Meet The Team: Melissa Dyson

Here at Generate UK, we are a family. So, we wanted to start introducing our family members to you.

This is a series where you will get to find out more about who we are as well as a few fun facts.

We have already introduced you to  Andrea Tallett and Patrick Hathaway. Next up we want to introduce you to our lovely Head of Support and Maintenance, Melissa Dyson.

Tell us a bit about what you do here at Generate UK

Ok, so I am Head of Support and Maintenance. I oversee a vast majority of clients and ensure their sites are protected, secure and in working condition.   

My team carry out any changes in terms of maintaining and improving the website from a UX (user experience) perspective, and if anything breaks, we fix it!

We are basically that safe pair of hands that all businesses need when it comes to maintaining your website. I also project manage several website projects too.

From a management perspective I ensure my team are firstly happy and have the training and tools they need to effectively carry out their day-to-day responsibilities. As well as focusing on our client base, I strategically align our departments goals and objectives with Generate UK vision.

What led you to become Head of Support and Maintenance?

It’s a bit of a long story, I originally worked for Web on High, which Generate UK acquired back in 2011, where I was a SEO Marketing assistant.

At a Christmas party, just when we heard Generate UK would be taking over, I just so happened to be sat next to Joe (our MD) at the table! After a lengthy conversation he simply asked me do I want to be an Account Manager?

That was something I had been working towards for several months and Joe had belief in me and made me Account Manager straight away. From then onwards, I then progressed and went onto managing our Client Services department

I then found my passion and that was in Project Management. The management at the time could see this and as the company was growing in that area decided to send me on a training course where I became Prince 2 qualified in Project Management.

I went onto this, purely because I loved the organisation part and I love being able to start with something, build upon it and see the results at the end. I loved looking at the bigger picture of it all.

Whilst I was doing this, Support and Maintenance was running by itself and didn’t really have anyone managing it. It was our bread and butter, but it didn’t have any leadership or anyone to steer it in the right direction.

So, Joe wanted to give me a challenge and said would I like to take the department and bring it to life basically, and that’s what I did.

It’s a very successful department, the clients we have in support are clients that we have had for a good number of years, so the longevity of the client base we do have and from the customer service excellence I believe this is how we have kept them for so long.

So, I have pretty much gone round the houses here at Generate UK but where I am now is really good, I really love it!

What are some of the challenges you face in your role?

When things break, or sites don’t work! That’s where I rely on my team to find out what the issues are and get it fixed. I rely on my team so much, there great! I just ensure I communicate this well to our clients, explain the issues and reassure them it’s in hand.

If a site goes down, that’s a challenge as we need to rely on our hosting providers to get it back up and running, but to be honest their pretty good and they act fast quick which is why we use them.

There are various challenges from ensuring we have good security in terms of the tools that we use to ensure our sites are working correctly as they should do to utilising the hours for the clients to see the benefits of support as well which can be quite challenging.

We don’t like to be a reactive department; we prefer to be a bit more proactive so our clients can see what we can do for them and what impact we can make with the hours they spend.

What do you like most about working for Generate UK?

Number one is the people. I love who I work with.

There is no other place like it, we are so close we are almost like a family. I can approach anyone, and you can trust people as well. I have never had any issues working with any of my colleagues. We all work so well together.

Number two is every day is different, we work with a lot of clients that are from all different industries. So, you don’t only learn about the industry you are in, but you learn about other business as well and how they work, you can then adapt that for other clients which works well.

Have you found or started any new hobbies during lockdown?

Yeah, I lost 2 stone in weight. I had a baby right at the beginning of the first lockdown and I put on a few stone and my self-confidence dropped.

So in the second lockdown I thought to myself that I am going to turn my life around with healthy eating and exercise.

I have now lost 2 stone and I basically have a virtual personal trainer now and I do exercises and home workouts. I have also discovered lots of new recipes of healthy cooking.

Any other hobbies?

Cooking, I love cooking and finding new recipes, new food, and new cultural dishes. My signature dish would probably be a Mauritian curry because I am half Mauritian, or Malaysian/Chinese dishes as that’s the other half of me. My parents taught me well! I also love binge watching Netflix box sets or a good UK drama.

Ok, time for a few favourites…

Favourite food?

Oh gosh, it’s so hard because I love food. It’s got to be Chinese; I love Chinese food.

Favourite Drink?

Pornstar Martini.

Favourite holiday destination?

Got to be Mauritius, 100% and I really want to go back because I haven’t seen my grandmother for so long. That’s my number 1 holiday destination.

Favourite TV show and movie?

Prison Break for a TV show, I named my son after Lincoln, so it’s got to be Prison Break. And favourite movie? That’s a hard one, I can’t think of what my favourite movie is, I love a good thriller. (Shouts over to husband) what’s my favourite movie. Oh yeah Selina, that’s my favourite film with Jennifer Lopez. 

Favourite animal?

I love penguins!

One last question, if you had a superhero power, what would it be and why?

Be invisible because I am so nosey, 100%, because I am such a nosey person, and I would love to see what other people get up to.

ABOUT GENERATE UK

We are an award-winning, full-service digital marketing agency based in Thatcham, Berkshire.

Our goal is to help businesses understand the true value in digital marketing and set out to help those businesses develop and implement new technology and processes to deliver a marketing strategy in line with their goals.

Partnership is key to our digital marketing approach. We work closely with you to identify what will drive the most value for your business and provide a range of digital marketing services to achieve it.