Curious about what it’s like to work at Chattermill? Meet Katrina Berke, who works in our Solutions Consulting team.
Kat joined Chattermill 3 years ago and originally worked in our MLOps team before moving to the Solutions Consulting team. She talks about her reasons for the move, her thoughts on challenges facing the CX industry at the moment, and her Peruvian bucket-list wish.
PS. Do you want to work with Katrina in our Chattermill team? Check out our open roles
Why did you join Chattermill?
I applied to Chattermill because of the unique learning opportunity it offered. Before I started here, I was really interested in Artificial Intelligence, specifically the Natural Language Processing field, but didn’t have much data science experience myself.
Joining the Machine Learning team at Chattermill gave me the chance to essentially learn the basics from scratch while still having access to all the relevant data science tooling and research.
This is something that we still don’t see enough of in the job market but is incredibly necessary considering how many of my talented colleagues have ‘graduated’ from (and within) Chattermill to various other roles, having gained a very strong background in machine learning processes.
What made you decide to change roles?
Once I was familiar with our product and the most common issues that our clients face in their customer engagement journey, I realised I was gradually gaining more interest in the consultative and commercial side of things, which prompted me to join the Solutions Consulting team.
How did you find the process of changing departments?
It was incredibly smooth and efficient – from the moment my new role was confirmed, I was able to start my transition straight away.
During this time, I was continuously supported by my current and previous managers and the CEO himself which was a great motivation boost.
Have you found there are a lot of transferable skills between MLOps and Solutions Consulting?
Yes, absolutely! One of the main areas of my role is to provide detailed product expertise, as well as ensure that Chattermill can offer the right solution for our prospect’s needs.
This requires being aware of our internal machine-learning practices and how we can customise this for any use case.
Now that I’ve worked in my current role for a few months, I’d say that the knowledge gained from MLOps is definitely a crucial component when consulting prospects on our AI product.
What’s your day-to-day like now?
It’s very dynamic – almost every day I get to speak to a new prospect about their specific friction points in their customer experience and how Chattermill can help provide value. I also enjoy being more involved in strategic planning while working with my colleagues in the wider commercial team toward our set goals.
What do you think is the biggest challenge the CX industry is facing at the moment?
Not having the right tools to analyse ever-growing volumes of customer feedback.
The number of sources (and devices) where we can leave reviews has exploded in recent years, so many brands are tailoring their customer experience campaigns not only around direct feedback received through their NPS surveys but also what customers are talking about on support channels, social media, and more.
Without having the right tooling, all these sources are extremely difficult to analyse to understand the whole picture. Being able to unify it all in one platform and have AI do the work for you at scale and providing real-time actionable intelligence should be a top priority to every customer-centric business.
There’s a lot of research on how businesses advancing in the CX industry record up to 10% increase in growth and revenue, but not everyone is ready to make the investment.
However, from my experience in Chattermill, I believe this is still a developing industry, as we see more and more businesses sign up for our solution who then introduce it to their wider network.
How would you describe the working culture at Chattermill?
Flexible, encouraging and supportive.
What’s your favourite thing to do outside of work?
After a few years' break, I’ve recently picked up drawing again. I’m currently attending Life Drawing classes at the Royal Drawing School.
If you had an unlimited supply of one thing, what would it be?
Coffee! I enjoy finding new independent coffee shops wherever I go. Coffee is a crucial part of my mornings.
What’s on your bucket list?
So many things! At the moment it’s to hike the Inca Trail and see the sunrise above Machu Picchu.
