Elin Granlund works at Amazon's Customer Service Center in The Hague, serving customers in the Netherlands and Sweden with their questions. The expat from Sweden loves working with customers and has always done this kind of work. She also finds life in the Netherlands enjoyable: "I like the directness of the Dutch, it's easy for me to figure out exactly what they mean,” she says.
Elin started at Amazon as a Customer Service Associate for Swedish customers in 2020 and late in 2021 moved to the Customer Experience Insights team, which serves both Swedish and Dutch customers. Having left a city near Stockholm for The Hague two years ago, she has enjoyed the move so far, even during the pandemic when everyone was forced to work from home. She says: “I missed socializing with colleagues, of course, but everyone was in the same boat. Let's face it, I have a good job in which I can help Swedish customers in my native language from the Netherlands. Wonderful, right?”
Apart from the locals, Elin also really likes the flat land in the Netherlands. “It makes it so easy to cycle,” she laughs. “That's why there are so many bicycles, of course!” She adds: “You can see so far - I can just see Rotterdam in the distance there!” Indeed, the skyline of the port city is clearly visible from the 14th floor of the Amazon building next to The Hague Hollands Spoor station.
Practically every job Elin has had to this day has been in customer service or at least always in direct contact with customers. “I love helping people with their problems and it is always enormously gratifying when it works out and the customer is satisfied,” she says. “That always gives me a very positive feeling.” Amazon’s Customer Service team in The Hague is one of many teams providing dedicated support to our global customers, across 19 languages and in 22 countries.
Elin says: “My days are very different, in fact no two days are the same. I do a lot of customer deep dives, to look into problems for customers when they arise. I also work on various projects to set up new and more efficient processes, or to tighten up existing processes for our Customer Service Associates and customers, for example in the area of returns and refunds. I sit in meetings with people from different departments and connect with Associates for feedback. My job is very dynamic and that's what I love about it.”
Elin enjoys her work at Amazon and hopes to work there for years to come. Yet there will be quite a change in her life in the near future, as she will be taking an acting course in Sweden next winter. “I've wanted to do that for a while and to my surprise I was accepted. When I'm done with the acting adventure, I'll come back to the Netherlands. I've never been afraid of radical decisions.”
You can learn more about Amazon’s Customer Service team here.
This article was first published in the Netherlands-based magazine, Customer First.
