We’re getting to know the people who comprise the Luminex family. Today, we catch up with Debra Vail, Director of Customer Service, who joined the company in 2001. She earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and we learned that she has one lucky dog.
Q: What are your responsibilities at Luminex?
A: Customer service includes order management, sales support, and contract management. We’re involved in the end-to-end activities from the pre-sales to order process. Whenever those purchase orders come in, my organization is responsible for ensuring that customers get their products and that all the money is properly accounted for. Our goal is to meet or exceed customer expectations. My worst day is when we’ve had to tell a customer there’s been a delay and they won’t get what they needed when they needed it. It doesn’t happen often, but if it happens once, that’s one too many times.
Q: Did you know your career path would involve customer service?
A: I expected to go into sales. I have a chemistry degree, but being in a laboratory with four walls and no windows didn’t necessarily work for my personality. I was working for a clinical research organization, when a former colleague went to Luminex and told me it was a great up-and-coming company. I joined as a sales associate, doing lots of lead generation and qualification, and working trade shows. As I began to understand what the company did, the story became really compelling.
Q: What lured you away from sales?
A: In sales, there’s an end goal: the purchase order. For me, the relationship building is the sweet spot. I like to understand what makes people tick. If I could find a problem and then implement a solution, it not only made me feel good, but it also ended up helping the customer. When customers, whether internal or external, tell me that my team saved them time or helped their work, I know we’ve made a real contribution.
Q: If you could solve any clinical or genetic challenge, what would it be?
A: The whole aging process. I have a 92-year-old grandfather, and over the course of the last three years he has completely slowed down. It’s been hard seeing him move from a fully independent person to someone who has to depend on others because he can’t take care of himself. If there was a way that you could age and still have dignity in that aging process that would be the end-all, be-all.
Q: If you weren’t at Luminex, where would you be?
A: I think I would have a bakery. My dog just turned 10 years old and I made her some pupcakes! Every Christmas I bring in cookies and cupcakes and bars for the whole company. There’s something about the creativity around decorating a cookie or making a cake that just brings me so much peace. That’s my happy place.
Q: What is something about you that no one at Luminex knows?
A: My family and I moved to Iran in 1975 and we lived there very happily. The only reason we came back was because of the revolution — my dad was hearing and seeing some of the things that were starting to happen at the time. He did not want us to be raised in that type of environment. Had it not been for his foresight, I may not have been able to return to this great country. My only regret is that I didn’t keep up with Farsi, and after being fluent when we came back, today I can’t speak a word of it.
Q: What is your favorite thing to do in Austin on the weekend?
A: Saturdays are my play days. In the mornings I go to Town Lake to enjoy a little bit of nature and then have breakfast with friends. In the evening my husband and I will find a fun new restaurant to try.
