A Look Back on Humble Beginnings

'It was never my plan to be an entrepreneur…'

At the start of her career, Anouk studied at Tilburg University with aspirations of becoming a banker. Yet, after an internship in Paris with a large bank, she quickly realized this was not the career path for her. At 22 years old and full of energy, Anouk took her first steps into the customer service world as Head of Customer Service at Bloomon. At that time, Bloomon was a small startup with just five people working there, until the department she started on her own grew to forty people in five countries.

‘Loyal customers since day one’

The experience scaling Bloomon’s CS team sparked an idea. Anouk wanted to help companies support, scale and grow their customer service. But how? Not ready to start her own business right away, she decided to learn. Meeting regularly with other professionals in the industry, she discovered we were all doing the same thing, but no one was really talking to each other. That’s when the idea for Stone & Bridges happened. And since day one, we’ve had loyal customers such as Bloomon, and we’ve continuously turned a profit. We do all the customer service for nine companies, and there are companies that hire us quarterly during busy times.

‘Invaluable insights’

Working with the best brands allows a unique insight into how companies work, their culture and, maybe more importantly, their training methods. Stone & Bridges doesn't just offer Customer Service outsourcing and peak support, it also provides tailor made training for e-commerce teams. Anouk explains it this way: 'I’ve seen the inside of about forty companies. With that amount of experience, you witness a lot. You can really see what goes well or not so well. I apply all these experiences to the teams and companies hiring me to train their own departments.'

‘From students to specialists’

The current team has 21 permanent members, all are college or university graduates that want to grow in the e-commerce field. I’m so happy to have been able to create a company where I can support people on their career journey, whether that’s with us in-house or moving on to work permanently with our clients. 'We like it when employees gain a year or two of experience with us and then move on to work for our client. Of course, we get a commission for providing the best talent.'

’What’s next for Stone & Bridges?’

Stone & Bridges has a turnover of over one million euros per year. 'Last year, a year when I was pregnant in the meantime and my daughter was born, we doubled turnover. So for the next year and a half, the ambition is to double again. The focus is on outsourcing customer service and in the background we are running pilots with artificial intelligence, to stay innovative.'

Want to know more?

Read the full article here (available in Dutch only). Interested in learning how Anouk and the team can support your E-commerce business? Get in touch today to find out how Stone & Bridges can provide tailored solutions that align with your ambitions and different phases of your organization.