Meet the Tallizen: Henny

Henny Durate is a senior member success specialist at Tally based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In her role on Tally’s Member Success team, she changes shoes with our members every day. That’s because the Member Success team leads with empathy when it comes to the onboarding and support experience. They embody Tally’s mission to make people less stressed and better off financially, and serve as the voice of Tally in many ways.

With a focus on solving problems with empathy, Henny helps people set up their accounts, answer questions and troubleshoots when needed. Her team works side-by-side with the Engineering, Product and Design teams to identify ways to improve the overall member experience continuously.

Outside of her day-to-day work, Henny also plays a big role in the Learning & Development program at Tally. Knowing Tally’s product inside and out, she helped develop and teach a Tally 101 course that is now part of the company’s standard onboarding sessions.

She has also spearheaded Tally’s Ride-Along program, which allows Tallizens (Tally employees) outside of the Member Success team to be a silent listener on live member calls. This popular program has been instrumental in helping employees better understand the needs and wants of our members.

A day in the life of a Tallizen

I wake up. Get ready. Feed my cats. Once at my desk, I clap my hands a few times before starting up my laptop. 

I start working: answering emails, picking up a few phone calls, and doing some other tasks in the mix. Then I take my lunch. On a good day, I eat leftovers from dinner the previous night!

I answer more emails and take more phone calls. (I also train new member success agents when needed!) I help members make payments, understand how Tally works, walk them through their account, help them remove cards, explain their minimum payments, etc.

I clock out at 5 p.m. PST and dust myself off and tell myself I did a good job!

What has been the highlight of your time here at Tally so far?

The Member Success Team has a deep understanding of how the product works, how our members actually use it and the types of questions they typically have. To share this knowledge with the rest of the company, I assisted in putting together an internal training session that I helped lead. We get a lot of compliments internally about how helpful it is, especially from newer Tallizens who are still learning the ropes.

One of my favorite parts of this project was how we promoted it internally. At our bi-weekly Town Hall meeting over Zoom, we held a live pop quiz. It was a fun test-your-knowledge exercise to help Tallizens gauge how much they really knew. The whole presentation was really well received, and it made me excited to know that people enjoyed taking the quiz! 

What would you be doing right now if you weren’t in your current role?

I would have loved to be an elementary school music teacher! When I entered college, I was a music major before switching majors to Liberal Studies with a teacher emphasis. I'm out of practice, but I played the flute for about 10 years and I was in a jazz choir.

Tallizens offline

What do you like to do for fun outside of work? 

I like to relax, so outside of work I like to play with my two cats (Boots and Suki), watch some movies, catch up on TV shows, play some games (I've been really into Teamfight Tactics lately!), and karaoke!

What is your hidden talent?

I can make rice without having to measure the water.

What is your favourite book?

“To Love As Aswang” by Barbara Jane Reyes

Lightning round: this or that?

Sweet or Savory?

Savory

Morning or Night?

Night

Tea or Coffee?

Tea

Pizza or Tacos?

Tacos!!

Cardio or  Weights?

Cardio!