AVP, Client Services and Operations (Sales)

GURJIT S. SALUJA

** ****** *****, ********, **.

Res: 519-***-**** Cell: 519-***-****

Email: *************@*****.***

PROFILE

I am a professional, results oriented and self-driven individual with excellent communication, interpersonal and time management skills with 18+ years of progressive leadership experience in the CRM/Call Center industry that is substantiated by record growth and profitability.

• Strong record of streamlining operations, reducing costs, and increasing profitability while facilitating quality and operations improvements for both large and small organizations.

• Definitive success in start-up and turnaround situations, as well as stable business environments.

• Proven ability to combine high caliber analytic and strategic planning skills with outstanding business development and marketing expertise in both domestic and global business arenas.

• Domestic and international experience in Customer Care, Inside Sales, Technical Support, etc.

• Strategic thinker with excellent team building skills and consensus building skills oriented to drive both employee success and organizational success through high levels of engagement.

• Fast track professional who thrives on challenges and takes a hands-on leadership role to position the company for growth in a changing environment while developing employees.

• Recognized for ingenuity, integrity, and the ability to negotiate win/win scenarios.

• Exceptionally strong education with a focus on finance and accounting skills along with overall business management knowledge.

EXPERIENCE

Jan, 2005-Present NCO Group

NCO is one of the largest third party CRM call center operators and Account Receivable companies in the world servicing fortune 500 companies in Sales, customer service & helpdesk offerings.

AVP, Call Center Operations and Client Services

Manages all facets of Call Center operations for the NCO group for multiple centers on shore and off shore. Responsible for training, budgeting, staffing, scheduling, forecasting call volume, IT, HR, etc. in a fast paced Telesales and Customer Service environment including all P&L (Profit and Loss) responsibilities.

• Responsible for staffing and managing 1300+ employees across 4 locations that include On Shore, Near Shore and Off Shore locations via effective recruiting, training, retention and succession strategies in sales and support and customer service environments operating on behalf of one of the largest wireless carriers in the USA.

• Accountable for managing a $30 million P& L. Improved revenues by 18% while improving contribution margins from both cost cutting measures as well as enhancing revenue opportunities.

• Manages up to 4 Directors / General Managers, 100+ Supervisors, 13 Call Center Managers, 4 Training Managers, HR Manager, ADMIN team, IT Team, and Workforce Management.

• Responsible for growing IB operations from 275 Heads to over 550+ heads in offshore locations.

• Responsible for bringing OB business to the firm resulting in $2 million + in revenues.

• Responsible for increasing payroll efficiencies from 66% to 92% in one location while improving another location’s efficiencies by over 12% to 92% (Now a new facility standard), resulting in over $300,000 in incremental monthly revenues without any change to the cost structure.

• Responsible for the management of multiple call centers in the Philippines, Barbados, Panama, and Canada.

• Assisting in defining and executing Channel Strategies for developing and increasing new markets and insuring proper execution for incremental sales while enhancing CSAT and quality initiatives within the organization.

• Manages a general Business Telesales team (B2C, B2B) and an Enterprise Telesales team (B2B) along with various sales teams for fortune 500 clients, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days per year.

• Proven track record of driving greater revenue increases to current line of businesses.

• Continuously met and exceeded P & L responsibilities vs. budget.

• Instrumental in developing a Balanced Scorecard with key performance indicators reflective of monthly, quarterly, and annual objectives set forth by the organization resulting in a reduction in the service cost to serve customers while increasing revenues through incremental sales.

• Assists Sales Executives in RFP’s, RFQ, Sales proposals to secure additional business and/or increase size and scope of current business.

• Responsible for COPC HPMT training, Table F metrics and the establishment of policies and procedures.

• Initiated many cost reduction initiatives such as reducing idle capacities, improving billable to non billable hours while improving overall revenue opportunities such as increasing billable hours.

• Specialized expertise at an above industry level allowed for benchmarking internal performance, systems, tools, resources and processes for “best in class” techniques through various SLA’s and KPI reporting tools.

• Responsible for global expansion initiatives and strategic planning for both near term and long term initiatives within both project responsibilities and organizational parameters.

