Who’s Behind the Box? Customer Service Supervisor – Marian Rieger

We continue our employee feature series, “Who’s Behind the Box,” with Marian Rieger, Fireproof’s Customer Service Supervisor & Coordinator. Follow along to learn more about Marian.

Marian Rieger (far left) and the Fireproof Customer Service Team

If you’ve ever had the privilege of meeting Marian Rieger, you probably walked away feeling good about your day. Marian’s the type of person who has a smile on her face and is happy to chat with a stranger on the street.

“Everybody is my friend,” says Marian.

It is her outgoing and friendly manner that guides her through her days at Fireproof.

History with Fireproof

Marian has been working at Fireproof for 17 years.

“I started as a customer service representative taking phone orders. That evolved into operations administrator and then to handling more administrative responsibilities and constantly training on procedures internally. In 1999, I started moving to outside customer service, and it evolved into supervising, as well as constant training on Fireproof procedures.”

Responsibilities at Fireproof

Marian trains and supervises Fireproof’s customer service staff (five internal and two in the field), visits clients, and sells new services. She maintains and builds relationships with established clients and handles contract renewals. She also spends time in the field working with clients.

“I have many clients that I handle myself. They are my responsibility. It’s sort of a familiarity issue because we have a lot of long-term clients, and we’re proud of that fact!”

Another aspect of Marian’s job is training new clients and coordinating jobs for new clients.

“I do a lot of training internally on updates, but I also do that for our clients. At Fireproof, we do anything we can to stay current as far as technology is concerned. We give clients all the tools that they might need, and we provide the training if they choose. If they want to use the Web, then we’ll help them with that and train them along the way.”

Industry Shift Over 17 Years

“When I started at Fireproof, our system was more manual. Clients still had the fax paper on rolls. Remember the kind (of fax) that the ink disappears? It was becoming very popular. There were only two of us at the High Street facility and one at the West Mound Street facility. The main form of communication with our clients was via phone or fax.”

“Now the shift is toward electronic, such as imaging and scanning. Everything is more computer-based. The customer doesn’t require as much face-to-face time. But we still try to be a little ‘old school’ in that respect. We work to maintain our relationships. Within Fireproof, we’re pretty close-knit and look out for each other, and we try to do that with our clients. It makes them feel good, like they’re part of the Fireproof family. We’re always trying to assist them, asking how we can make it better, easier, convenient and still be cost-effective.”

What Marian Appreciates Most About Fireproof

I appreciate the family-style, tight-knit closeness that our employees feel. It makes you feel like you are a valued member of this team, and we want our clients to feel valued as well. That loyalty transcends to the clients; the clients come first.

“I think more than one-third of Fireproof’s employees have been working here for more than 10 years. Our little group of employees with 10+ years has grown tremendously!”

Things You Don’t Know About Marian:

• She’s an avid baker. “I like to test different recipes and variations on my staff,” she says.

• She plays golf. “I golf, not very well, but I like to get out and walk the course,” she says.

• She loves fundraising for good causes, especially breast cancer awareness. She participates in fundraising for a golf outing that benefits breast cancer, and twice a year she serves as block chair for the March of Dimes. In addition, she’s usually one of the first to get involved with any fundraisers at Fireproof, adding that “Fireproof is very community oriented.”

Tags: Fireproof Records, Marian Rieger, Who's Behind The Box