The Betterbee CSR Team as of May 2022, Back Row (L-R): Kala, Lauren, Tim, Brie, Laurie, Clare, Suzanne; Kneeling (L-R): Brittany, Elizabeth, Jamie
Many times, our customer service team is one of your first touchpoints with Betterbee. Whether you are calling in or submitting a message through our help desk, someone from this team is on the other end of the line or the keyboard answering your questions or taking your order.
The team takes pride in taking orders and delivering information with a smile. We hope that the following interviews with each team member will put a smile on your face!
Meet Brittany
For 968 days (or 2 years, 8 months at the time this was written), Brittany has graced Betterbee with her bubbly presence as the Customer Service Manager. She is most proud of her ability to lead the team with empathy, and her hands-on beekeeping skills. Her favorite part of working here is that she gets to solve problems and keep our customers happy… and she absolutely loves when people order lunch with her! Lunch is the way to Brittany's heart.
On the weekends and in her free time, you can find Brittany… at the Little League Field (this time of year). While not at baseball, you can catch her potting flowers, doing gigs with her band, and spending time with her awesome family.
Favorite genre of music: Eclectic lover of many genres: Garth Brooks, Lil Wayne, Foo Fighters, Sublime, Incubus, Kacey Musgraves and… SPACE TRASH (the band she sings in).
The weirdest thing Brittany has eaten is… small, white insects that were moving, on her trip to China in 2008.
Her favorite fact about honey bees: The waggle dance! Imagine if we danced to tell people where the good food is? Every time she learns a new fact about honey bees, she is even more amazed by them.
Something about her that not everyone knows: Brittany sent in her DNA to Ancestry and discovered that she's 98% Korean and 2% Japanese, which is kind of amazing when you consider that most people come from a variety of different backgrounds.
Meet Jamie
Jamie has worked at Betterbee for 7 years, starting as a CSR and working her way up to running the label department, then up to being our Customer Service Assistant Manager. She prides herself on her ability to always serve our customers with a smile and fast service. In addition to helping manage the team, she also coordinates trade shows and loves to attend the shows and meet customers she wouldn't normally see at our HQ in Greenwich, NY. Any time you see us out on the road, Jamie made it happen!
On the weekends and in her free time, you can find Jamie… having a bonfire or playing some video games.
Favorite genre of music: Country, Hip-hop, Alternative, and Rap
The weirdest thing Jamie has eaten is… a cheese-flavored mealworm in science class.
Her favorite fact about honey bees: That there’s a “hive mind” in every beehive: the entire hive works together to thrive!
Something about her that not everyone knows: She’s a self-proclaimed geek when it comes to video games and loves to play Call of Duty in her spare time.
Meet Brie
Brie has been a part of the Betterbee team for 3 years and is a huge fan of bringing sass and laughter to the office. She loves to format and print custom labels for honey bottles for our customers, and pumps out tens of thousands of labels each week. Odds are, if you had custom labels created through Betterbee, Brie had a hand in it.
On the weekends and in her free time, you can find Brie… four-wheeling or walking trails with her son, Mason, and their dog, Dixie.
Favorite genre of music: Classic Rock and 90s Country.
The weirdest thing Brie has eaten is… alligator bites in Florida.
Something about her that not everyone knows: Brie used to be a major fan of pulling her trucks in the truck pulls at the fair. Her first time doing it was at the Schaghticoke Fair, where she took home 1st place! She has also been riding horses since she was 5.
Meet Suzanne
Suzanne has worked at Betterbee for 7 years and is a seasoned beekeeper who has written articles for both the American Bee Journal and Bee Culture. She's proud of her ability to keep her hives healthy and productive, and enjoys helping our customers make the right choices to keep their bees alive and healthy as well. Suzanne is also very proud to be a grandmother to Isla, who turns 4 this month, and to Isla's sister who is due to enter the world this month!
On the weekends and in her free time, you can find Suzanne… playing with her pets (chinchillas, guinea pig, dog, cats, goldfish, and bees), gardening, or making candles.
Favorite genre of music: Folk and Classic Rock.
The weirdest thing Suzanne has eaten is… kimchi and sushi.
Her favorite fact about honey bees: That they hold their poop in all winter long and then, when it is finally warm enough for them to come out, they poop all over our cars in the Betterbee parking lot in the spring! Haha!
Something about her that not everyone knows: She writes, produces, and performs in her own original full-length musicals. She is also a guitarist/singer/songwriter. A woman of many talents!
Meet Laurie
One of our top seasoned veterans in the customer service department with 9 years under her belt, Laurie has established herself as the office mom, helping everyone and doling out hugs and remedies for headaches. Laurie loves talking to customers and prides herself on taking accurate orders to get customers exactly what they're looking for, and enjoys helping resolve issues.
On the weekends and in her free time, you can find Laurie… cleaning, doing crafts, and spending time with her grand animals.
Favorite genre of music: Christian, Pop, and sadly what is now called the oldies, 70-80s.
The weirdest thing Laurie has eaten is… frog legs.
