Sales Customer Service

THOMASINE SMITH

Richmond, Virginia Area

804-***-**** **********@***.***

DIRECTOR OPERATIONS / CUSTOMER SERVICE

Know your customer, know the potential of your people, and know your job 10 levels deep.

Direct development and execution of timely, actionable market and customer insights to grow the business, enhance the

customer experience, drive customer loyalty and reinforce the brand. Reengineer processes to improve productivity, quality,

sales and profits. In depth training and experience with setting high performance standards and coaching/developing people

both poor and top performers to realize and work to their potential.

Demonstrated strengths:

Optimizing customer experience, index ratings & retention by motivation to build high performing teams

understanding what customers want/how they feel &

Communicating and implementing corporate initiatives

consistently responding/delivering

Quality assurance management

Leading large scale & multi location call centers Establishing strong partnerships with internal and

external customers

Employee performance development, training, mentoring &

Budget/expense management/cost control

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

VERIZON (formerly Bell Atlantic), Richmond, VA

Director National Sales Support 6/2006 7/2010

Established disciplined governance structure for launching marketing products in 3 major sales channels that

led to 30% improvement in quality scores. Managed customer insight data to drive sales close rates up by 16%.

Led teams that optimized sales close rates. Assured quality of product launch execution. Monitored product launch customer

response data and performance of agents/reps. Provided feedback to sales groups on competitive comparisons, agent training

needs, and marketing scripting impact. Managed up to 35 staff, 40 contractors and outsourcing vendor. Program managed all

major vendor sales initiatives.

Implemented and managed employee performance plans, career development programs and and pay for performance

compensation awards.Managed $50M expense budget and $5M 3 year vendor budget.

Improved sales close rates on broadband product suite by 22% over 2 year period.

•

Migrated quality monitoring functions to outsourcing vendor to increase capacity, with 25% y/y rise in national call

•

observations, while delivering robust customer behavior data and key representative performance analysis.

Established discipline governance process to manage execution of products (115 launches) into sales channels.

•

Achieved 98% quality success rate over 2 year period.

Directed group that monitored and ensured adherence to regulatory requirements. Implemented processes that

•

improved rate of compliance to sales regulatory requirements from 75% to 94% (2008 10).

Led initiative that provided on site coaching support to sales centers not meeting sales targets. Resulted in 23%

•

improvement (from 3rd to 4th quarter) in broadband daily sales results.

Human Resource Support:

Established yearly performance objectives and career plans with each team member. Conducted monthly review

•

sessions to provide coaching and feedback against objectives. 99% of employees met/exceeded year end objectives.

Coordinated training for ~ 100 consumer and business sales channels. Communicated, scheduled and tracked

•

prioritized training initiatives with internal channel teams, marketing and product line marketing. Consistently

exceeded 80% training target.

Director Mid Atlantic Support Sales Support Call Centers 12/03 6/2006

Led 8 regional sales support call centers in reengineering operational processes that improved service order

fall out by 21%. Established 2 regional centers of excellence that served as the national model for processing

consumer and business broadband sales orders.

Directed team of ~ 40 management and 687 hourly employees in back office operations of service order error fall out,

customer resolutions, service orders processing and customer product support. Led corporate initiatives designed to

communicate corporate values and objectives, drive productivity improvements and increase employee job satisfaction results.

Managed $32M+ expense budget.

Implemented corrective action processes that generated 21.3% improvement in service order fall out.

•

Exceeded productivity targets by 110%+ yearly 2004 2006.

•

Established “Center of Excellence” for handling broadband orders which resulted in a 20% improvement in customer

•

due dates met.

Human Resource Support:

• Created employee partnership programs that increased satisfaction survey results from 79% to 95%.

• Improved attendance performance of hourly employees in unionized environment 20% by establishing partnerships

with union officials and implementing employee action initiatives.

• Established Regional Mentoring Program to assist employees with career development and continuing education.

• Established regional recognition program that received a 95% approval rating from hourly and management

employees

Director Service Activation & Fulfillment 7/2003 12/2003

Saved $1M annual expense and increased productivity and accuracy by improving processes for marketing

fulfillment delivery and service orders.

Directed management team providing service activation of long distance sales from service order entry to bill establishment.

Managed operation that delivered marketing fulfillment to local and long distance customers. Resolved high level customer

escalations. Developed and improved processes and quality standards. Managed 60 direct/indirect reports and $26M

fulfillment budget.

Saved $1M annual expense and reduced customer inquiries by simplifying process for

•

delivering marketing fulfillment materials to local and long distance customers

(merging long distance calling cards with customer letters).

Implemented end to end LD service order monitoring processes that reduced error fall

•

out 8%.

Director Receivables Management Verizon Long Distance 6/2000 6/2003

Key collaborator in successful launch of long distance products in 13 states. Led improvements in $100M

annual long distance billing and receivables operations that identified and corrected process gaps to generate

$12M revenue increase over 2 year period.

Directed billing and receivables for Verizon Long Distance Business Services. Included: billing and credit prescreening

processes; resolving issues with customers and IT; establishing and measuring performance and quality assurance metrics;

overseeing vendor payments and settlements; ensuring accuracy/timeliness of customer bills; managing costs. Managed 60

direct and indirect reports and $100M budget.

Led consolidation of Verizon Lond Distance billing and receivables processes into Verizon core business unit.

•

Improvements in billable yield process over 2 year period resulted in $12M+ revenue increase.

•

Led usage revenue assurance audit project that audited end to end usage processing. Identified and corrected billing

•

issue that improved revenue by $1M annually.

Reduced uncollectible dollars by 1.2% y/y.

•

Manager Business Products Sales and Sales Support Call Center 7/1999 5/2000

Bell Atlantic General Business Service

Met or exceeded all objectives for sales and sales support of high end business products.

Managed team of ~ 115 employees. Included coaching and development, project management, call quality metrics, force

requirments and business process engineering.

Highlights of prior Verizon/Bell Atlantic experience:

Managed 5 call centers/385 employees handling residential billing and receivable accounts over 2 state area.

•

Improved productivity 13%, reduced regulatory complaints 48% and achieved outstanding customer service index

ratings.

Recovered $10M+ in annual net bad debt while achieving highest customer service index in nation.

•

Innovated credit screening process that reduced fraudulent account activity 17% annually.

•

EDUCATION / PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

MBA Strayer University (2004)

BA Business Administration Strayer University

Leadership Development:

Leadership Challenge Development Program Wharton School of Business

Understanding Yourself as a Leader University of Richmond

Leading People into the Future University of Richmond

Washington Seminar of Leadership for the Millennium The Brookings Institute

Leadership Development Program National Leadership Institute

Business Acumen PACE University

Strategic Planning University of Richmond

Leadership for Extraordinary Performance Darden School of Business

Management Courses:

Project Management

Managing and Leading High Performance Teams in a Team Based Organization

THOMASINE SMITH - PAGE 3 OF 3

Contact this candidate