Customer Service Commissioned Officer

CRAIG A. LESTER

**** ********** **. ***********, ***** Carolina 29485

720-***-**** ***************@*****.***

OBJECTIVE

To secure a position where I can use my years of leadership and business diversity, to build and grow your company and continue to grow and learn for myself. The opportunity to gain experience and take on more responsibility are keys to success, seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions, I will strive to instill this attitude in my teams. Growing the leaders of tomorrow is my passion.

SKILLS & ABILITIES

Supplied Leadership over the Operation Department for 2 Directors, 6 Managers, thirty support staff and over 800 CDL drivers. Oversaw and built out annual budget for over 150 million in revenue, lived in our P and L to set and reset daily, weekly, and Monthly goals.

Optimized transportation network to maximize fleet utility and improve customer service. Provided coaching and Leadership for all Customer Service departments. My CSR team prospected new freight, tracked, and communicated hourly with our customers.

Developed and implemented department safety program including safety reporting and daily/weekly safety meetings. DOT/ CSA/ HOS/ FMCSA and driver fitness are the keys metrics.

Highly Skilled at Networks and running of planning areas.

AS 400, Netgraf, Bluetree, FleetOPS, Map Graphics and Work Hound I am highly skilled. Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint I am proficient.

Customer Service: It all starts with positive energy in all interactions with all customers. Whether that is a driver, restaurant customer, teammate or vendor, all interaction needs to be positive. People do not always remember what you say but they always remember how you made them feel.

EXPERIENCE

Oct 2011-Mar 2022

Director of Operations, Navajo Express

·Guided our Operations team in building a dedicated lane in three regions simultaneously. Three fleets of twenty-five that run local and regional lanes, the dedicated capacity had an immediate positive impact for the customer, adding $20 million annually in revenue to Navajo.

·Streamlined the Operation Department, creating a flow of information and checks balances that increased the on-time service for all Top 25 customers by 12 percent, while slashing our labor by 15 percent.

·Able to supply added capacity to our partners and get relocation increases and maintain the committed capacity.

·Increased our footprint with National Beef, Tyson, JBS and Seaboard Foods. This increased our revenue by $11 million annually and reduced “empty miles” by 2.6 percent.

·Converted our operation from 95 percent of the employees working on site, pre pandemic, to over 60 percent working from home during the Pandemic. Integrated that team back to the office, post Pandemic with no loss of staff.

·Restructured our KPI’s from being feel based and reactive to real time dashboards for Driver Leaders and Planners. With daily/weekly coaching, this measure improved utilization by 12 percent and decreased OTR Deadhead 7 percent.

·Developed a Safety-first atmosphere, moved our Safety Managers to sit with our driver Leaders and Operation team. This led to Navajo reducing ALL reportable DOT violations last years, improving our CSA scores in ALL areas.

May 2009-Sep 2011

Food and Beverage Director, Holiday Inn Denver Central

·Directed the over all growth of the Restaurant, Nightclub/Bar, and the Banquets spaces. Coached and trained 3 managers and 6 supervisors and over 50 cooks, servers, bartenders, and security personnel.

·Restructured the Bar and night club to increase sales by 24% and slashed alcohol related incidents by 43%. Communication, teamwork, and instilling ownership in the staff created a much safer and more profitable business.

· Recorded record-breaking sales and guest satisfaction scores for our 4 peak events: Denver Stock Show, Rock and Mineral Show, New Year’s Eve Gala and The Summer Wedding Season. First Time in Holiday Inn Denver Central to have two consecutive years on 20 percent growth over previous year.

·Worked closely with our sales team to increase the traffic for people not staying at the Holliday Inn to come in for lunch and dinner from 8 percent of sales to 20 percent of sales. Created a happy hours Tapas menu and a lunch buffet that drove repeat customers back 2 to 3 days a week. Done through a combination of door-to-door prospecting, social media and providing great food and friendly guest first service.

·Built our Annual Budget for the Food and Beverage Division. Communicated and taught all levels the importance of staying on budget and exceeding all P and L goals.

June 2008- Sep 2011

District Manager, McCabe’s Irish Bistro/Joey’s Burger’s/Azzurri Cafe

·Hired and trained all Managers and Chef’s for three start up restaurants located in the Southlands Mall in Aurora CO. 5 Managers and 2 chefs. We created the Menu’s and price point for the restaurants and Developed a Marketing strategy for all three.

