It’s a Chimed Life: Meet Romy Bermudez, Systems Manager

Coming out of college, Romy Bermudez didn’t know what his career would look like. He took his first job in the credit repair industry, thinking he could learn something new. It turns out the systems he used are the same as those he manages today as a Systems Manager at Chime. Romy has learned his love for customer-facing work and developed a deep understanding of the psychology that goes into customer service.

Here’s a look at Romy’s career journey, what drives him, and his work as a Chimer.

Building a career around building relationships

Through his first career role, Romy found himself drawn to building relationships with customers and vendors. He later transitioned into the hospitality industry, which took him to the Bay Area. “I loved it — I really enjoyed talking to visitors and tourists, as well as building connections with individuals and companies,” he says. “It was an eye-opening experience to see how important relationships are in the hospitality industry.” Working in hospitality, Romy learned about the psychology behind customer service, what customers are looking for, and how they respond in different situations — all of which were highly insightful for him professionally and personally.

When he began looking for a change of pace — hospitality can involve long hours and little time off — his wife suggested he explore a role in the technology industry. “I started reaching out to companies, and Chime was one of them,” he says. “I liked that Chime was really small at the time (I was employee 70-something), that it had clear goals, and, of course, its member focus.”

In fact, everyone Romy spoke to throughout his interviews mentioned the member in some way. “It became evident to me that Chime is all about serving its members and ensuring the member experience is amazing,” he says. “I learned early on in my career that I’m drawn to organizations and roles that are focused on the customer, and Chime felt like the right place for me.”

Growing teams, functions, and his skills at Chime

When he joined Chime, Romy started as a Member Services Specialist on the triage team, handling the highest escalated member interactions. “It was exciting, to say the least, and challenging in some ways,” he says. “It was a new function, and we were creating and improving processes as we went, interacting with different parts of the company and sometimes even escalating issues to our co-founders to help with.”

Because Chime was growing so fast, we needed a way to ensure quality for agents who support our members. Romy and a teammate helped build the QA (quality assurance) team for agents, helping them better serve members by creating a grading system for interactions and processes to follow. “We believe that if agents do well, members will be happy,” he says. “My role helped ensure that.”

Then Romy moved into a new role at Chime, managing the systems and technology our agents use. “I had worked with these systems before, and it was another exciting opportunity to explore the member experience,” he says. “I jumped into the deep end and learned a lot about our tooling and member experience — I had to take things head-on and absorb all of the knowledge possible, admit when I didn’t know things, and ask questions through the process.”

His team has grown to include seven other people, all of whom help manage the systems and tooling Chime’s agents use. “We’re a really unique team because we can all count on each other, and nobody is afraid to ask questions,” he says. “It’s cool because one of the reasons I joined Chime was because it was a small team, and even though we’re much bigger now, we still have the feeling of being a small, tight-knit team within my function.”

Staying grounded in his impact on Chime’s members

Each of Romy’s three roles at Chime has been tangibly linked to members. While he no longer speaks to members directly, the technology he manages for agents to serve Chime members is critical to their experience.

Through his time at Chime, Romy has improved efficiencies and streamlined workflows for agents to serve members better every time. “We see the results of our work with agents in our member satisfaction metrics and the savings we incur by making agents more efficient,” he says. “Everything that our agents do affects our members, and everything my team does affects our agents. The fact that we can have such a direct impact on making our members happy is a really rewarding experience. My obsession with the customer experience is as strong as ever, and I’m excited to keep making our members happier with their Chime experience.”