome them? 

Moving quickly to match the speed of the industry and the company will be an early challenge for myself. I will be pushing myself to absorb as much information as I can.

Leading a global team is always a fascinating challenge. Whether it be connecting with someone virtually or in person, it is important to understand specific market requirements and nuances and bring that knowledge into our overall global strategy. I like to call this - Glocalizing, an important aspect that leads to the success of a company when it is growing as fast as we are.

How has the technology landscape changed in the last 5 years? 

I believe that at the heart of it, technology should make our lives easier. As someone who uses technology in my daily life, from my Roomba® to fintech services and obviously online deliveries, I rely on technology primarily for convenience and time-saving. 

Focusing on the e-commerce space in particular, there has been a seismic shift in the pace at which technology is expected to innovate to meet customer expectations worldwide. Next-day shipping is an expected norm and that is something that has only occurred within the last two years. Comparing the state of e-commerce to five years ago really shows how much customers rely on online shopping to have their needs met. 

Building A Career in Improving the Customer Service Experience

What inspired you to build a career in Customer Operations?

Going back 12 years now, I fell into Customer Operations, just like a lot of traveling fresh graduates when I first moved halfway around the world to live in London. I started at the ground level, working in a contact center and then was fast tracked into leadership roles quite early on in my career. Originally, I would say it was less of a passion and more of something that I felt like I was good at. 

Working at Parcel Perform gives me the opportunity to grow and streamline these processes for the team. Here, I wish to drill down into the real problems and mark out a high-level plan for success. This is what I am super passionate about, not just being in a customer-facing role, but having a hand in growing Parcel Perform by developing a team and strategy to support the growth of the company.

Laying the Foundations for High Team Morale

What are some personal mantras you would like to share and how does that blend with Parcel Perform’s culture of diversity and inclusivity ? 

There is a saying and it goes, “good customer support is having no customer support“. Being good at my job isn’t just about solving the problems that we are met with on a daily basis, but being proactive about identifying those problems ahead of time and solutioning it before they become an issue. Understandably, there will be things out of our control. For those, we need to have the right team, processes and responses to solve those quickly for our customers.  

I believe that no matter the role or position, everyone needs to understand and have a clear purpose. Knowing your personal contribution to the team and why you show up to work everyday is the only way to keep people motivated. I do this in subtle ways such as inviting them to have a voice in a meeting, taking them out for coffee so they feel comfortable sharing;  even on the tougher days.

At the end of 2020, I wrote an article on Linkedin reflecting on some leadership lessons that I had learned, read it to find out more about my leadership style!

What do you value most in a team and how does that shape one’s personal development in their career?

Trust and honesty are both strong values any team should strive towards. I want my team to be comfortable being themselves. This also means having an environment that is built on two-way feedback. Trust works both ways and honesty shapes nurtured teams in the long run. I also strongly believe in teams that embrace continuous learning. Tech businesses move fast. In order to keep up, you have to be ambitious, but also willing to learn, fail and grow. As a leader, I need to set that tone, so that as the company grows my team can grow their skills to keep learning about customers. 

Anything that has shaped your career recently?

Referencing my commitment to lifelong learning, a book that I have read recently is ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear. I would recommend this to anyone from a student right through to executive level leadership.

About Parcel Perform

Parcel Perform is the leading global delivery experience platform, transforming e-commerce logistics with in-depth expertise in delivery data and last-mile operations. In August 2021, we successfully secured US$20M in Series A investments led by blue-chip investors such as Cambridge Capital and SoftBank Ventures Asia.

Parcel Perform believes in growing our dynamic and diverse team with the best talent to assist our global expansion. We are always looking for talented and driven professionals to join our diverse team worldwide. Explore our open roles here.