Kielo Office Solutions, Finland (Practical Training 2)
Hi! I am Emma, a fourth year tourism management student. I did my second practical training in Kielo Office Solutions as a customer service intern. Kielo Office Solutions offer office spaces to companies which includes all kinds of nice amenities and services in everyday matters. For example, the customer service takes care of the companies’ post and packages that arrive or are sent out, welcomes companies’ guests and give them instructions, and make reservations to conference and sauna facilities. Kielo Office Solutions want to make the daily working life of the companies and their employees who work in their facilities as easy and “spoiled” as possible: it only takes a short call or an email and a broken radiator will be fixed, or if they are running short on paper or pencils in the office, customer service will order them for you.
Kielo Office Solutions has these office facility buildings in three areas in Jyväskylä: Lutakko, Mattilanniemi and Ylistönmäki. Lutakko area has three Kielo buildings, Mattilanniemi one, and Ylistönmäki two. All these areas have one restaurant where customers can go have lunch or buy snacks or other refreshments. I was working in every single Kielo building and their customer service desk except Mattilanniemi. I liked that I got to experience most of them since every Kielo building has a bit different company, some with high security matters, and some that basically have open doors for everyone. Due to this, some of the work tasks were different, too. Every day was filled with action, from morning to afternoon. Also, some buildings are known to be busier because the companies who facilitate there, can for example have more guests coming, or have more people working in the offices, or they send out a lot of packages throughout the day.
In Kielo, I learned a lot. I feel like my customer service skills got better because it was done daily, face-to-face, via email and phone. My IT skills developed too because most of the days were spent on the computer, obviously, handling Microsoft Office tools, like Outlook and Excel, and I got to use other platforms too, including for example M-Files, Venuu and Saunaonline. I could say this was 2,5 months well spent.
Author: Emma Piispanen, Tourism Management