Project Manager of the Quarter – January 2017
2017 is off to an exciting start, and we are thrilled to add to that excitement with our quarterly highlight of one of our brilliant Project Managers. It’s because of our dedicated PMs that we’re able to maintain our outstanding clients and keep both them and our Mods happy. So it’s our pleasure to announce our first Project Manager of the Quarter of 2017, Crystal Litzau!
Crystal has been with ModSquad since the early days of our company — in fact, she’ll celebrate her ten-year Modiversary later this year! A longtime and long-valued member of our team, Crystal worked on one of ModSquad’s first projects and, over the years, has supported a number of our great clients. Currently, Crystal provides invaluable leadership to our Shared Services team and our awesome client Bendon, for whom we provide customer support for a number of their brands.
With well over a decade of experience supporting customers, it’s no wonder Crystal is so dedicated to ensuring our clients stay happy.
My goal as a PM is to provide the best customer support we can for each client’s customers. When we provide great support, the customers are happy. Happy customers make happy clients. Happy clients stay with ModSquad.
She is well-versed in the various services we provide our clients, from email and phone support to community moderation, as well as the industry best practices that drive positive customer experience. In particular, when working on community moderation projects, Crystal is known for immersing herself in the channels her team supports.
I love the community mentality. I love getting to know members, building rapport with them, and getting totally immersed in their passions and fandoms.
As a Project Manager, Crystal is responsible for many different tasks: communicating clearly with her clients and team, defining the scope of (and fulfilling) client needs, hiring and onboarding Mods, performing quality assurance evaluations, and more. According to Crystal, of all the work she does, the most important part of her role is building a strong team of Mods that can support both the client and one another.
For any project to be successful, you need to have a strong team that shares a team mentality. Everyone is on the same side and needs to be in sync. It’s my job to support them and give them the tools they need to do their jobs to the best of their ability. It’s important that my teams know they can rely on me and each other.
In her years at ModSquad, being promoted from Mod to Project Manager remains one of Crystal’s proudest moments. There have been many entertaining moments as well. For instance, in order to ensure a safe environment for one of our gaming clients, Crystal was tasked with ensuring the game’s profanity filter was comprehensive — there was no better way to do that than to hop in-game and test it herself (on a secure private server, of course)!
Asked for the best piece of advice she’d give to future project managers, Crystal gets straight to the point: Be good to your team.
The bottom line is that without your team, your project won’t succeed. So be good to them. Make sure they know that you have their back and they have your full support.
In her personal time, Crystal stays busy with a variety of hobbies, many of which involve her family: crafting, writing, reading, camping, cheering on the Packers, watching movies with her husband, and destroying her son’s scores in “old school” video games.
Our account managers and others at ModSquad have no shortage of praise for Crystal:
“Crystal has been with ModSquad forever and does a great job running the Shared Services Team (which not everyone would consider the most exciting assignment). She also recently helped Elizabeth make some major improvements on a struggling project.”
— Jason Ferguson, Director of Client Services
“Crystal is great at both giving and accepting constructive criticism, and is constantly looking to improve her teams and herself. Her commitment to ModSquad and improving the service offerings she oversees are unparalleled. When I began overseeing services delivery for our Shared Services team, we overhauled a number of processes and invented new management methodologies together. The Services department has since been able to use the lessons we learned there to improve performance management throughout the company. It’s a privilege to work alongside her, and I look forward to continuing to do so!”
— Josh Smith, Strategic Management Specialist
“Raising my mug of butterbeer to salute Crystal — she’s awesomesauces!”
— Gina Miller, Director of People Operations
“Crystal has the sometimes thankless job of running the Shared Services Team, which she does quite well. She recently took over a project for me with a lot of phone and email contacts. Right away, we started seeing improvements in handle time, after-call work, and generally improved productivity. Morale is better on the project with Crystal in charge; the Mods appreciate her no-nonsense approach.”
— Elizabeth Weil, Account Manager
“I can’t say enough about Crystal. She is effective, confident and, most of all, organized! To manage the Shared team, you need to have great communication skills, both written and verbal, and Crystal exhibits that. Crystal never lets you see her sweat, and I believe that is an excellent quality to have!”
— Theresa Galle, Account Manager