Kaleb Williams kicked off both his Customer Success career and his fatherhood journey during COVID lockdowns with the support of his InterFAX team. Since then, he has used his problem-solving skills and product knowledge to empower customers like TXMultilisting. Learn more about Kaleb’s career growth below.
Q: Who, what, and where are you?
A: I’m Kaleb Williams, and I use he/him pronouns. I’m a Customer Success Manager, and I’m based out of Houston, Texas.
Q: What is your day-to-day work like?
A: Even though my title is Customer Success Manager, I’d say about 50% of my work is still on the Support side. I assist my current customers with queries and fixes, and I also generate sales leads, pursue them, and build meaningful relationships with clients. We recently had a case study come out for TXMultilisting, and I worked with the founder. Her name’s Irena; she had this idea that would save lives.
Q: What was her idea?
A: Irena had a kidney condition and needed a transplant. She spent two years on dialysis and applied to every donation list possible. It’s a tricky system, different lists have different requirements, and that means different wait times. Her system streamlines the process and allows people who need kidney transplants to apply for multiple donation lists at the same time. You go to her website, fill out one form, and they use InterFAX to securely send it all over the country. It cuts down on red tape and saves people time in a situation where time is extremely important.
Q: How did you help Irena bring this to life?
A: Irena told me what she wanted to do, but she had never written code before. She taught herself with our API integration documentation and through our support team. I wasn’t the one who taught her how to code, because I don’t know how to myself, but I got her in touch with the right people. My team at InterFAX was happy to give that extra support and service she needed.
Q: How did you start working at Upland?
A: I worked for a cloud-based PACs solution in North Carolina before I came to work for InterFax. It was a similar idea with securely transporting documents like sonograms & echoes to doctors all over the world, and they used InterFAX. I worked with it daily. We moved down to Texas so my wife could finish her master’s program, then I found a job listing for InterFAX. I applied, and my previous experience using the product got my foot in the door, and the rest is history.
Q: In the four years you have been here, what has changed? How have you grown in your career?
A: In March 2020, when we all went into lockdown and started working from home, I asked my manager to keep me busy. I was getting idle hands! That’s when I started learning more about the sales side of things, and officially transferred from Support to Customer Success. I now get to use my problem-solving skills to find solutions for customers, and I really like that.
Q: That was a strange time for all of us, and it sounds like you took advantage of it! What did you think of working remotely?
A: Well, my daughter Lettie was born in March of 2020. I’ve gotten to spend almost all day with her in her first three years of life. On my breaks, I could just go downstairs and hang out with her. My son, Alden, was born September of 2021, and I’ve gotten to spend more time with him too. It’s been a blast, and a great start to my “fathering career”. I’ve always wanted to be a dad, but it’s been a lot more fun than I expected.
Q: Can you tell me about a time you felt like you were part of a team?
A: My team in Houston is very close, and they’ve all really shown up for me and my family. The first day we moved into our new house, we were so tired from moving and didn’t even think about dinner. My manager called me out of the blue, asked how many people we had moving us in, ordered fajitas for my family and in-laws! I felt so appreciated. Getting to put my family first is so important.
Q: Tell me more about your kids!
A: Lettie Claire is my oldest, she just turned three in March. She’s named after my favorite great grandmother. She always had butterscotch candies right at ground-level for us when we were kids. My son is named Alden Young. My wife’s maiden name is Alderson, and we wanted to pay tribute to that. Young comes from my wife’s grandfather’s last name, we got married on his family farm. We wanted to make sure that both of those names carried on, and we were sure of the name Alden Young for a boy or a girl. I am proud of the fact that we didn’t know the sex of either one before they were born; we didn’t cheat and spoil the surprise!
Q: Can you show me some pictures?
A: Yes! It’s funny, when I meet with my CSM group every week, I have the “homework” of sharing pictures of my kids. I’d say this is the happiest I’ve ever been in my life, both personally and professionally.
