Five questions for Pia Meyer
Pia Meyer, from Polestar’s Global Car Service and Repair Experience, on common goals, healing powers, and the Austrian Alps.
What is the best part of your job?I would say it is all the amazing people! Our customers, our fans, my team, all the colleagues at HQ, and all the colleagues in our markets. It is really inspiring to work as a team, set common goals, meet those goals, and celebrate them together. I love watching people grow. It really makes my day when we come together to improve something, or launch a new offer that creates a buzz amongst our customers and fans.
How does the reality of your job compare with what people think you do?I work in Global Car Service and Repair Experience (previously called Customer Service), and the most common misunderstanding about my job is that we are “customer support”. We have another department within Customer Experience called Customer Care that works with our support. At Global Car Service and Repair Experience we work to secure stable operations in our markets. We also drive business areas and launch new projects and offers. My team and I work closely with Customer Care to make sure that all Polestar customers get the best ownership experience possible.
I manage a team with market alignments, business owners, project leads, and central operations supporters. My role is more “hands-on” than one might think. I do everything from starting up projects, handling customer complaints by trying to understand what went wrong, and improving the processes to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen again, to putting together roadmaps, budgets, cost follow ups, plans and priorities. I do a lot of different things and that’s what makes it so fun!
What job would you like to have if you didn't have this one?
I would run a bed and breakfast in the Austrian Alps! I go there almost every summer and every single time I ask myself, “do they really know how fortunate they are to be living in such a beautiful place?”. It would be a dream come true for me. My bed and breakfast would have about 10-15 rooms with a fantastic garden and a view over the magical Alps. During working hours, I would spend time with my guests telling them all about the nice places they simply must visit and all the great restaurants to try. And when I’m not busy guiding my guests, I would be out hiking in the mountains myself. And maybe, I’d even learn how to ski again.
What has happened or changed in your area of work over the last 10 years?
With the risk of sounding like I’m 100 years old, I would say going from paper to digital is the biggest shift. Ten years ago, everyone had their own desk and their own bookshelf with binders full of project plans, processes, contracts, and so on. Today we’ve got free seating at the office (even if I tend to select the same desk every day) and I can't remember when I last printed something. I think this is a great change, not only because we save a lot of paper, but also because the digital work environment enables us to be more transparent and effective.
If you had a superpower, what would it be?One thing that I’ve always thought about is how nice it would be to make a difference and help people in need. People suffering from serious illnesses, for example. But the reality is that I can’t stand needles, or blood, so I never became a doctor or a nurse. But if I could heal people without injections and all of that, it would be fantastic. Therefore, I would go with “healing” as my superpower.
