Customer Service Sales

DARLENE KEOLA

*** *****

Glen Ellyn, IL *****

Cell: 916-***-**** E-mail: abno0a@r.postjobfree.com

Skill Summary:

• Experience with several 24x7 global customer care and contact center multi-site start ups

(400+ seats each site), including CRM, IVRs, facilities, skills-based routing and resource

management in virtual and brick-mortar union and non-union environments, supporting multi-

clients. Set footprint for rapid and scalable growth.

• Responsible for client management for 700+ clients with several shared services

enterprises. Marquee clients included Blue Shield/Blue Cross ($75MM), Delta Dental ($75MM)

Ford Motor Company ($350MM), Delta Airlines ($75MM), N.Y. Times ($25MM), Sanyo

Electronics ($15MM) and Bank of America ($75MM).

• Account/client management responsibilities including:

• Contract management with all invoicing and payments accurately processed

• Clear and concise understanding of customer requirements to ensure meeting

or exceeding client expectations (goals and objectives)

• Open and professional relationship with client including weekly and monthly

proactive communication meetings

• Weekly and monthly scorecards and reports validating exceptional quality,

performance and customer satisfaction

• Highly responsive quality support, onsite and offsite

• Increase revenues and manage account profitability

• Exceptional client satisfaction and client retention

• Six Sigma, TQM and ISO9000 training and experience.

• Managed all aspects of call center operations including staffing, training, QA, WFM,

Sales Ops, IT, facilities and program management, including bi-lingual Spanish, Cantonese

and Mandarin speakers.

• Vertical expertise includes technical support (sfw/hdw, telephony, desktop)

telecommunications, ISP, financial services, technology, supply chain/warehousing, healthcare

and consulting industries.

• Leadership and interpersonal skills: dynamic personality able to influence and lead

people by interacting with a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders. Excellent

collaboration skills: takes time to explain the “how and why”. Senior resource for processes.

Always available to direct and indirect staff for questions or concerns; listens well. Ensured

quality interaction with clients, associate satisfaction and operational effectiveness. Ongoing

mentoring, coaching and development of leadership staff. Identified opportunities for growth

and learning. Assisted in skills assessment and delivering feedback . Promotes retention of key

resources.

• Developed and implemented key metrics for measuring success and employee

development. Created and maintained a high performance, dynamic and engaged customer

focused team. When staff are comfortable with their role, responsibility and contribution to goals

and results, exemplary team results are achieved including high employee morale, high quality

and overall job satisfaction.

• Strategic thinker developing strategy and executing against a detailed plan; anticipating

future needs and trends. Articulates a vision of possibilities at all levels of the organization with

conviction and professionalism.

• Reported KPI’s including identifying and explaining P&L variances. Performed cost

benefit analysis and identified cost efficiencies and savings opportunities. Collaborated with

upstream and downstream partners to develop, execute and achieve cost controls and

efficiencies with improvement initiatives. Led new initiatives, set goals, achieved results and

celebrated successes.

• Responsible for high transaction processing operations including technical support,

claims, sales/order entry, billing, AP/AR, collections, order/enrollment and

grievances/complaints.

• Daily, weekly and monthly reporting including executive scorecards (ASA, SVL, ABN,

QA, FCR, CPC, CPM) and agent performance.

• Workforce management (I.E.X., Blue Pumpkin, Aspect) including forecasting, scheduling,

recruiting, budgeting, planning.

• Identified and implemented appropriate technologies which improved operational

effectiveness and efficiency while improving member’s experience.

• Change management including user buy-in, re-engineered processes by and retraining

users. Repeat change management cycle as often as necessary.

• Improved productivity, quality, revenues, decreased costs and increased bottom line for

$30mil+ budget. Developed budgets and managed P&L’s.

• Responsibility for 3 large multi-site, multi-country, global support organizations.

• Managed large outsource relationships on 4 continents, 10 countries, creating virtual

contact centers. Offshore relationships (Philippines, Malaysia, China and India). Onshore and

offshore BPO.

• Developed and implemented cross functional project and program leadership including

large client pilots and launches.

• Extensive experience with new product rollout from inception through change

management, training, roll out and support. Actively worked on increasing “take rate”.

• Responsible for Service Level Agreements compliance with $2mil+ monetary penalties.

• Established customer satisfaction programs in several organizations and led Voice of the

Customer for the enterprise.

