Cinode Welcomes it´s first Finnish CS Manager – Ville Rantala

To support growth in the Finnish market, Cinode has recruited its first Finnish CS Manager, Ville Rantala. Read the interview down below to learn more about Ville and his journey to Cinode.

Tell us about yourself and your background in Customer success

I have been working in Customer Success since 2017. All previous companies that I have been working for have been SaaS companies so I’m very familiar with the SaaS business model. Before my working career I studied Political Science in the University of Tampere in the Faculty of School of Management. 

As a freshman I aspired either for a diplomatic career or for a career within the Finnish government. Later I decided that a diplomatic career is not my thing. Surprisingly even for me, I didn’t start my career in the public sector as I got an interesting opportunity to create a product for a private company and I’m still on that career path! The product was a Public Affairs database which consisted of all Finnish political influencers and decision-makers. After creating the database, I trained all salespersons to use the product and I also participated in sales meetings as a database specialist. Retrospectively those were the first steps towards working at Customer Success.

Why did you choose to pursue a career in Customer Success?

Back in 2017 I was working as a Research Specialist and my responsibility was to keep the company’s Media and Public Affairs databases up to date. While doing my own tasks I got the opportunity to watch closely how Customer Success Managers work and all of it seemed quite interesting. It didn’t take long before I was working as a CSM myself. Working in Customer Success is something that I have enjoyed a lot! Customer success is a vital part of every company’s business plan and it’s the spot where I like to contribute.

All my previous companies have been in the PR & Communications industry. Working closely with customers and helping them to find the core value of products that they are using has been the main reason for me to work in Customer Success. In the media monitoring industry my goal was to help customers to find relevant news clips. In PR distribution it was vital to help customers to find their core audience and target them. At Cinode I want to help our customers to find ways to ease their skills management which helps them to get to know their workers skills better and use Cinode as a strategic tool.

What do you hope to contribute with at Cinode?

I hope to be a key player in Cinode’s expansion to new markets. I have vast experience working in Customer Relations and Customer Success. I hope that with my experience I can bring new ideas and insights to Cinode! Currently we have a small team in Finland but hopefully it will be bigger at some point.

The most important thing in the beginning will be to help Finnish companies to get acquainted with Cinode and help them to find the core value of the software.

What made you take the step to Cinode?

Career at Cinode is an interesting opportunity for me. Even though I’m familiar with working in SaaS companies and doing Customer Success, this industry is new for me so there are lots of things for me to learn! I was especially impressed by the CV handling and skills management tools when I started to find information about Cinode.

Another factor regarding my decision to apply for Cinode was that this role is very large and there are many interesting things that I can do! Cinode’s software is very simple to use, and I could immediately see that with that software it’s possible to simplify project handling and skills management within companies. Working in a key role in Finland with lots of responsibilities is something that I found as an interesting challenge!

Lastly, tell us a bit about your hobbies and interests

During my free time I like to play pub league football. I have few teams where I play football during the summer and futsal during the winter. When I’m abroad I usually check whether there are any interesting games that I could go to watch.

I also follow politics, play badminton and during winter I like to ski. There are quite good ski tracks near my place in Helsinki which makes it very convenient to practice skiing during winter evenings. I also like to study languages and before the pandemics I studied French and Russian in an institute, but those studies have been at pause for more than two years now. Maybe that’s something that I will start doing again in Autumn.