Director, Client Services & Operations

Manages and budgets all data pertaining to Call Center operations for the NCO group for 2 centers in Philippines & Canada. Directed training, budgeting, staffing, scheduling, forecasting call volume, IT, HR, etc. in a fast paced Telesales and customer service environment including all P&L (Profit and Loss) responsibilities.

• Responsible for staffing and managing a 700 employee facility & a 350 employee facility via effective recruiting and selection strategies in a sales and service environment.

• Managing a general Business Telesales team and an Enterprise Telesales team along with various sales teams for fortune 500 clients, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days per year.

• Managing both inbound and outbound call center activities providing both Customer Sales and Customer Service to both Canadian and US clients such as Sprint, Qwest, Citibank, and Bell Canada.

• Responsible for growing the IB operations from 275 Heads to over 480 + heads in offshore locations.

• Responsible for maintaining and growing on shore locations to over 350 heads.

• Responsible for the management of multiple call centers in countries like Philippines, Panama, & Canada.

• Responsible for increasing payroll efficiencies by 26% in one facility (Now a new facility standard), resulting in over $300,000 incremental monthly revenues with out any change to the cost structure.

• Instrumental in developing a Balanced Scorecard with key performance indicators reflective or monthly, quarterly, and annual objectives set forth by the organization.

• Specialized expertise at an above industry level allowed for benchmarking internal performance, systems, tools, resources and processes for “best in class” techniques through various SLA’s and KPI reporting tools.

GENERAL MANAGER, Sarnia Call Center

Manages, educates, and budgets all data pertaining to Call Centre operations for the NCO group for their 380+ seat Sarnia facility for one of the largest wireless providers in the USA on a B2B and B2C programs.

• Responsible for staffing and managing a 500 employee facility via effective recruiting and selection strategies in a sales and service environment.

• Responsible for improving sales to over $10,000,000 USD (A 15% increase) while reducing costs through better efficiency ratios (by reducing non billable activities) and improving utilization.

• Managing 20+ Supervisors, 3 Call Center Managers, a Training Manager, HR Manager, ADMIN team, IT Team, and Workforce Management.

• Introduced a performance-based report card to improve productivity for all levels of MGMT thus insuring adequate feedback and performance are measured in real time with all key performance indicators.

• Responsible for COPC HPMT training, Table F metrics and the establishment of policies and procedures.

Feb, 2002-Sept, 2004 YOUNG AMERICA CORPORATION (YA CANADA CORP.)

One of the largest rebate fulfillment houses servicing fortune 500 companies in the US market. Handling over 8 million live inbound operator calls per annum.

CALL CENTER DIRECTOR/GENERAL MANAGER, Chatham Call Center

Manages, educates, and budgets all data pertaining to Call Centre operations for Young America’s 360 seat CK facility. I am responsible for training, budgeting, staffing, scheduling, forecasting call volume, etc. in the call center.

• Managing 500 agents, 20 team leads, 6 supervisors, 3 Call Center Managers, 1 HR Manager.

• Managed all aspects of a Start-up 360 seat/500 employee call center; recruiting, training, IT, floor plans, and set up.

• Operating a 360 seat call center operating 7 days a week, 14 hours day managing over $15 Million US in Sales.

• Helped to reduce cost through various call center efficiency strategies from $0.54/handle minute to presently operating at $0.26/handle minute through the reduction of idle capacity, flexible scheduling, early releasing techniques, escalated ques, etc.

• Helped to improve busy to staff ratio by 6% resulting in a savings of $600,000 while improving call quality scores as defined by client standards.

• Aided proposal writing, contract negotiation, service enhancements, and the up selling of additional call center services.

• Managing an annual payroll of over $10 Million (approx.)

• Handling a facility running at 130% capacity with over 3.6 million calls being answered on a per annum basis with over 18 million billable handle minutes resulting in a savings of $2.7 Million via cost savings strategies.

• Experience in servicing fortune 500 companies such as but not limited to Microsoft, Verizon Wireless, Cingular, Sprint, AT&T, Nokia, Circuit City, Office Max, Lexmark, HP, Kodak, RJ Reynolds, General Mills, Pepsi, Gateway Computers, Motorola, etc.