Selected Achievements:

• Implemented SAP, Octane/e.piphany, Siebel, Pega, Vantive, Remedy and 8 legacy

CRM, Knowledge Warehouse, Merced, Aspect WFM and 2 global Customer Satisfaction

programs.

• Led global environment for 3M+ members through 8 direct report managers, 20 indirect

reports and 1500+ virtual contact center agents, including 800+ 1st and 2nd Level technical help

desk agents, sales, billing, claims and customer service, in 14 call center sites including 2 India

locations.

• Over 8 months, built European(UK/France/Ireland/Germany) and Asian

(Singapore/Australia) virtual contact center startups handling technical, sales, new member and

customer care contacts

• Led due diligence team to evaluate, select and begin offshore partnerships in India for

50%+ cost savings with no service degradation.

• Developed and administered cross-functional projects that offered continuous

improvement for customer care and increased member satisfaction.

• Documented personal customer care and retention results publicized in an independent

management training periodical.

• Multi-tasked and goal-oriented focus ensured that over 35,000 inbound and outbound

calls were handled daily within a 99% service level utilizing skill based routing. Insured high

close and up-sell revenue by utilizing ongoing internal as well as client monitoring, training and

quality programs. Handled up to 100% swings in daily call volumes to accommodate broadcast

business to quickly ramp up with temp-to-hire staff.

• Weekly up-sell coaching for performance which increased up-sell results over 50% and

skill based teams to best handle clients and customer needs, increasing close and up-sell

results. Implemented blended agent process and “Save the Sale” teams.

Professional Experience:

1/09-Present Self Employed Consultant

Program and Project Management with previous clients

2/06-12/08 Kaiser Permanente (largest national HMO healthcare provider), Central Valley, CA

Site Director/Call Center Manager

• Site executive leading nationwide 300 seat contact center with 250+unionized agents, 40 non-

union staff plus 25 managers for 6MM+ members.

• Managed 15,000+ nationwide email, web and phone billing, collections, Medicare, claims,

enrollment, benefit, grievance/complaint and technical support contacts daily.

• Member of national Customer Service Strategic Team.

• Key contributor to regional quality oversight committees

• Worked closely with upstream and downstream partners to decrease handoffs and errors

• Member of California Quality Service Team.

6/01 – 2/06 ea-Inc., Folsom, CA (SAP Integrator and IBM Hosting Partner)

Senior Director

• Built global shared services division that supported clients and Company, out of 3 sites; Folsom,

California, Shanghai, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

• Developed technical Help Desks, multiple customer care centers, global client services and

customer satisfaction processes and procedures to support SAP K-12, local and state

government, commercial, utility and AS400 ASP client expectations including McKesson

Pharmaceutical and the State of California with 250+ agents.

• Managed client profitability by project and program. Ensured weekly and monthly scorecards

for KPI’s and customer satisfaction published for internal and external clients.

• Held Executive Project Director role for the most successful SAP implementation in California.

12/99 – 7/01 PeoplePC, San Francisco, CA

Global Senior Director

• Built global shared services division from start up over 12 months, on 4 continents and 10

countries handling 25K+ calls/emails daily, with 1200+ technical, sales, billing and customer

care agents in a virtual environment with $30mil+ P&L responsibility

• Set strategic direction for PeoplePC to provide world-class, customer-centric service and

achieved quarterly and annual service and revenue objectives ensuring minimal customer churn

• Reviewed sales and service cost and budget activity records and reports and provided on-going

performance feedback to Field Support team as well as call center leaders

• Worked with field support team and call center leaders to ensure broadcast call spikes were

adequately staffed ensuring performance and sales goals were met.

10/98 – 6/99 Fortune 800 (Outsource Call Center), El Dorado Hills, CA

Director of Operations (Company bankrupt/sold)

• Led 700+employees in an inbound and outbound 345+ seat shared services call center; 12

direct report managers and 15 fulfillment/distribution, 20 mailroom/check clearing, 15 outbound,

700+ sales, billing and customer care agents and 2 telecom services.

• Led operational relationships with Fortune 500 clients including Delta Dental, Intel, The Learning

Company, Sierra Software, EA Sports, Sony and many vitamin and nutritional companies.

Education:

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia

Darden School of Business, MBA program

Chaminade University, Honolulu, Hawaii

Bachelor of Science, Business Administration

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