Back together after 931 days, 22 hours and 56 minutes

It’s been 931 days, 22 hours, 56 minutes and 12 seconds since the Customer Success Group (CSG) at GoCardless last met in the flesh.

It will come as little surprise that the events of the past couple of years have prevented us coming together in person as frequently as we’d like. Getting to know our colleagues as a series of pixels on a screen has been the reality for all of GoCardless for some time now, including the Customer Success Group (CSG). We managed to change that last month.

Over 70 of us came together in one room for the first time since 2019 for our inaugural team offsite, ‘CSG Connect’. 

Meeting some of our colleagues for the first time IRL - and seeing some new faces - was nothing short of energising. We had a packed day of team building activities, insights into what’s to come and plenty of laughs.

Setting the scene for 2022 and beyond 🚀

Our Chief Customer Officer and all around top guy, Pat Phelan, reflected on the changes GoCardless, and specifically our team, has faced these past couple of years. As with many businesses across the globe, we’ve experienced a once in a generation challenge, which as Pat emphasised, we rose to. We welcomed over 100 colleagues into the CSG throughout the pandemic, increased our customer loyalty by 68% and went through two rounds of funding, valuing GoCardless at $2.1 billion.

The growth we’ve seen in the past year alone serves as proof that high-performing teams can only continue to exceed expectations by upskilling and increasing our expertise. That’s why learning and development is at the heart of what’s to come. As a team, we are committed to continuing to invest in our people and their development, including our leadership team, as we continue to scale. 

Teamwork makes the (charity) dream work

After a few rounds of a SFW (Safe For Work) ‘Never Have I Ever’ with some of our senior leadership team, as well as a break for lunch, we returned to find the room had been transformed into a makeshift bike shop by o3e. Each member of the group was assigned a different station as we learnt how to put together different parts of the bike. Once we became experts (used loosely), we worked together with copious laughs, plenty of problem solving and some trial and error to end up with functioning bikes! 

It wasn’t until we were revelling in the success of building 8 fully functioning bikes that it was revealed the bikes were going to a good cause - Carney’s Community, a charity to help disadvantaged and excluded young people off the street. They offer young people the opportunity to engage with activities from boxing to cooking classes to bike mechanics. And that’s where our bikes will help. We all felt humbled that our team efforts would be incredibly valuable for people who need it most.

Challenging how we approach motivation and CSG awards 🏆

As the day drew to a close, we were fortunate to have Jamil Qureshi, an expert in performance psychology, to encourage us to think differently. His insights into how we can change our motivation to improve performance were thought-provoking; as a team who speaks to customers every day,  being motivated by what we want to achieve for them rather than what we want to protect will make sure we’re delivering real value. 

Speaking of performance, we closed the day with an awards presentation where several of our high-performing GeeCees were recognised for their efforts. Well done all! 

What’s up next for the CSG

Our pandemic days are largely behind us (here’s hoping that doesn’t jinx it). Despite our challenges, which are by no means unique, we’ve powered through, forged strong connections internally and continued to deliver on our customer promise. As we move forward through 2022 and beyond, our team will continue to prioritise learning and development, challenge one another and show up for our amazing customers. 

If that sounds like something you’d love to be part of, be sure to check out the openings we have in the Customer Success Group at GoCardless - we’d love to have you onboard!

Take a look at some more photos from the day 👇