ICUC Employee Spotlight: Sarah Benton, Senior CSM

Meet Sarah Benton

With 9 years under her belt at ICUC, Sarah’s secret sauce is her passion for client services and ICUC’s digital customer care expertise. With fishing and ABC’s hit series A Million Little Things available to keep her mind at ease, Sarah is the definition of a remote working expert, handling home and work life with care and a bit of fun along the way. We had the pleasure of chatting with Sarah for a closer look at her experience at ICUC.

What’s your role and what do you do every day?

“I am the liaison between the services that ICUC offers – insights analysts and content specialists – back to the clients. So, anything that our clients need, want or request to change etc., they come directly to me and trust that I’ll deliver or tap in the variety of service teams we have, to answer those needs. I currently have 24 clients on my roster – a lot of them are Canadian Tire and their subsidiary brands – which are super fun teams to collaborate with. The primary service that I manage is social customer service, but if our clients choose to participate in Pride Month, ICUC has plenty of strategy experience to advise brands on execution of participation on these ethical issues across social – and how to engage. We’re also their go-to for crisis management – whether it’s a product recall, political opinions expressed by CEOs, or mask debacles at a brick-and-mortar store location.”

How did you first learn about ICUC?

“This year will be my ninth year at ICUC. I heard about ICUC when my husband was stationed at Fort Hood in 2012. I started a job as a nanny for twins and a 4-year-old, for a wonderful Mama, Melissa, who was (at the time) a Client Services manager and on the first day, she went upstairs to her office to work – and it was only then that I learned her job was remote! After a few months, in September 2012, she encouraged me to apply as a Moderator/Content Specialist for part-time evening work – and suddenly I had two great jobs! At ICUC, I started off on the Starbucks account and loved getting the chance to share messaging and end of narrative that Starbucks wasn’t supportive of the US troops overseas. By December, I earned a promotion to Team Lead and have gained multiple promotions since!”

What do you like most about your job?

“Honestly, I love knowing that we are the clients go-to for needs. Whether it’s a quick pull for a data pulse, a change in day-to-day support or a 20-slide report, I enjoy knowing that we are our client’s plan A, B & C – and that we can deliver on that. It doesn’t matter whether it is Christmas morning or a random Tuesday in July, we are who they reach out to for great social media results.”

If you could change one thing about your job, what would it be?

“The only thing that I have is that I feel like I manage a lot of clients but I’m excited that we’re already in the process of bringing in new talented CSMs that can take on a few of my existing accounts, so that we can continue to grow and improve our partners.”

If you could tell your younger self some career advice, what would it be?

I was super hesitant about ICUC at first. I didn’t believe in remote work, and the flexibility that it offered existed – but the work-life balance that it offers is so real!”

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

“I’m a mom of three kids under eight, so anything that keeps my kids busy and gets their energy out before bedtime is my go-to. I’m getting a bicycle for my birthday next month (hopefully), and we just relocated to a new home in a cul-de-sac with a huge backyard – so the outside possibilities are endless for our family. Oh, and fishing! My husband just picked up bass fishing as a hobby and bought me a pink pole/reel, so we enjoy doing that together when we can. Really, anything that makes my family happy makes me happy. For my solo downtime, I enjoy relaxing and watching TV – I love <span=”italic”>A Million Little Things on ABC.”

Three words to best describe you?

“Outgoing. Dependable. Creative.”

Tell us something about yourself that would surprise us.

“I mean the most shocking thing to people is I’m not 30 yet and I have 3 kids. And that I’ve moved 8 times in the past 9 years – over 3.5k miles total.”