Welcome back to Inside Drift, where we introduce you to all of the people that make Drift such a great place to work.
So far you’ve met Shannon Donovan, Mary Mitchell, Nadine Shaalan, Britnee Laughlin, Carolina Caprile, Michelle Ai, Frank Schepps, Zareena Javed, Stacy Chen, Lillian Frost, Josh Perk, Moe Lawson, Richard Wright, Andrew Jones, Sara Miller Blanc, Carter Stepanovsky, Luis Sanchez, Chris Cardone, and Mike Iannuzzi.
Today we’re introducing you to Erick Maldonado. As a Senior Professional Services Consultant, Erick works directly with our customers, helping them implement chatbots and improve their Drift experience. When he’s not living up to our company’s leadership principle of “putting the customer at the center of everything you do,” you can find him singing, zip-lining, or exploring a new place with family or friends.
Ready to meet Erick? Let’s go ⚡
Editor’s note: The following has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Kaitlyn Martins: Hi Erick! Let’s get started — can you tell me a bit about what you do at Drift?
Erick: Happy to do so! My job is to work with clients from all kinds of different industries to lend them a hand in their chatbot implementation. I help automate these chatbots to ensure different segments of visitors receive hyper-personalized experiences that speak to where they are in the buyer’s journey.
One day I might be helping an organization build a curated chatbot experience for site visitors that registered for a webinar — and the next day, you might find me building personalized experiences for visitors that would benefit from talking to the company’s sales or support teams. I like to introduce myself to my clients as their official “bot-building nerd” 🤓
Kaitlyn: What does your day-to-day typically look like?
Erick: Once I get to my computer, the first thing I do is check Slack to ensure I’m on the same page as my internal teams. Then, I work my way through my emails while checking my calendar to make sure I have time blocked for answering emails between the client projects I’m working on that day.
After that, a lot of my day is spent building playbooks, answering questions for not only my clients but also my internal team, and doing research. In my research, I try to go above and beyond by looking into the current market for my clients’ industries and brainstorming how I can better help them reach their goals.
Kaitlyn: Can you tell us about the structure of the Professional Services team at Drift?
Erick: There truly is a village of support when a client has professional services hours. Pro serv consultants partner with customer success managers, onboarding managers, and account executives that all support a single client. This way, the internal team knows how best to support each client and can lean on each other when questions arise that require more discovery and best practices to implement.
As consultants, we also have our own Slack channel where we can basically brain-dump new ideas, share strategies we’ve found successful for other clients, or use it as a help forum. It’s great to have the support of such intelligent human beings — and it’s clear we all benefit from that.
Kaitlyn: What is a fun fact that people might not know about you?
Erick: I almost went to school to become an opera singer. From third grade into college, I studied theater and was sure that’s where my life would take me. Even so, I worked with my vocal coach of three years to figure out how I might switch to an opera major. I decided to stick with theater as that was where my true passion lay.
Fast forward, I’m now working in tech, and it’s fulfilled me in many ways. However, I still sing every single day. It’s food for my soul.
Kaitlyn: When you aren’t working, what can we find you doing?
Erick: I love being outdoors, and if there are animals involved, even better. If you take me to a petting zoo or farm, my inner child lights up and I’m in my happy place.
I live and breathe by my calendar so I like to fill it up with plans to see loved ones for dinner or have new adventures. I recently found out how much I love to zip-line, so I always jump at the chance to swing from tree to tree — with a safety harness, of course!
Kaitlyn: Tell us a little bit about why you chose Drift.
Erick: After being in tech for a few years, I knew I wanted to be a consultant — I wanted the chance to learn and build relationships with my clients.
When I was looking for new opportunities at the start of the pandemic, I came across Drift, which I found out was founded by two Latino men. I had always wanted to be a part of a company that was tied to the Latinx community, and it was one of those moments when I got to see successful leaders who looked like me. Representation is so important, and if it were not for DC and Elias leading the way, I may have never worked at Drift.
Kaitlyn: What’s one of your favorite things about working at Drift?
Erick: The people. My team is filled with really smart individuals. It’s honestly so much fun to work with them to solve problems and find unique solutions — I love having those brainy conversations. It also feeds my Type A personality.
On top of that, they’re real people who don’t take themselves too seriously. I think that’s important for this kind of role.
Kaitlyn: Finally, what advice do you have for prospective Drift candidates?
Erick: If you love to problem-solve and use technology to implement creative, automated solutions, then this is the right role for you. Even if you don’t have experience in this exact role, if you love to understand how things work and how data flows, then you’ll fit right in. Let’s be brainiacs together 🧠
Want to work with Erick? We’re hiring. Check out our open roles here.
