My name is Joaquin. I'm a senior territory representative for Ecolab's institutional division, and this is my Ecolab story. I began my journey with Ecolab in 2016. A friend of mine at the time was working there for a few years, and he mentioned that it was the best decision that he made for himself. I decided to look into it a little bit myself, and it turned out to be a good fit as well.
As a territory representative, I help create safer, healthier spaces for over 100 businesses like hotels, restaurants, universities in the South Los Angeles region. We're delivering products and services that enable our customers to provide a clean and safe experience. And that would be for anybody staying at that hotel, or anyone eating at that restaurant.
I visit customers, and I make sure that the Ecolab equipment is working, both within the Ecolab standards as well as compliance requirements. And I build relationships. I make sure that our customers' needs are met, as well as providing a clean and safe environment. Safety really is at the heart of the services that we provide.
Once I'm clocked in for the day, I typically check my Ecolab phone and just run through anything that I've got to do for that day. I usually have a schedule of appointments for customers that I need to visit. I like to look at the service history of my customers prior to getting there to give me an idea on what I'm looking for and how I can help that customer during that visit. I make sure to have equipment that I'll need for that visit in my vehicle. And I always like to do a safety check before hitting the road, and then I'm on my way.
I typically meet with general managers, housekeepers, and anybody else at the location that might be familiar with the equipment. Through those conversations, I like to build my rapport with them and get to know them outside of just work. And for me, building those relationships is one of the more rewarding parts of the job.
I check all of our Ecolab equipment that consists of Ecolab dish machines, as well as chemical dispensing systems and laundry operations to ensure that the calibrations and the chemicals are within range and within standard. From time to time, we do get urgent requests. For example, a sanitizer might not be working properly at a location. So that customer automatically becomes my priority. So I finish my job where I'm at safely, and take care of them
I do a lot of consultative selling with my customers to show them a greater scope of the different product and services, as well as programs that we offer at Ecolab to help them protect their brand and optimize their operations. I enjoy having those conversations. It enables me to have a better understanding of them, their business, as well as being able to provide training for their staff. Having good time management skills and organization skills will really help you out, as well as being able to communicate with both your Ecolab colleagues as well as your customers.
It's a lot of responsibility. We're not stuck in a cubicle. We don't have an office. We're on the road. We're visiting customers. There's a lot of autonomy, so you really get to dictate your schedule. Although I'm mostly working independently on a day to day basis, I usually never feel alone because there's always a support from leadership as well as the other Ecolab colleagues that I have. They're always jumping in the trenches with us and making sure that we're taking care of.
We often use the phrase one Ecolab at our company, and that's really reflective of the way we work. We really trust our territory representatives to manage their routes and take really great care of our customers. And we're here to support them every step of the way. We make sure they have the tools and resources needed to succeed to reach their customers goals, as well as their own career goals. And we do that by providing state of the art training during onboarding, as well as continued career development.
Very quickly, I saw that I had made the right career move, especially with the emphasis on safety, training, the culture, and it's just been amazing. Through my years at Ecolab, I've been lucky enough to move up in my role through promotions. And it's nice that the company encourages the growth and development, and that only makes me excited about the future.
The career that I have now enables me to have a better work life balance and enjoy the things that I love-- spending time with family, with friends, taking in sports games, whether it's basketball, football, dabble a little bit in pickleball, and making sure that I'm well taken care of so I can take care of my customers. To have a career working for a company that's been protecting people everywhere it matters for over 100 years, it's something I take a lot of pride in. My name is Joaquin, and this is my story