Behind the Scenes: Alexis, Lead Account Manager

At Altissia, we offer a range of extra services to make sure you reach your language learning and assessment goals.

Our team provides communication materials, training and pedagogical tools, administrative and technical support, motivational resources and much more.

Find out more in our interview with Alexis Dang, an Account Manager at Altissia.

Can you tell us a bit about who you are and what you do at Altissia?

I’m 37 and I live in Paris. I’m lucky enough to have a rich and diverse professional background.

After having completed a double degree in English and Economics and Political Science, I worked as a project manager for an executive recruitment agency in the scientific field. I then joined the video gaming industry as a producer in Vietnam. After that, I was the manager of cultural programmes at the American University of Paris for several years.

Today, I’m very happy to be part of Altissia’s team as an Account Manager in charge of the French market.

What languages do you speak?

Mainly French and English. I can also speak Vietnamese, but only when talking about cooking!

What are the key factors in guaranteeing the quality and success of the projects you manage at Altissia?

To guarantee the quality and success of projects at Altissia, the key elements are:

• Getting to know the client, the people we’ll be working with and their needs • Being interested in and curious about how the school, company or training organisation works • Respecting the calendar and anticipating all the steps in a project • Establishing a trust-based relationship with the client • Being available and reliable for supporting the client through every step of the project and potentially for broadening the scope of the project

What is your secret weapon for ensuring the success of your projects?

I don’t know if it’s a secret weapon, but having worked in academia and trained as a linguist, I understand the issues surrounding language education and training projects. This really helps with talking to contact people.

What are the main challenges or problems you or your clients face and how do you solve them?

It all depends on the project and the audience. Whether the challenge is technical or pedagogical, I think Altissia’s solutions can face it. Along with being curious about the client, an Account Manager should also be curious about the internal developments. For example, if we want to boost learner engagement for a client, we could work on the following levels: • Technical: by integrating Altissia into their own platform (LMS) to make access more fluid • Communicative: by sending motivational emails • Pedagogical: by setting up grading systems or contests, sharing pedagogical resources, etc.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

What I like most about working at Altissia is having one foot in the Edtech world and the other in the world of language learning. In my current role, I feel like I’m learning new things every day and I’m constantly absorbing useful information for my projects. Also, like all my fellow Account Managers, I really enjoy juggling several subjects and finding the right solutions.

How does having a single point of contact make a difference to your clients and how does it work at Altissia?

Having a single point of contact is essential for our clients at Altissia. It gives them one contact person that they can trust and discuss any aspect of their language project with.

Internally, each Account Manager is in charge of a portfolio of clients. All the information linked to a project is saved and accessible through our collaborative working system and our internal processes. This allows us to easily monitor the status of different projects, including their backgrounds, contracts, reports and communications.

We also hold regular meetings between all the members of the French team (Business Developers and Account Managers) to discuss project successes and things we need to keep an eye on. This sharing of information allows anyone to be able to take over should a colleague be absent. As the Leader, I have an overview of the French portfolio and I’m there to help the team find solutions and information for their clients.

To summarise, at Altissia, the SPOC ensures fluid and efficient communication with our clients, while our collaborative working system and our internal processes guarantee transparent project management and continuity in our services in the case of an absent team member.