Operations Leader

Christopher Russo

C: 216-***-****

**************@***.***

Profile

Call Center Leader

Banking / Financial Industry Contact Center Operations: Customer Service / Sales/Home Agent/Program Management

Expertise setting and maximizing contact center operational levers Driving underperforming sales and service centers to top-ranked business units Elevating financial performance, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement.

Career record of transformational leadership defining and executing strategies that built top-ranked contact center operations, elevated customer experiences, improved staff performance and retention, and invigorated business growth and profits.

Deep experience working across multiple lines of business in rapidly changing environments, partnering across the lines of business to drive performance and achieve engagement, productivity, quality, and cost objectives.

Proven capacity to build, motivate, and engage teams for richer and more productive performance. Champion coaching and mentoring for staff development, retention, and promotion. Drive culture of excellence with integrity and energy.

Core Competencies Include

- Contact Center Management - Strategic Planning & Execution - Performance Talent Development

- Customer Care & Technical Support - Process Improvements / Six Sigma - Employee Engagement & Coaching

- Customer Experience Excellence - Organizational Restructuring - Staff Hiring, Training, Scheduling

- Performance Metrics / KPI - Change Management / M&A - Enterprise Specific Programs / MIS

- Cost Control & Budgeting / P&L - Operations & Project Management - Retail Control Risk Management

Professional Experience

JP MORGAN CHASE, San Antonio, TX 2005–2014

Vice President Operations, Site Leadership, Home Agent &Program Management

Repatriated to Chase as key member of Inbound Retail Banking Call Center management team tasked to lead transitional and collaborative growth efforts following 2008 acquisition of Washington Mutual.

Delivered operational and strategic imperatives to transform business, support shift from sales to customer-service focus, build a culture of success through employee engagement, and optimize the customer experience across online, business, research, banking, and customer service channels. Defined and communicated clear strategy for goal attainment, collaborated across call center network, set/maximized operational levers, and leveraged resources for optimal service level agreements, reporting, and performance management processes. Direct reports 900.Operational oversight of 2,500FTE. Budget: $48M.

Drove successful integration of culture, performance, platform, and best practices through execution of core transformational strategies across 900-person call center within the first year.

Led remote agent from vision to strategic initiatives, capital accountabilities from pilot to implementation.

Led team to achieve the highest inbound customer satisfaction survey results and increased JD Power customer survey score 53 points year over year, catapulting rank from worst to #1 nationally in customer service.

Instituted customer centric scorecards that drove right behaviors and motivation through targeted KPIs.

Drove call reduction strategies and segmented customer base by asset class to meet 80/20 service levels.

Implemented IVR call routing to include telephony tools of dialers, voice messaging, and integrated voice and web analytics. Introduced online banking, mobile banking, and quick pay.

Reduced customer complaints 43% year over year through escalation process evaluations, performance reviews, employee training, and one-on-one coaching.

Created new performance expectations and world-class standards for training and development, compensation, and span of control with a balanced employee-to-manager ratio to restore team morale, engagement, and cohesion. Improved employee satisfaction and decreased voluntary attrition 25%.

Championed targeted hiring and career development of dedicated, focused employees; promoted the voice of the employee, employee engagement, mentoring relationships, and supportive team culture for goal achievement.

Attained full satisfactory audit ratings with no qualifications through newly defined retail risk assessments and stringent internal audit practices to ensure regulatory compliance.

WASHINGTON MUTUAL CORPORATION, San Antonio, TX 2005–2008

Vice President Cross-Sell & Retention / Site Leader Telephone Sales

Recruited to build and manage new service-to-sales infrastructure and team across 7 corporate sites. Supported executive vision and strategy, driving insights to implementation with full ownership of the project cycle, including measurement and execution. Created full range of program components collaborating cross-functionally. Assumed Site Leader position for inbound and outbound Telesales unit originating banking products and cross-selling mortgage and home equity products. Direct Reports: 150; operational oversight of 2,000. Operating Budget: $15M.

Built entire service-to-sales call center that realized exponential revenue growth from nothing to $275M the first year and generated a substantial profit.

Exceeded Cross-Sell & Retention metrics with offer rate 30% above expectation, and lead conversion rates at 80%.

Defined program stakeholders, measurements, milestones, products, budget, and operational goals.

Leveraged customer insights to achieve measurable results towards acquisition, cross-sell, and retention goals.

Analyzed marketplace and trends and provided influential recommendations on product offerings.

Drove corporate culture change to service-to-sales focus, developed team's sales skills, created performance matrix, built training program, and steered product rollout.

Achieved 125% to budget and delivered volume growth of 203,000 units in multiple products.

JP MORGAN CHASE, Cleveland OH/Columbus, OH 2000–2005

Customer Development Team Manager (2002–2005) / Cross Sell & Service Supervisor (2000–2002)

Managed mortgage origination call center unit and implemented Cross-Sell & Retention program. Supported $1B in sales revenues with full accountability for P&L, budgeting, sales call center operations, quality, customer care, and technical support. As key member of management team, defined vision and executed strategic business plans for process improvements, performance metrics, and strategic and tactical planning. Direct Reports: 155. Operating Budget: $4M.

Drove process improvement strategies utilizing Six Sigma methodologies to define, measure, analyze, improve, and control call center operations.

Integrated Sales and Customer Service departments, resulting in a 40% decrease in customer attrition. Trained and cross-trained customer service agents and mortgage originators to field both types of calls, thereby increasing their responsiveness to customer demands.

Developed sophisticated revenue-generating mortgage calculation tool that generated $3M in net revenue, reduced application processing time 65%+, enhanced agent professionalism, and identified product type based on customer profile; patent pending.

Automated electronic forms and processing, which, combined with modeling tool, reduced loan processing time 30%, reduced production time 50%, improved call answer rate from 80% in 60 seconds to 90% in 20 seconds, reduced error rate with greater accuracy, improved the overall customer experience, and ensured full compliance.

Achieved the highest audit compliance ratings and organizational customer satisfaction scores, trending at 95% while industry average stood at 85%.

PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE, Mayfield Heights, OH, 1996–1999

Corporate Trainer

Selected to build and launch new call center in California as integral team member. Delivered classroom training to 600+ associates, managers, executives. Promoted based on rapid achievement of Top Ten Sales status.

UNITED STATES NAVY & NAVAL RESERVE, 1985–1989,1991 active, 1996–2003 reserve

Operation Specialist, US Navy, US Naval Reserve Seabee.

Naval Marine Core Achievement Medal, Air Force Achievement Medal, National Defense Medal. Desert Storm, 1991.

Education

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA), UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX, AZ,

Associate of Arts (AA), LAKELAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE, Kirtland, OH

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