We at The Scuba News were recently introduced to a commercial diving operation down in Portsmouth and were lucky enough to get to know some of the divers who work there and find out more about what it is that RS get up too.
Meeting Ruben Stephenson was a total pleasure and he gave us a good insight into the professional, working side of diving in the UK.
We wanted to meet more of the team and look at the drive to work in other areas of the dive industry and what peoples motivations were. I went down to meet Debbie, the Office Manager, Operations Co-ordinator and Business Support at the RS hub in Camber dock and had a chat about life behind the scenes of a busy commercial team.
So Deb, what is it you like about working for RS Divers?
I love the diversity of the job, no two days are ever the same. The excitement when you have an emergency callout, day or night and the bustle of making sure you manage the job as efficiently and professionally as possible gets my adrenalin pumping. You have to act fast and organise things that might otherwise take a week to plan. It keeps you on your toes.
So why do you think RS is so successful? What is the companies secret?
I think Ruben, the Director, is our secret weapon, he just has really good interpersonal skills and remains professional and calm with people and he gets involved with the jobs and is really hands on because he cares about the service and wants to give clients a really great experience and an honest and reliable one. The experiences out divers have and the way in which we deliver our service as a team is paramount to us as a company. We want to and expect the best to be delivered at all times and it’s why people choose us.
Taking some responsibility for manning the phones 24/7 for their callout service must be high pressured, is it easy to stay calm when clients call with stressful emergency situations?
I wouldn’t call it high pressured, its more to ensure that calls get taken and people are not left at odd times with no help or available support. The whole team man the phones at different times and we strive to resolve emergencies for people as they arise quickly because we know how vital getting help can be when you most need it. As I said before its not so much pressure as a high on adrenaline when you are dealing with something. Your motivation is to respond quickly and efficiently.
What do you think of the RS office location?
The location of our office is amazing! We are right in the hub of the Camber and the activities around it. It is the perfect location to travel to site as we are right next to the harbour entrance, our equipment, RIBS and our trailers. We are always set up and ready to go and we get to do it from a beautiful setting.
What kind of feedback do you get from clients?
Feedback is key and always positive. We have lots of commercial clients that place us on their approved suppliers lists and often use us again. With the yacht services side we are almost always working with clients that we have worked with since the company began over 10 years ago. This speaks volumes for itself. We are customer service centred and it means we get returning and loyal custom.
Working in the office must mean that you deal with lots of enquiries, what kind of unusual requests have you had?
We get quite a few unusual requests but one that springs to mind was a car in a pond. We went off to a private residence where a lady had been trying to catch her dog that was running around a big area of land that they had. She took the car out to get him faster and forgot to put the hand brake of the car on and it rolled into a rather large pond. We were asked to pop by and salvage it for her, which of course we did. This is what I meant about diverse. You never know what each day will bring and thats why I love working with commercial divers.
Debbie its been so good talking to you and we are keen to stay in touch with RS and to follow more of the things you guys get up too! It really has been a pleasure!
If you want to find out more about RS Divers you can follow them on Twitter, spot them on Instagram and check them out on Facebook.
