Irene Ribot
ING aims to be the best digital bank. That includes offering accessible, intuitive digital payment methods
“Making things better for customers makes me happy.” That is Irene’s ultra-concise motivation for working as a Customer Journey Expert (CJE). But there is a lot more that she finds satisfying in her current role, such as the combination of creativity and data-driven working.
After secondary school, she decided to study tourism. Not necessarily with the intention of making it her profession, but because she was attracted by the hospitality aspect. She worked at an online marketing startup, at Xs4all and at a large media agency. After that she was keen to get back to the business side. “I wanted to experience the whole process, from product development through to marketing. And I value autonomy in my work. The CJE job at ING seemed to have it all, although I was healthily sceptical whether that would really be the case.”
More than three years on, Irene can say without hesitation that the vacancy description was right. She started at a difficult time, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. She had just been on maternity leave, was unfamiliar with the financial industry and landed up in a large, rather complex organisation. In addition, she was starting in a role that involved dealing with many different departments. “It took me more than a year to get fully into the job, but over time I was able to fulfil my role in a way that suits me down to the ground.”
“I work on payment products such as iDeal, Garmin Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay, with colleagues from the Payments department. These teams focus on IT and product development. They’re good at the technical side, and I bring customer insight. I’m responsible for customer research, proposition development, market introductions and communication. My role varies depending on the project. Sometimes I take on part of the process; sometimes I have the role of a challenger, asking critical questions based on customer needs and customer experience.”
“ING aims to be the best digital bank. An integral part of that is making digital payment methods as accessible and intuitive as possible for the customer. To continue to improve, we feed user data and customer insights back into our products, services and the communication on those products. The combination of data-driven working and creativity in product development and marketing, and thereby making things better for customers, makes me happy.”
Irene enjoys her role and her ability to shape it herself. “I have autonomy in my work and the freedom to make choices that suit me, in terms of my duties and my schedule. If I need to be at home, I take more parental leave during certain periods. It's great to have that possibility. For me, that all contributes to my job satisfaction.”
Interested?
View all vacancies for customer journey expert
About Irene
Irene has been working at ING since early 2021. She has two young children, plays a lot of sports – boxing and group lessons at the gym – loves food and experimenting with vegetable dishes. She likes walking in the countryside and enjoys concerts and festivals.