Being part of Kaleido Care: the struggles, the rewards, and the fun parts

When I first heard about Kaleido I was immediately drawn in by all the vibrant colors and cheeky phrases. So vibrant, so bold, so different. I started diving in a little deeper and realized it’s not just the colors and the words. People really believe in doing things differently here.

So in the summer of 2018 I joined the Kaleido family myself (I know it sounds cheesy, but we really try to be just that: a family for all our users!). My place is at Kaleido Care, so you might have spoken to me once or twice on the phone. I have to admit, working in customer care is not always a walk in the park. Kaleido Care is no different. It was quite the roller coaster ride since I started. We are always in the front line and get to extinguish the fires.

The Field Safety Notice

It was particularly rough on the 4th of March 2020 – the day of the Field Safety Notice. Not an easy day for the entire Kaleido Family and certainly not for Kaleido Care. We were all heartbroken. I remember going into the day pretty nervous, expecting very difficult phone calls and lots of angry and frustrated people. And who could blame them: we were telling them they had to stop using their life-saving insulin pumps after all. But then the exact opposite happened: people were checking on us. They asked us how we were handling such a difficult situation. They wished us strength for the upcoming times. I was stunned and frankly quite moved. I remember one conversation in particular: I was telling a customer that unfortunately, she had to switch to another insulin pump. That she had to put aside her Kaleido, the pump she had specifically chosen for its flexibility and size, finally allowing her to wear the summer dresses that she loves so much. I was expecting her to get really mad and angry at me for putting this on her. But, the first thing she did was check how my colleagues and I were doing with this difficult news. In another email we received a bit later, a customer put her feelings into the following words. “It is unbelievable how much bad service you receive from companies in the medical industry and how often I have been treated wrongly. But you guys are my heroes. I have never been treated so exceptionally well as I have by you. Nothing compares.” If that isn’t an amazing reward for all the hard work we put in for our customers every day!

Why we do it

It is a response like this one, that reminds me that what we are doing really matters. And, that can make a true difference in people’s lives. Reactions like these are what keeps me going. They remind me that I am contributing to something bigger, something useful. And they tell me that we are on the right track with Kaleido Care. My hunch is that we receive those kinds of positive reactions, even in a very challenging time, because at Kaleido we really make an effort to do things differently. We do not see “diabetics” or “patients”. We see the person, the individual, who is managing their daily life just like anyone else. People that are just trying to somehow fit a second full-time job called diabetes in with everything else. Everything about Kaleido was designed to enable them to do just that – to live life on their own terms. At Kaleido Care everyone understands that and everyone is trying to bring that across in every little phone call or email conversation. This allows us to form more than just the average manufacturer-customer-relationship. It results in people sending us thank-you-notes on colorful postcards. Or a selection of fine coffee beans, because they found out that their Kaleido Care contact is just as much into good coffee as they are. The way I see it, our customers make at least as much difference in our lives as Kaleido Care, as we make in theirs. And with those happy and personal interactions being the majority, I absolutely do not mind talking to the occasional angry person who just needs to blow off some steam. Don’t we all sometimes?

About Nici

My name is Nici, I am 25 years old and I grew up in the beautiful country side of Lower Saxony, Germany. After 3 months of volunteering at a Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia, I moved to the Netherlands to complete my Master studies in Nutrition and Health in Wageningen. Throughout my studies I developed a passion for improving diabetes management and helping to reduce the impact diabetes has on people’s lives step by step. Since then I have worked in a diabetes specialist’s office and for insulin pump manufacturers in Germany and the Netherlands. Currently, I am pursuing this passion in my job as Customer Care Manager at ViCentra, the home of Kaleido.