Her favorite fact about honey bees: All the different jobs that honey bees do throughout their lifetime.
Something about her that not everyone knows: Laurie worked for 12 years at a veterinary clinic where she watched surgeries and helped puppies when they were just born. She even saw the extremely rare birth of twin alpacas!
Meet Elizabeth
Not that you'd be able to tell, but Elizabeth is one of our new-bees with 6 months here at Betterbee. Before she came here, she was a teacher, which really shows in the joy that she gets from learning all there is to know about beekeeping alongside our customers.
On the weekends and in her free time, you can find Elizabeth… building her house and spending time with her family.
Favorite genre of music: 90s Pop.
Her favorite fact about honey bees: Bees are house trained! They leave their house to relieve themselves – brilliant.
Something about her that not everyone knows: She's secretly afraid of bees but the exposure therapy of working at Betterbee seems to be working! So much so, that she hopes to start her own hive next year. Outside of bees, Elizabeth enjoys biking to work.
Meet Clare
The freshest face at Betterbee, Clare has been answering calls and helping with beekeeping questions for just over two months. She's proud of her ability to learn on her toes and adapt to the quick-paced environment during our busiest bee season. She leans on her coworkers to help answer questions and for a good laugh.
On the weekends and in her free time, you can find Clare… spending time outside with her family and friends.
Favorite genre of music: Folk and Alternative.
Her favorite fact about honey bees: The waggle dance!
Meet Lauren
Lauren has worked at Betterbee for 10 months and is a huge fan of assisting both fledgling and experienced beekeepers with troubleshooting what's going on in their hives. It's like solving a puzzle and a surefire way to learn more about bees and beekeeping. She is an integral part of designing our custom honey labels here in-house.
On the weekends and in her free time, you can find Lauren… hanging out with her cat!
Favorite genre of music: 80s! She has a self-proclaimed "embarrassing amount of New Wave music" on her playlist
The weirdest thing Lauren has eaten is… octopus. She loves it!
Her favorite fact about honey bees: A single bee makes about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.
Something about her that not everyone knows: Lauren does digital artwork in her free time! She applies the skills she learns on her own to her work here at Betterbee as a custom label designer.
Meet Tim
Tim is one of our newest customer service representatives, with three months at Betterbee under his belt. He is very passionate about living life to the fullest and maintaining a fresh perspective. His favorite part of the job is the people he works with because beekeepers rule!
On the weekends and in his free time, you can find Tim… sharing in the groove.
Favorite genre of music: Classical.
The weirdest thing Tim has eaten is… conch.
His favorite fact about honey bees: Honey is one of the only complete sources of nutrition found in nature.
Meet Kala
Kala started at Betterbee a year ago in the customer service department and now moonlights as a CSR while spending most of her time in our purchasing department, but you might still catch her on the lines on a busy day! Her favorite part of working at the Bee is the people she works with, because, like her, they are always willing to help others out if they are super busy.
On the weekends and in her free time, you can find Kala… with her 1 ½-year-old playing and having fun.
Favorite genre of music: Pretty much anything, such as Rock, Pop, and Country.
The weirdest thing Kala has eaten is… alligator.
Her favorite fact about honey bees: One hive can produce 60 to 100 pounds of honey a year.
Something about her that not everyone knows: Kala used to have a lot of pets, including peacocks(!), goats, tortoises, and more. She's a huge animal lover!
Notable Betterbee stories
We'll finish off this series of interviews with a compilation of the customer service team's funniest and most notable stories about a time they had either at Betterbee or at an event Betterbee attended:
"We had a couple of kids call in screaming that they had a bee in their room and needed to know how to get it out. We then encouraged them to open the window and let it go out on its own. They then called back and asked how they can feed it and keep it as a pet, due to it being injured. It was the cutest conversation I have ever had working as a CSR here at Betterbee." -Jamie
"When I first started working here [at Betterbee], I won the 'Find the Queen' contest at EAS in Ontario, when I had never even been in a hive before. I still have the golden hive tool I won hanging proudly on my honey shelves at home. It was really the funniest thing that has ever happened to me!" -Suzanne
"A customer came into the showroom to place an order. After a few minutes, she asked, 'Are you guys always this happy?' We all said, in unison, 'YES!'" -Elizabeth
"When I started at Betterbee the first two employees that I met and who made me want to work here were Marleen and Debbie. I had lunch with Debbie one day and left her a note but I wrote, 'Linda, I had so much fun at lunch with you today.' She brought me the note and said, 'Who is Linda?' I said, 'You are,' and she said, 'I'm Debbie.' To this day I still call her Linda when I see her and she decided to call me Charlotte." -Laurie
"My first month here, a very nice, older gentleman grabbed my arm, and asked, 'Are you one of those Hawaiians?'" -Brittany (who is actually Korean)
"I had a gentlemen call on his birthday to order books for his birthday and I wished him 'Happy Birthday,' and he told me, 'Happy Birthday to you, too!'" - Kala
We would love to hear from you! Call us toll-free at 800-632-3379 or email us with your questions at support@betterbee.com.
