Customer Service Manager

DEBRA A. RAETZ

**** ******** ***** 708-***-****

Monee, IL 60449 ********@***.***

Summary

Highly qualified insurance professional with twenty two years of diverse

experience within Customer Service. Held increasingly responsible

positions, including sixteen years in management. Strong insurance

industry knowledge. Demonstrated ability to lead change within a team

environment. Strong interpersonal and communication skills. Excellent

organization and multi-tasking ability.

EXPERIENCE

Ware-Pak LLC Oct 2012-Sept 2013

Manager-Customer Service

Manage team of 6 that is responsible for servicing fullfillment accounts

and Account Management for full service call center accounts. Fullfillment

representatives process orders received via web and fax. They ensure that

orders are fulfilled and shipped to meet client standards. Responsible for

responding to client inquiries via email and telephone. Call Center

account representatives provide service to clients as well as their

customers. Responsibilites for account management of call center accounts

include answering client and customer inquriries via telephone and email,

order processing received via telephone, fax and email. Process orders and

ensure they are fulfilled and shipped to meet client standards.

. Worked with telephone provider to reconfigure ACD call programming to

reduce abandon rates in the call center.

. Implemented a weekly meeting between Sales, IT, and Customer Service

to improve onboarding of new customers and improve communications

across departments. Made improvements to onboarding process and

timeline schedule forms.

. Changed weekly and monthly billing process to reduce processing time

for billing customers. Reduced the process from 3 days to 1 day

turnaround.

Appraised performance, rewarded and coached employees, addressed

complaints and resolved problems.

. Responsible for interviewing and hiring new employees.

MTL Insurance Company 2007- September

2012

Manager-Payments and Benefits

Manage team of 10 that is responsible for all changes to inforce policies,

correspondence, billing, lapses, policy accounting, and EFT transactions.

This team is also an ACD telephone unit responsible for answering Agent and

Policyholder inquiries for Life and Annuity Products.

. Improved abandon rates of Payments and Benefits from 6% to 2% or less.

. Established service metrics to manage workflow inventory and evaluate

staff performance. Improved service standards to meet established

metrics.

. Implemented several process improvements to department procedures to

increase productivity levels as well as lower risk to company operations.

. Reorganized staff to achieve optimal use of staffing resources resulting

in improved service levels and accomplished needed cross-training within

the department.Created a split day phone/inventory schedule to improve

servicing of workflow and lower abandon rates.

. Implemented business practice of documenting contact calls. Designed a

documentation screen within the current administrative system to enable

proper documentation of contact calls with agents and policyholder to be

maintained on the policy record.

. Worked directly with Compliance to ensure established procedures meet

compliance regulations.

. Made recommendations to change department accounting and disbursement

procedures to lower risk of loss to the company. Changes implemented.

. Responsible for yearly 1099 and 5498 tax balancing as well as Schedule A

letters. Identified and researched several possible tax reporting

errors. Implemented necessary process improvements as well as

programming requests to correct errors and reduce tax reporting errors.

. Participated on several internal project teams to improve procedures and

system processing, resulting in increased production.

. Participated in a focus group to gather requirements for a new

administrative system. Also participated in meetings with consultants

and the vendor chosen for the new administative system to prepare a

requirements document. New administrative system scheduled to begin

implementation in 2012.

Appraised performance, rewarded and coached employees, addressed

complaints and resolved problems.

. Responsible for interviewing and hiring new employees.

Bankers Life & Casualty Co. 2003-2007

Team Manager - Customer Service/Life & Annuities

Managed inventory team of 16 that was responsible for all changes to in-

force policies, correspondence, billing, lapses, policy accounting, and EFT

transactions. Also managed an ACD telephone unit responsible for answering

Level II policyholder calls for Life and Annuity Products.

. Improved service levels in the Call Center from 37% to 76% answered

within 6 seconds.

. Managed staff to reduce inventory backlog by 81% from February 05 to

September 05.

. Managed project to transition 90% of workflow indexing to File/Mail

department.

. Created curriculum to successfully train 16 people to service Level II

calls received from policyholders and agents.

Appraised performance, rewarded and coached employees, addressed

complaints and resolved problems.

. Responsible for interviewing and hiring new employees.

Celtic Insurance Company 2001-2003

Manager - Policy Owner and Agency Services Departments

Managed two departments. Policy Owner Services (POS) was accountable for

all changes to in-force policies, correspondence, billing, lapses and

electronic fund transfers (EFT). Agency Services processed new agent

appointments and referrals, paid monthly commissions and bonuses and

answered agent inquiries.

. Initiated and led a project to automate the appointment processing of

agents, including writing the proposal and selecting the vendor, which

reduced processing time by 50%.

. Managed and tracked production numbers, regularly meeting or exceeding

department standards.

. Provided information to the Compliance Department to respond to

Department of Insurance complaints and made recommendations for

satisfactory resolution of complaints.

. Collaborated with the Compliance Department to conduct market conduct

exams.

. Selected as Project Manger for several systems projects focused on

improving customer service, such as screen consolidation and automated

bonus program.

. Reviewed and revised business practices and procedures improving

production by 40%.

. Responsible for interviewing and hiring new employees.

Appraised performance, rewarded and coached employees, addressed

complaints and resolved problems.

. Assisted in preparation of the yearly budget.

Guarantee Reserve Life Insurance 1997-2001

Customer Service Supervisor

Oversaw daily operations of a national customer service call center.

. Implemented a back-end work process for phone inquiries that resulted in

an abandonment rate of 5% or less.

. Interviewed, hired and trained new employees.

. Monitored, taped and met with Representatives to review customer service

abilities and effectiveness.

Appraised performance, rewarded and coached employees and addressed

problems.

. Resolved and responded to all Insurance Department complaint inquiries.

. Acted as liaison to other departments to ensure top quality customer

service.

. Actively participated in Business Process Improvement teams to redesign

billing and implement daily EFT payments.

Vision Service Plan 1991-1997

Team Leader

Supervised daily operations of regional customer service call center.

. Enhanced quality assurance by implementing a call auditing program.

. Reorganized employee workflow, resulting in increased service levels.

. Conducted ongoing training for CSRS in current operating procedures,

systems enhancements and a variety of soft skills.

. Maintained scheduling to ensure adequate staffing needs on a day-to-day

basis.

. Intercepted escalated calls, resolving member and provider complaints.

. Answered provider inquires regarding eligibility, coverage and claim

payments.

Customer Service Representative

Assisted customers by answering coverage questions and issuing benefit

forms, specializing in managed care accounts. Issued benefit forms to

provider doctors upon request.

SPECIALIZED EDUCATION/CERTIFICATION

ACS LOMA Certification

Member of the Review Board for the revision of the LOMA ACS textbook,

September 2001 - March 2002

FLMI 280 - Fundamentals of Life and Health Insurance

FLMI 290 - Life and Health Insurance Company Operations

FLMI 301 - Insurance Administration

FLMI 310 - Life and Health Insurance Law

FLMI 320 - Marketing Life and Health

FLMI 330 - Management Principles and Practices

FLMI 340 - Information Management in Insurance Companies

FLMI 361 - Accounting and Financial Reporting in Life Insurance Companies

EDUCATIONAL SEMINARS

How to be a Successful Team Leader

How to Resolve and Handle Confrontations

Solution to Unique Management Problems of the Technical Person in a

Supervisory Position

Computer Skills

Microsoft Word and Excel; Outlook

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