"This is what my work at the HSC looks like."

It was love that brought Regina Weigandt to Switzerland. Before that she lived and worked in Germany, where one of her jobs was customer advisor in a health insurance company's sales force. You can see straight away that she's in her element when working in customer contact. Regina has a calm, very pleasant manner, listening attentively to every call and providing information on all kinds of topics. And something else is noticeable about her: she has a most agreeable voice. "I often get complimented on it," she says.

"You learn a lot about good customer service"

When Regina was looking for a new job in Switzerland a little over 18 months ago, she knew she wanted to stay in the insurance industry and use the expertise she'd acquired. Despite her previous knowledge, there was a lot for her to learn: "Just like all new employees, I had a lot of initial training – some of it on technical subjects, some on customer service, some on selling." She knows the latter particularly well from her previous job in the sales force: "I was aware that many things would be different, and that I'd now only meet customers over the phone. I naturally wondered whether I'd find that monotonous over time," says the 31-year-old. But after 18 months she knows that working in the Service Center is right for her: "I'm no longer under pressure to perform, as I was back then in the field. My new job is really ideal for me," she says with conviction.

200 calls a week

In fact it turns out – in her case – that not all her work is on the phone. "I'm now allowed to take over the supervision of trainees as a practical instructor, which makes me very happy. Another change is answering e-mail enquiries: "We receive enquiries from all over the world. Recently a customer wanted to know how to insure his Tesla in Norway." Following up on these requests and researching information is very exciting. The enquiries vary greatly, she says: "I deal with about 200 calls a week. They're often questions about insurance or services. From time to time, of course, there are also complaints or plaudits. You never know what's coming next, and that's very exciting." There's something else she likes about her job: "We work in shifts: the first one starts at 7 a.m. and the last one ends at 6:30 p.m. When the shift is over, so is your working day – and you can devote one hundred percent of your time to leisure activities."

Sometimes it takes patience

During the first Covid-19 lockdown the whole HSC switched overnight to working from home. The changeover happened fast, with few technical problems – though Regina remembers that she sometimes had to be patient. Especially when a system failed, preventing her from accessing certain information. "At such moments your hands are tied."
And there's something you have to be aware of if you want to work at the HSC: "Employees spend eight hours in front of their computer screens. You're not on the road," says Regina, remembering her earlier days in the field. But she acclimatized very quickly – and she thinks that anyone who is communicative and likes to work with customers can find a great job in the Service Center. "My expectations of this job have been exceeded," says Regina before she prepares herself at her desk for the next batch of calls.