With the KC Corporate Challenge in full swing, we find ourselves battling it out with some pretty stiff competition in our division. We had a great run this past week and the results below will definitely reflect that. Take a look at how JustBats.com is doing in this year’s KC Corporate Challenge after a month of competition.

Every Monday we’d like you to meet someone new around here at JustBats.com. Get to know us a little better! Meet Austin! Austin works in the Customer Service Department and helps come up with the creative ways to make sure your experience with JustBats.com is a great one to remember! Here is what makes Austin tick.

1. How long have you worked here at JustBats.com?
I have been here for just a little over 3 months now. My first day was 2/15/2012.
2. What are some of your responsibilities in the Customer Service department?
A lot of my responsibilities involve different projects and innovative ideas to try to improve the overall performance of our contact center. We are currently working on strategies to improve our new hire training all the way to processes improving our continuous training and quality assurance. Everything we do in the contact center revolves around making the customer experience the best that it can be. We want to make our customers experience with us an amazing experience. We also want our CSR's to have fun and have a passion for what they do within the contact center.
3. What do you enjoy most about working here as a Contact Center Coordinator?
There are almost way too many things to say that I enjoy most about working here as a Contact Center Coordinator. First off, I love the culture of the work environment here at JustBats.com and all of the perks that go along with being a part of JustBats.com. Aside from the culture and the great co-workers, I would also say that the customer interaction is a pleasant experience being involved in customer service. It is always great to get a call from a customer telling us how well they like the bat that they bought from JustBats.com or just to hear how their baseball or softball season is going.
4. Tell us some challenges you face daily as a Contact Center Coordinator and how you overcome them.
Working in the customer service department, our number one concern is the customer. We always want the customer to have the best experience possible, so our customers take precedence over everything else that we do. Sometimes this makes it tough for us to work on special projects that take place behind the scenes. The only way to overcome this challenge is to have very stringent time management skills and make use of a personal calendar at all times to stay as organized as possible.
5. What do you love doing most outside of working at JustBats.com?
Outside of working at JustBats.com, I really enjoy spending time with family and friends. I also work part-time with the Kansas City Royals Grounds Crew and love going out to the ball park every night. If I am not at the ball park, I am an avid country music fan, so I really enjoy going to different country music concerts.
6. Any advice for people coming into your line of work?
The biggest piece of advice that I can give anyone before going into any line of work is to make sure that you have a passion for what you do. After graduating from the University of Missouri in 2009, it took me a few years to finally settle into something that I truly love. I am definitely a fan of baseball and would consider myself to be a people person. When combining two of the things I love the most, I would say that I have found a job that fits me perfectly. I get to spend so much time talking baseball to customers across the country.
7. What's your favorite thing so far about working at JustBats.com?
The culture and the people! When people ask me where I work, I almost feel like I need to quit bragging about how great this place is because of all the perks that we have as an employee at JustBats.com. I have held a couple of jobs in the past with professional sports teams and I must say that JustBats.com is definitely Major League quality.
8. Tell us what gets you laughing the hardest.
This is a tough one. I wouldn't say there is anything in particular that gets me laughing a lot, but lately I've been watching the show "Impractical Jokers" on truTV and some of the public pranks that they pull are pretty funny.
9. What's your favorite sport and team?
I wouldn't feel right narrowing it down to only one team and only one sport, so I have to stay true to all of my hometown teams and college affiliations. My two favorite sports are baseball and football. My favorite sports teams are the Kansas City Royals, Kansas City Chiefs, and the Missouri Tigers.
10. Give us your top three favorite movies.
My top three favorite movies in order are Rudy, 8 Seconds, and The Sandlot. From my selection, it may be obvious to see that I don't watch a lot of movies. I may be one of the few people out there that can say I have never seen a Star Wars movie.

This month's Classic Baseball Movie of the Month is The Natural starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close and Robert Duvall. The Natural, based in the 20s and 40s, is a movie about a 19-year old Roy Hobbs who is given a chance to try out for the Chicago Cubs as a pitcher. In the beginning of the movie the train to Chicago is stopped at a carnival where Roy is challenged to strike out "The Whammer" who was said to be the best hitter in the major leagues. He ends up succeeding in the challenge and from there the rest of the movie takes several twists and turns, but I don't want to give too much away in case you haven't seen the movie. We highly recommend this movie for any baseball fan, it is truly a classic and we think anyone that enjoys the game of baseball would probably agree.

Ways to Communicate with the JustBats Customer Experience Team

Every Monday we’d like you to meet someone new around here at JustBats.com. Get to know us a little better! Meet Pam! Pam works in the Accounting department and helps crunch the numbers! Here is what makes Pam tick.

1. How long have you worked here at JustBats.com?
Since last July
2. What are some of your responsibilities in the Accounting Department?
Reconciling bank accounts, preparing financial reports and paying sales/use tax.
3. What's your favorite thing about working in the Accounting Department?
Mark R.'s sense of humor
4. What are some challenges you face day to day working in accounting?
Deadlines... Sometimes they seem to all come at once.
5. What kind of things do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I like spending time with my family, going to the lake, skiing, gardening and playing poker.
6. What's your favorite memory so far since working at JustBats.com?
My favorite memories have been Shelbe's swim fitness classes.
7. Give us your top three favorite movies.
The Shawshank Redemption, Meet the Parents and A League of Their Own
8. When it comes to accounting, we all know there are a lot of numbers, what is your process for dealing with all the math and numbers?
I take my time and double check my work. It's much better to do it right the first time.
9. What get's you laughing the hardest?
Big Dave

Every month we would like to introduce you to a department at JustBats.com. Each department around here plays a key role in making sure everything runs smoothly and you get your bats in a timely manner, while having a great experience shopping with us. Meet the Creative team, this department is all about the graphics that you see on the web in our email blasts, it's also responsible for all those sweet videos you can watch about our products.

1. Tell us a little bit about the Creative team.
The goal of the Creative Department here at JustBats.com is to create everything visually for the company. The Creative team helps provide the customers with a good visual piece of art that helps them find what they are looking for.
2. What kind of responsibilities does each person in the Creative Department take on everyday?
We take on almost everything visually that our customers see on our site, blog and social media areas. We tackle Product Images, Product Videos, Email Marketing, Social Media, Blog Content, Company Newsletter and much more.
3. Are there any major challenges you and the team face daily, weekly or even monthly in the Creative Department?
Not too many. I feel like we have a strong team and a lot of talent here. If one of us isn't sure about a project, we really pull together and use peoples' strengths where it fits best.
4. What would you say you look for the most in someone wanting to become a Creative in the department?
Always be creating. Whether it's in your field or not, always continue using your talent for something. We definitely encourage our Creative team to work on extra projects that benefit our company someway.
5. We all know with work there has to be some play, tell us about some of the perks of being in the Creative Department.
We all work together very well. I feel like we're one big family. We might drive each other crazy sometimes, but I feel like we would do anything for each other. Everyday we get to come into work and it's easy to forget you're at work when the team you get to be around is really awesome.
6. What are some of the ways you think JustBats.com and the Creative Department go above and beyond to keep our customers happy?
We really try to listen to our customers and give them what they want. That may sound cliche, but we really do. If someone sends an email or comments on our Facebook page about something we can change in our videos, we take every single one of those into consideration and try to make them better.
7. What is the best part about being a Creative at JustBats.com?
I know I said it before but I really love the people on our Creative team staff. Coming into work everyday and getting to work with great, talented people is the greatest. They are very good at what they do, they work their butts off and they teach me things everyday. Can't ask for anything better.