3 questions to Nurgül Alemdar, Head of Customer Unit at Seven Senders

Meet Nurgül Alemdar, Head of Customer Unit at Seven Senders. In her role, she leads a team that manages a portfolio of e-commerce fashion brands, handling commercial and operational tasks, relationship building, and strategic development. Additionally, she focuses on fostering a supportive team environment, overcoming various industry challenges, and nurturing the potential in diverse team members through regular feedback and coaching.

In this interview, Nurgül explains what her role entails and how she identifies and nurtures potential in her team. She also reflects on a particularly challenging problem she faces in her role and how she managed to overcome it. 

Please describe your job as Head of Customer Unit at Seven Senders

As the Head of Customer Unit, I lead a team that includes Key Account Managers and Customer Operations Managers. We manage a portfolio of customers, primarily focusing on e-commerce fashion brands. My responsibilities cover a range of commercial and operational tasks related to our clients, such as contract negotiations, pricing discussions, escalation management, and developing both internal and external business strategies.

A big part of my job is to maintain and strengthen relationships with our key customers, aiming to build long-term partnerships. This involves creating sales opportunities, setting key objectives, and shaping the team’s structure and processes.

Another crucial aspect of my role is creating an environment where my team can exchange ideas, learn, and grow. I strive to foster a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts and suggesting improvements.

“A crucial aspect of my role is creating an environment where my team can exchange ideas, learn and grow. I strive to foster a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts and suggesting improvements.”

Can you describe a particularly challenging problem you faced in your role and how you resolved it? 

Throughout my career, I've encountered many challenges, from navigating the logistics industry as a woman to dealing with heavy workloads and a lack of motivation. I've transitioned from large corporations to mid-sized firms and startups with vastly different cultures, mindsets, and working environments. I’ve had to adapt to various settings and work structures, often feeling overwhelmed or underwhelmed by different tasks, projects, or roles.

Since starting my career, I’ve held various positions, gaining experience in logistics, negotiation, and target setting from different perspectives. This constant change has been both challenging and enriching, pushing me to grow, test my limits, and go beyond them. Embracing challenges as opportunities has been crucial in shaping my path and defining my goals.

I also make it a point to reflect on each situation, asking myself why I’m facing a particular challenge. Being honest with myself and thoroughly planning the next steps usually leads me to effective solutions.

How does your team deal with customers daily, especially from the fashion segment?

The fashion industry is quite a dynamic environment. The number of new SKUs in every season cycle is incredibly high. Thus, planning and forecasting sales and shipments is challenging for our fashion customers. We understand that and are trying to be as flexible as possible regarding shipment forecasts. However, accurate planning is the key to efficiency. So, we are highly interested in not passing over the complexity of transportation to our customers, and we are always searching for solutions to equalize imbalances within our transportation network.  

Moreover, we are keen on finding the right solutions for our customers that are tailored to their needs. We have a variety of solutions and carriers in place, and our customers have the free choice. This option, combined with our expertise, leads to a win-win situation.

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