Nowadays people say you have to change jobs to get promoted. Try telling that to Joshua Valouche, he’d probably tell you to take a look at his LinkedIn profile. The veteran Hostway employee has been helping customers almost as long as Hostway has offered cloud hosting solutions. Now a director, support operations, Valouche oversees 42 global support staffers, but he began his career at Hostway in 2005, as a technical service representative.
Over the course of 12 years, Valouche has worked on, resolved, and managed technology and customer issues ranging from the most obscure to the most basic. “That’s one thing I like most about this job that never changes,” he says. “There’s always variety. I get to help our customers, our data centers, and the support team improve every day. I’m always keeping up with changing technologies. It’s never boring.”
Rising to the Challenge
With a background in gaming (playing and developing), Valouche says critical thinking led him to a field widely known for problem-solving. And more than just that, his no bs approach to providing honest feedback in real-time plays well with Hostway's promise to deliver trusted relationships.
“The trusted cloud means accountability and me and my staff withhold that value. We’re always available and our customers’ issues are VIP.” Valouche continues, “We have daily standups and discuss top internal and external priorities. Every problem has a solution and we’ll find and fix it quickly and effectively.”
For his dedication to those words and more, Valouche has held nine positions at Hostway. He has climbed the ladder from Level 1, 2, and 3 support, he’s encountered every type of ticket. And now that he’s overseeing these teams, he’s able to put himself in their shoes and the customer’s shoes and understand the right solutions.
A True Team Player
When a truly new and difficult task comes across the support team, Valouche isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. He leads by example and is always available to lend his expertise. For him, it’s about developing talent and focusing on success for the customers. Which is very important since customers rely on Hostway to keep their mission critical apps up and running, no customers’ need is too small, “a call is a top priority and hitting goals and concentrating on output is essential” he says. But it’s not all work. The team gets together to play video games like Starcraft and Heroes of the Storm, and Valouche has even been named Office Video Game Champ.
His leadership is obvious. The support team is frequently nominated for Hostway's internal awards program, the Hosties, and in 2015, Valouche won the People’s Champ Hostie for Partner Services. But more than external praise, he describes his tenure at Hostway as rewarding, and that means far more.
Joshua Valouche loves his job, but when he’s not working, he spends it with another love—his wife Melanie. Together they have a son, Noah (3) and daughter, Amelia (1). He’s a busy dad, but still makes time to research his PC culture hobby and before he tucks in at night, his wife challenges him in World of Warcraft. “Sometimes she wins,” he says with a laugh, “we’re old school nerds.”
Hostway and its customers are lucky to have Joshua Valouche. He’s a dedicated, hard worker and in the wise words of rapper Drake, “started from the bottom now I’m here.”
To experience the Hostway support difference, call +1.866.680.7556 or chat with us today.