·Built a sustainable and growing Market for all three restaurants. Azzurri opened early to take advantage of the morning Commute coffee and Bagel crowd. Joey’s was a Gourmet Burger place, our two keys where speed and quality, lunch rush and weekend family was our strongest customer base. McCabe’s was a Large Irish Bistro we staffed to handle Lunch, Dinner, and Late-Night Live music pub business.

·Cross trained all front of house and back of house employees to work in all three of the pods, reduced costs and increased employee wages and satisfaction by being able to flow staff to handle rushes and peaks. St. Patrick’s Day, Fourth of July, and Black Friday all presented huge opportunities to capture revenue and to build our base. We had to be ready and willing to go the extra mile to gain following during these peak times. We saw huge increases in in sales during and most importantly after these key events each year.

·Coached and trained staff on State Health codes and Liquor handling procedures. Profits being our motivator with ethics and legality being our guide. We did not have a liquor or significant Health code violation in the time I was there, we built a strong clientele and continued to grow.

·Budgeting and P and L where keys to our success, daily pre-shift meetings and weekly one on one coaching and scenario role play, where instrumental in building our core of loyal and happy customer base.

Oct 1999-June 2008

General Manager, Pitcher’s Sports Restaurant/Score’s/ Arena Sport’s Bar

·Created a unique concept in Lakewood CO. Due to the location of the Restaurant and the proximity to local office buildings we pushed our Lunch business from an average of 1,200 dollars a shift to an average of 4,200 dollars a lunch shift. Done though a combination providing fast quality service in house, starting a 2-mile delivery service and developing a catering business designed for us to deliver, set up and let them self-serve.

·Built our office Christmas party business from one or two functions a year to be over 45 a year and became a “Signature event” for the customer.

·Brought in Denver Bronco’s, Colorado Avalanche, and Denver Nugget players and coaches for live media events that built our reputation as a Sports Bar and created a huge revenue stream.

·Organized and Marketed Golf League and Soft Ball sponsorship [ programs that brought in huge groups of clientele weekly and monthly.

·Controlled costs and increased customer satisfaction with daily pre-shift meeting and coached all Bartenders and Servers on proper serving techniques, a client that is having a great time is an assert a client that is over served is an anchor to all patrons and a liability. We must hold ourselves and the customers to a high standard.

·Hired, trained and led a security team of up to 12 personnel, during our late night Club/DJ/Live Music nights. Safety and Welfare of all guests and Patrons being priority one.

EDUCATION

High School Diploma, Irmo High School

US ARMY, Recruiting School, Recruiting Station Commander Course, Armor crew Man School, Watercraft Operator, Watercraft Advanced, Watercraft Commanders Course, Primary Leadership Developments Course, Basic Non-Commissioned Offers course.

COMMUNICATION

Enthusiastic about speaking in front of large audiences. As a recruiter in the Army, I would speak to auditoriums of 200 to 300 students once a month. At Navajo I gave our orientation class twice a week on Operations and on the MEAT Department.

Exceptionally good with drivers and staff, at Navajo they called me the “Driver Whisperer” I was able to pass that on to my team over time. Directional Empathy: set up rapport, find the true objection, manage the objection, and create the buy in on the goal to be reached, track the progress, follow up and show appreciation.

Firm believer that positive reinforcement and praise are more meaningful in the long term: Insisted that my driver leaders track their drivers daily, looking at hire dates, birthdays and when their drivers went beyond expectation, wishing them happy birthday, thanking them for being there another year and pointing out the exceptional. You inspect what you expect and say “excellent job” when one is done.

LEADERSHIP

I have been in leadership roles since I was 22 years old. I have made mistakes over the years, and I have learned from those mistakes. I feel the last 10 years at Navajo have refined my leadership skills and allowed me to put my ego aside for the benefit of the team and the accomplishment of the goals of the team. I have recently moved back to South Carolina, and I look forward to the opportunity to lead in my professional life and in the community, I have moved back to, this is my home, and I am Thankful to be back.

I have leadership experience as a Non-Commissioned officer in the U.S. Army, I have led groups as small as 3 to groups as large as 300 in the Army. I have led under a safe controlled environment, and I have led in Live real-world hair on fire missions. I am not easily rattled and can maintain my demeanor and professionalism in almost any scenario. I have led in the Restaurant and Bar business and have grown some very successful businesses and young people. I have also Led a group of over a 1000 people to service the food supply business in my role as a director of a trucking company. The Pandemic was especially challenging for the trucking business, but it was a great time to show America what a trucking company can be with the right team and the right Leadership or team of critical personnel keep our kept the freight moving and grew our business during these highly challenging last 3 years.

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