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Today we hear from Ekaterina Chernysheva, Senior Partner Success Manager, on what she loves about her role working with transportation companies to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary for an even greater network of travelers.
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I’ve always been inspired by the mutual energy and power generated by people coming from different places and backgrounds, and since I was a kid, my career dream has been to work in an international organization.
The international environment at GetYourGuide was one of the key aspects that initially drew me to apply, and it continues to be one of my favorite things here. Through the shared efforts of myself and my colleagues, we help travelers have the most incredible experiences. This experiential piece is extremely important, and is a great addition to the connecting services provided by transportation companies, the partner segment I work with as a Senior Partner Success Manager on the Business Development team.
Within this segment, I work with airlines, bus, and rail companies like easyJet, KLM, Flixbus, and Deutsche Bahn’s BahnBonus, to name a few. By partnering with GetYourGuide, these companies have the opportunity to generate revenue outside of the transportation services they offer, and we gain more exposure and access to customers.
Transportation is a powerful network to connect people from various parts of the world. Through these partnerships between various transport companies and GetYourGuide, I can help people connect more deeply with their destination and gain an understanding of its culture, which brings me a lot of satisfaction.
In my role, I partner with different transport companies to figure out the best way to present GetYourGuide’s products to travelers, so both the partner company, GetYourGuide, and the travelers themselves benefit. To do so, we work a lot with data. Through data we can determine the best time to advertise our products, which products to advertise to whom, how we can improve the customer journey, and so on. We have a lot of insights we can share with our partners to help them grow in exchange for their unique knowledge and audiences. Going out and collaborating with partners means I learn more and am exposed to more ideas. This is a highlight of the role, and allows me to not only stay on top of industry trends, but to also discover new collaborative approaches and synergize our efforts.
And we don’t just help our partners generate revenue, but we also help them improve their customers’ experiences. So, in my day-to-day work, I help our partners and GetYourGuide boost revenue and I ensure travelers using our products are satisfied, no matter how they booked. I see my impact on GetYourGuide’s success and growth every day.
As a Senior Partner Success Manager, I own many projects and work on them from start to finish. I’m responsible for the initial brainstorm and generation of ideas as well as the execution of those ideas. I run workshops with partners to figure out their customer journey, to see how we can make that journey better, and to determine what touchpoints we want to develop. It’s quite creative, and I have a lot of freedom in what projects I want to run and how they’re carried out.
After completing a project, it’s really rewarding to receive messages and pictures from friends who see GetYourGuide advertised on their flights or when they’re booking their transportation and know my work made that happen.
One project that was particularly rewarding was our recent collaboration with Lufthansa’s rewards program, Miles and More. Miles and More is one of the biggest loyalty programs in the world. We wanted to partner with them because of their large base of loyal, travel-oriented customers. It was a perfect match between our product proposition and the customers.
I worked on that project from its inception through to the launch. Now that it’s been running for some time, we’re seeing some tangible results.
While there are millions of customers we want to reach and I sometimes feel the temptation to tackle everything at once, my biggest learning, and the biggest piece of advice I have for anyone working in Business Development, is to prioritize. In Business Development, it’s never about a lack of opportunity, but a lack of time. There are a lot of opportunities you can run after, but it’s important to focus on the projects that will have the biggest impact, build a logical roadmap, and then follow-through. This is particularly important now, since we’ve recently grown as a team and the opportunities and ideas are only multiplying.
My role has given me the chance to discover so much. As an avid traveler myself, it’s been really cool to learn about the different components of the transportation segment. I understand how they operate, both digitally and offline, and I know the shape of their customers’ journeys. Furthermore, I have the unique opportunity to influence this journey. I’m able to improve the experience of customers flying with easyJet and add something valuable to their trips.
It’s an exciting time for anyone who joins Business Development because we can now specialize in different segments and become experts within that segment. This has allowed me to deep-dive into the transport segment, learn the ins and outs of the industry, grow within the industry, and gain ownership. I’m grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with partners, take projects from the brainstorming stage to booking stage, contribute to GetYourGuide’s growth, and, ultimately, bring incredible experiences to travelers around the world.
Thank you, Ekaterina, for sharing your experience. Interested in joining the Business Development team, strengthening our existing partnerships and cultivating new ones? Check out our open positions.