A Chat With: Stacey Pinkney and Tomasz Odrobinski at Booksy
By Donna Fielder and Sarah Cronk
For our chat this month, we wanted to learn more about Booksy, a global tech start-up with head offices in Eastbourne. We caught up with Stacey Pinkney and Tomasz Odrobinski, who work in recruitment and operations roles at the booking software creator, to discover more about the company and find out Stacey’s perspective on working in tech without a tech background.
We began our chat by delving into the history and growth of Booksy…
Tell us a bit about Booksy and what led to its creation?
Tomasz: “Booksy’s founders are technical service providers who have created a number of different marketplaces and apps. Back in 2014 when websites dominated over mobile, they discovered there was a big challenge around booking services and thought an app would help most here. So they created a booking solution for services, primarily focused on the beauty industry, which is huge.
“They realised that businesses need a simple but powerful solution for booking appointments, as answering the phone isn’t always possible when you’re providing the service yourself. These businesses also needed to build a client database, so Booksy has been growing to help with this too, with marketing tools, client retention, and reports.
“It’s now a complete solution for managing a business. Appointments, retention, reports, all in one. Plus it can serve as an online marketplace when there are lots of businesses in a certain area. Its use grows through word-of-mouth and networking, as lots of people know it, use it, and recommend it to others.”
How has the company grown?
Stacey: “We have 100+ staff in the UK, with about 40 in the head office in Eastbourne. Globally, we’re at 1000+ staff, with the markets in the US, Brazil, South Africa, Spain, France, Poland, as well the UK and Ireland.
Tomasz: “We have several thousand merchants, with millions of app users.”
Why are your head offices based in Eastbourne?
Tomasz: “One of the early account managers living in Eastbourne was friends with the founders, so it happened totally by accident. It’s quite uncommon for a start-up to launch in a smaller town, normally it would be a big city. So like everything in life, it brought both challenges and opportunities.
“In the early stages, we were selling everything via phone, so it was easier to start in Eastbourne. Now we have seven satellite cities where we have sales teams. But the customer success, operations, and marketing functions all run from Eastbourne.
Does Booksy intend to stay in Eastbourne?
Tomasz: “It’s both a big challenge and opportunity, being in Eastbourne. We want to grow, so for us, retention of talent and locally-based people with experience is becoming a challenge. It’s easy to find seasoned specialists in customer success here, but for more experienced SaaS roles and marketing roles, it can be challenging in Eastbourne. It’s great having home-grown talent, but at the speed of our growth, it’s not always easy to find the talent we need fast enough. Every now and then, we find people living here who had been commuting, and we can recruit them.
“It’s challenging finding the right transferable skills at lower levels, so training and learning is required. There’s also the shock of working at the fast pace of a start-up. The new starters have to have the right attitudes.”
Stacey: “Working at a tech start-up, you’ve got to be a certain kind of character. You’ve got to be extremely adaptive, as no two days are ever the same. You have to deal with change and deal with the craziness and pace of it!”
Tomasz: “It all comes from a need for innovation and speed. You have to adapt quickly and the results of your work need to be visible quickly. If you’re moving into the tech industry, there’s always new innovation, new technologies, and new approaches compared to more established industries.”
What types of people do well working at Booksy?
Stacey: “We’ve found our employees that have come from strong hospitality backgrounds really thrive with us. Some of our most talented employees come from the hospitality industry, especially the fast food industry, which is so fast paced, so high-pressured, so dynamic and you’re dealing with a lot of complaints all day, every day. They’re extremely transferable skills to come and work at Booksy!”
Tomasz: “Booksy allows people to migrate from a role in customer support to become a customer success agent, which is the next level in customer service. Previously you may have dealt with customers, but now you’re dealing with businesses. You need to learn their business, understand their needs, and discover the customer service elements that transfer. You can upskill and learn how to deal with businesses: Steve, who’s the owner of a business instead of Steve, who’s buying a burger. You’re creating a tailor-made offering for each business, reflecting their business needs and goals.
“With start-ups and tech in the area, small or medium-sized towns have the opportunity to create a pool of competencies in the areas of customer care, customer success, and sales, as there are so many people who would have worked in customer service and hospitality sectors. Whilst the Booksy app isn’t built here, Software as a Service is solved through its customer success agents. There’s a huge potential for these kinds of higher paid and more demanding jobs, especially here in Eastbourne.”
Stacey then went on to give us more information about her experience of starting her role at Booksy and an insight into the work she does now.
Stacey, how did you get your role at Booksy?
“I just applied on Indeed after seeing the ad and thinking, “that is literally me in a job description!”. I’d left my life and started a new life in Eastbourne town centre, and was looking for jobs. I thought initially it was a remote role to start with and that Booksy would just have a small office here with a head office in London, but once I found out the whole role was here, it was crazy.
“I had some really good discussions as part of the interview process - chatting for far longer than we should have! - about what my skills were, how we could collaborate and the skills I could bring to Booksy. I remember calling my friend afterwards and saying “I really hope they hire me, that’s my dream job!”.
“If you’d turned around and told me I’d know what I know now, 19 months ago, I wouldn’t have believed it. I’ve learnt the most ridiculous amounts of everything! That’s one of the best things about working in tech, in a start-up/scale-up. I’ve learned and progressed so much as an individual in a personal and professional sense.”
