Sandra De Bruyker joined AIRINC’s Client Engagement team in Brussels as a Client Engagement manager in 2007. She is now an Associate Director of Client Engagement. She supports some of our largest European clients in the automotive, oil and gas, and pharmaceutical industries. Sandra has Master’s degrees in Law (1997) and in Business Law and Tax Law (1998) from the University of Antwerp in Belgium.
What do you like most about your role at AIRINC?
I've always been in Client Engagement since joining AIRINC, but the role has a lot of variety which keeps me on my toes. Each client has their own specific needs and manages Global Mobility in their own unique way -- this makes my role very interesting as I'm always responding to the particulars of my clients, which in turn guides the advice and solutions that I propose to them.
I recently transitioned a large account onto AIRINC data. We had many conversations with the client to understand their challenges and needs. We worked together to support a successful transition. Indeed, I tend to work with our larger accounts -- I've been with one of my clients for over 13 years. They have more turnover than the AIRINC team, so over time we become our clients’ institutional memory. That's a lot of history that AIRINC shares with these long-standing accounts -- and we've developed a true partnership.
What is your favorite AIRINC tool?
I really like AIRINC's International Housing Guide (IHG) because it provides a lot of useful detail about a host location's general housing market, as well as charts and reports specific to the client. Clients say that it reduces the number of exception requests they receive related to housing because IHG helps them understand how their particular housing budgets apply in the host housing market, which helps to manage everyone's expectations.
What tool do your clients tend to like?
Our Assignment Cost Estimator (ACE) is always a favorite because it's so quick and easy to use. This especially makes a big different for clients who want to move away from running their cost estimations in Excel (where they also have to spend weeks collecting data from multiple sources). In ACE, all of that information is available with a few clicks -- and the client can still override the data that AIRINC provides if they know specific costs that they want to use in the calculation. Clients can also configure ACE to meet their needs. It's a highly customizable tool.
Tell us a little bit about yourself
I live in Mechelen, Belgium with my family. We have a cat from a shelter. Her name is Cachepot (which means "planter" or "flowerpot" in French) because that's where she'd been found with her two kittens. We kept her name to honor her history. My father has a house in Cadzand on the Dutch coast and we like to visit him to go cycling and enjoy the beach.
