Envoy Spotlight: Jessica Cobos, Grand Rounds
At Envoy, we geek out over bringing more efficiency, security, and delight to your office. As such, we’re in awe of the people who work tirelessly, day in and day out, to ensure your offices are shipshape and your employees happy. We’re talking about operations gurus, office managers, receptionists, and everything in between. We’re thrilled to feature these operations wizards and shine a spotlight on the marvelous work they do.
Meet Jessica Cobos. She’s the Operations Coordinator at Grand Rounds, a healthcare tech company which helps patients get expert second opinions and office visits with quality-verified physicians. And let us tell you: she is a one smart lady. It was evident from the first time we spoke that she’s skilled not only in day-to-day execution of necessary tasks, but also at identifying inefficient processes and making them a million times better.
Prior to Grand Rounds, Jessica managed teams as a service manager at 24 Hour Fitness and was a program coordinator for a recreation center. After moving to San Francisco, she decided to try out the tech scene — and has been kicking butt ever since. She recently celebrated her one-year anniversary with Grand Rounds!
“This type of role speaks to me because I’m naturally super organized,” said Jessica. “If I could be a professional organizer, I would die happy.”
We talked to her about her superpowers, how she handles obstacles and tips for negotiating the best price with vendors (hint: this will make you look really good to your boss.)
Tell us what a normal day is like for you.
Each day when I come in, I do a sweep of the office to make sure conference rooms are clear, room schedulers are on, and supplies are stocked. Using Google Calendar and Envoy’s pre-registration feature, I create a list of expected visitors for the day and greet them when they check in. Aside from the typical daily tasks, I work on various projects throughout the office, and provide administrative support for Engineering and IT Operations.
What are your superpowers?
I’m a master organizer with a label maker and I’m not afraid to use it! I’m constantly looking for ways to improve organization to help keep our office fully stocked and running smoothly. I’ve been at Grand Rounds long enough that I can anticipate the needs of key people in our company.
What are some of the things you do that people might not be aware of?
I really try to be an advocate for our team members. When I catch wind of employee happiness issues, I strive to bridge the gap between our departments. It is important to me that everyone has a voice, even if some are fearful or shy about speaking up.
What do you enjoy the most about your role?
I feel lucky to be able to interact with team members from all departments. Between meeting folks when they come in for interview and greeting new hires on their first day, I know almost everyone’s name in our San Francisco office. I really enjoy being helpful and finding new ways to improve the employee experience. As part of our Culture Club leadership, I get to spend time planning internal events like Happy Hours and Movie Nights. I’m also the captain of our soccer team!
How do you deal with any obstacles that arise?
I do a lot of research when a task or problem comes up that I don’t have a lot of experience with. I also reach out to friends and former colleagues to see what their companies are doing to rise to the challenge.
You’ve acquired some particularly useful skills over the years, including negotiating with vendors. Tell us about your approach.
First, you need to evaluate vendors and gather research. Talk to people on the team that will use these tools the most. Second, know what you can bring to the negotiating table. Present all the things that you could do for them and see if they can reciprocate on cost.
Here are some of my tried-and-true tips:
- Offer to sign an annual contract and pay upfront (instead of month to month). Vendors really like this for obvious reasons. This also makes your job easier to do one charge instead of monthly charges on expense reports.
- For newer companies or early-stage startups, offer to be a beta tester.
- If your company is expanding and can use that product in other locations, you can use that as leverage.
- Offer to write good reviews and promote their product to other operations people.
- Be OK with walking away if someone doesn’t want to play ball; be willing to search for another solution.
- Make sure to develop good relationships with your account reps. Be gracious when thanking people for things or helping them improve their product. Establishing that good customer relationship is the first part of getting a discount.
What was your biggest win with a vendor?
Definitely FedEx. We spend a lot of money with FedEx when shipping out medical records and I googled ways to access FedEx discounts. I discovered that our company could be classified as a Life Sciences business. After spending hours on the phone being transferred from one account rep to another, I was finally able to create a national account.
I met with our Life Sciences account manager, who was able to review our spend and the fact that we exclusively use FedEx in shipping our records nationwide. We ended up receiving a 35% off discount, which is a big deal.
What are some of your favorite tools that you use?
How has your experience with Envoy been?
My experience with Envoy has been great! From our initial launch to expanding the product to our Reno office, I’ve consistently received exceptional customer service. We beta tested Envoy and every time we experienced a hiccup, I used the live chat function to troubleshoot the issue. On a few occasions, Envoy even added features within 2 days.
Because we have medical records in our offices, security is highly important. Envoy is intuitive and helps us streamline the registration process while maximizing office security. Guests are required to check in at the front desk and wear a visitor badge at all times while in the office. Envoy even requires visitors to take a selfie and sign an NDA when necessary.
What are the traits that you think you need to be successful in this type of role?
Being flexible and willing to tackle a variety of projects. At a small company, you need to be a self-starter and able to work with very little supervision. Office wizardry also requires an interest in helping people and a borderline obsession with organization.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Being outdoors and staying active! During the winter, I find any excuse to go skiing in Tahoe. I also love hiking, camping, and playing soccer. I’m really passionate about DIY projects and pride myself on how many things I can do. I also recently installed new speakers in my car and learned how to wax my skis!
Thanks for chatting with us, Jessica! You can find her on LinkedIn.
