Martin Croad

Customer Relations & Marketing Manager  |  10 Years at WCBS

Martin joined WCBS in May 2016. From answering support calls to meeting customers face-to-face and becoming part of the Senior Leadership Team.

“The technology changes, the roles evolve, but the relationships remain.”

1. When did you join WCBS, and how did your journey begin?

I joined WCBS in May 2016 as a Software Support Consultant on the helpdesk.

At the time, I was looking to relocate to Glastonbury and already knew several people working at WCBS, so when the opportunity came along, it felt like a natural next step.

Although I was familiar with customer-facing roles, working with specialist software for independent schools was a completely new challenge.

The support desk gave me a fantastic opportunity to develop my product knowledge, understand the needs of our customers and get to know the wider business.

Little did I know where the next ten years would take me!

2. How has your role evolved during your time at WCBS?

For me, it’s always been about providing an excellent level of customer care.

We’re all customers in our everyday lives, and I firmly believe that the experiences we have with businesses shape our loyalty towards them. Great customer service isn’t simply about resolving an issue; it’s about building trust, understanding people’s needs and giving them a reason to keep coming back.

Before joining WCBS, I’d gained extensive experience in customer service and managing large wholesale accounts, including responsibility for territories across the Middle East. This gave me opportunities to travel internationally, including visits to Turkey, Dubai and even Saudi Arabia.

That experience taught me something I’ve carried throughout my career: commercial success and customer satisfaction should always go hand in hand. It’s about recognising opportunities to grow revenue while making sure customers feel valued, supported and well looked after.

In my early days on the WCBS support desk, I focused on handling high volumes of support calls, developing a deep understanding of our products and building relationships across different departments.

I saw the support desk as a fantastic foundation for understanding our software, our customers and the wider business, while also looking for opportunities to bring my previous account management and commercial experience into the company.

In March 2020, an Account Management opportunity came along. As luck would have it, my very first day in the role coincided with the country going into lockdown!

Suddenly, I was learning an entirely new position remotely, with only a skeleton team in the company. It certainly wasn’t the introduction I’d expected!

Over the following years, changes within the team gave me opportunities to support, train and welcome new colleagues, while taking on greater responsibility for customer relationships, commercial opportunities and, more recently, marketing.

My role gradually developed into Team Leader and ultimately Customer Relations & Marketing Manager.

Today, I’m part of the Senior Leadership Team, involved in cross-departmental discussions and reporting directly to the CEO.

Looking back, it’s been quite a journey from answering support calls to helping shape the direction of the business. But the principle has never changed: looking after our customers, understanding their needs and building relationships that last.

3. What’s been your proudest achievement or most memorable experience at WCBS?

Some of my biggest memories at WCBS come from the relationships I’ve built with our customers over the years.

I started out answering their support calls, helping them with everyday questions and getting to know the people behind the schools.

Fast forward nine or ten years, and I’m now meeting some of those very same people face-to-face, discussing their evolving needs, new projects and how WCBS can continue to support them.

Many of the key staff at our schools have actually been there longer than I’ve been at WCBS!

There’s something really rewarding about meeting someone you’ve helped over the phone years ago and continuing that relationship in a completely different capacity.

Sometimes it feels less like a business meeting and more like catching up with an old friend.

For me, that’s one of the best parts of working at WCBS.

The technology changes, the roles evolve, but the relationships remain.

4. What’s something people might not know about you outside WCBS?

Outside of WCBS, I help coach girls’ football every week in Wells, working with children aged 6 to 11.

Football has always been a big part of our family, with my wife, son and one of my two daughters all having connections to football in Wells.

After spending a year coaching my son’s age group, I moved across to helping with the girls’ sessions, and it’s been an incredibly rewarding experience.

The range of abilities is huge! We have girls who have never kicked a football before alongside others who could potentially become a future Lioness one day.

For me, it’s about giving every girl the opportunity to enjoy football, build confidence and develop at their own pace.

Seeing their enthusiasm and progress each week makes it worthwhile.

5. What excites you most about the future of WCBS?

The future of WCBS is exciting, and in many ways unpredictable!

We have some fantastic new solutions in development, and we’re looking to expand our reach into a wider range of schools.

For me, one of the most exciting aspects is welcoming new schools into the WCBS family, particularly those where our software might be one of the very first systems they introduce.

Wells Cathedral School was our very first customer over 40 years ago, and they’re still with us today. I think that’s quite remarkable.

When I look at some of the newer schools joining us, I often wonder what their own journey with WCBS will look like.

Could they still be working with us in another 20, 30 or even 40 years?

That’s what excites me most. We’re not simply introducing software to a school; we’re potentially starting a relationship that could last for generations.

Celebrating the People Behind WCBS

Martin’s journey is just one of the many stories that make up WCBS’s history.

For over 40 years, our people have been at the heart of the relationships we’ve built with independent schools, combining specialist knowledge with a personal approach to customer service.

Through our Did You Know? – Meet the Team series, we’ll continue introducing the colleagues behind our software, celebrating their experiences and sharing a little more about the people who make WCBS what it is today.

40+ years of WCBS. Countless stories. Meet the people behind the software.