Had you been doing recruitment before?
“Yes. I’d worked in the customer success team in a call centre and was having dinner one night with the CEO when we were chatting and I’d said how much I loved recruitment and it was something I wanted to do. The next day, he moved me from customer service to recruitment. That man changed my life. I love recruitment and I’m such a people person, I just love it. And I’d like to think I’m quite good at it too, as I’ve hired quite a lot of people - probably 100 since being at Booksy!
“I ended up working more in HR, as recruitment always progresses into HR. I was in Brighton, then I moved over to Eastbourne where I worked at a dentist doing recruitment and HR. I left there, then came to work at Booksy. So I’ve got about 7-8 years recruitment experience, 3-4 years HR experience.
“Currently I’m doing more HR work, but with our new HR manager starting, I’ll happily be going back to do more recruitment work. I love how interesting HR is as it changes so much and the laws change every day, but I’m a talker and a people person and like to make people happy!”
How did you find it going into a tech start-up?
“I was blown away initially - it was a real shock to come into a business and find others like me, people who always work at a fast rate. Tech is perceived as nerdy and dorky, but it’s a really creative industry. People in tech are creators, imaginative, fun, passionate, intelligent, amazing.
“For me, the environment was so different to the structured, corporate environment I worked in at the NHS. To come to an industry where there is creativity, imagination, passion, determination and drive among all of the people, it’s brilliant. I couldn’t encourage anyone anymore to come! The world is moving in this direction and we have a really cool tech community starting in Eastbourne.
“It was a pleasant surprise to discover this industry, which is evolving every day. Tech is just the craziest industry - just look at Instagram’s move from photo to video and the impact that’s had; the whole world knows about it. That’s the power of tech.”
What kinds of roles do you recruit for at your head offices in Eastbourne?
“We look for customer success agents, which are broken down into teams:
Customer Success Onboarders look after new customers for the first four weeks and make sure you’re using the app correctly;
The Customer Success Consultant team look after your business, and there are three different specialisations within that team;
The Boost team helps merchants with the marketplace;
The Inbound team are more tech-savvy and are able to help more with the way the product works.
“The Inbound team tend to be avid gamers in their free time, whilst the Onboarders and Outbound teams tend to have the hospitality backgrounds.
“HR and Operations teams are based in Eastbourne and there are some Finance, Marketing and Sales roles too. The technical team are generally out in Poland and someone from there tends to come and visit us once a quarter.
“When I first started my role, I also helped to build the South Africa team, which I loved. There, you tend to get 300 applicants for a role that would attract 50 in the UK, as the unemployment rate is so high. Generally I recruit mainly in the UK, but other teams worldwide will use my job ads and questions in the interview process. Recruiting for this company is so exciting.”
What do you look for in your recruits?
“For me, personality is one of the most important factors in recruitment. I like to give as many people a chance as possible. They need to be able to hold a steady conversation on the phone, as they’ll be speaking to business owners, and be patient. They should be willing to adapt and be fast.
“Technical knowledge and business acumen are also desirable, but we do give people the opportunity to learn these skills too. If people understand how a business operates, that’s great - some have run nail or lash companies before and one runs a gaming team. But if the person is right for Booksy and they fit culturally, then we have training at least once or twice a month. We’re continually training and bettering our staff.
“A willingness to work hard goes a long way. If you want to work in tech, you need to be fast, dynamic, and fun! People like the Booksy work hard/play hard culture and that’s why we have quite high retention.
“Younger employees can often be shocked when they start out, as it can be their first or second job, or they have only worked in retail previously. Those with hospitality experience are more used to a fast and dynamic environment. We want to give more opportunities to the younger people, but they have to be forthcoming too.”
What led you to run your own job fair in Eastbourne?
“The idea came from Tomasz and when I started it was something we wanted to do. We want to retain local talent. We don’t want to lose a graduate, even a college graduate, to a tech place in Brighton. We want them at Booksy or any other tech company in Eastbourne - there’s a community here.
“We launched the job fair as we needed to get the word out and let people know we’re here. It’s also beneficial from the networking side of things, and being part of the community in Eastbourne.
“We want to get that message out that you can stay here and build a career here, you don’t have to go elsewhere. It’s so much better in Eastbourne than Brighton; you have so much more disposable income. Starbucks is cheaper, and a round is much cheaper, and the cost of living is cheaper.
“If you’re looking for a role in tech, we’ll be running another careers event in 2023, so keep an eye out for news on this!”
What advice would you to someone wanting to work in the tech industry, who may not have a technical background?
“First of all, I’d say just go for it! It’ll probably be the best thing you’ve ever done and it’ll change your life. Secondly, if you’re wondering how to get into the tech industry, I would reach out to local businesses - Booksy, Switchplane, PRG - see if they have any projects they need assistance with. See if you can have a chat with them, reach out to the recruiter, reach out to one of the staff there. Everyone will be more than happy to help you and support you to learn. Everyone I’ve met in tech is friendly, exciting, creative and fun, so no one would say no to support and help.
“When you get there, enjoy the first conversations and moments you have with these businesses, because it’s exciting, fun, and you’ll learn so much. Do it and grab it with both hands.”