1998-Jan, 2002 METAFORE CORPORATION (formerly, CTI SOLUTIONS GROUP)

As a member of the Microage International Network, METAFORE, formerly CTI Solutions Group is providing high technology solutions for fortune 500 companies.

SITE DIRECTOR/ SENIOR MANAGER Technical Support and Inside Sales

Manages, educates, and budgets all data pertaining to Call Centre operations.

• Responsible for managing in excess of $54 million in computer hardware and service revenue.

• Managing a customer sales team selling computer hardware solutions for fortune 500 companies; selling everything from computer desktops, to servers, to peripherals.

• Managed a technical support team servicing computer hardware solutions with service revenues of $15 million.

• Saved over $1,500,000.00/annum in call centre expenses.

• Handle all customer escalations and resolve them in a timely manner for Tier 1 help desk. Continuously illustrating excellent overall communication skills, including listening and negotiation skills.

• Managing ticket escalations from multiple locations for fortune 500 companies, assisting users from various remote locations throughout the country.

• Meeting and exceeding customer service deliverables while keeping staff motivated and enthusiastic.

• Set up the Quality Assurance initiative to insure that quality of customer service deliverables was met.

• Successful in implementing Call Centre performance measurement tools to enhance the productivity of agents on both teams while reducing costs per call by over 50%.

• Responsible for increasing number of calls answered by over 50% while reducing call answer time to 20 seconds.

• Accounted for over 15% in savings through idle time capacity utilization.

• Managing the Call Management Team handling all service billings, escalations and inquiries.

• Managing Shipping, Receiving, Parts Logistics, Returns departments for both service and procurement teams.

1994 to 1998 SITEL CORPORATION

The largest teleservices company in North America with over 6000 employees and annual sales exceeding $350 million servicing over 150 Fortune 500 clients in the area of call center services.

SITE DIRECTOR / OPERATIONS MANAGER

Manages, develops, educates, and coordinates all operational activities and communicates all data pertaining to production, quality and margins to key individuals.

• Translate client requirements into effective and profitable call center strategies while meeting and exceeding both operational and run rate efficiencies.

• Responsible for an average of $10 million in yearly sales resulting from above average performance.

• Managing, developing, coaching and training the staff of a 100+ seat call center that includes 250 Customer Care Associates & 25 Management staff.

• Managing an $80,000/weekly payroll.

• Held interim responsibilities managing and training and scheduling and billing staff of multiple call centers in Canada. Locations included Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal.

• Continual development of products and services with above average results for premier companies such as: AT&T, CIBC, Citibank, Bell Canada, Sprint Canada, Royal Bank, Rogers, Nynex/Bell Atlantic, MCI.

TRAINING MANAGER

Manage, direct and control all aspects of training and development operations to ensure growth, profitability and overall efficiency.

• Provide computer training on Microsoft Works (windows) and the Davox Predictive Dialer System.

• Taught probing and problem solving skills, consultative sales, customer service skills & product training.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• CURRENT Member of the Kensington Advisory Board Testing and advising on the development of new technological products as they enter/before they enter the market. Performing development analysis.

• Brought Net new business to the firm in the 7 figure range.

• Created Key Performance Indicator Report Cards for the effective measurement and feedback of productivity at all levels of managements.

EDUCATION

1989 to 1994 YORK UNIVERSITY

DEGREE: BACHELOR OF ADMINISTRATIVE STUDIES (HONORS)

• Major is accounting with concentration in finance

DEGREE: BACHELOR OF ADMINISTRATIVE STUDIES Concentration in Marketing

CERTIFICATE: BUSINESS MANAGEMENT (ALSO FROM YORK UNIVERSITY)

PUBLICATIONS

Cost accounting case study published in “Current Trends and Traditions in Management Accounting," published in 1994, a required text for third year university students.

TECHNOLOGY

Avaya, Aspect, IEX VERINT, NICE Davox Predictive Dialer

Taske Telephony Reporting Tools Nortel Symposium TCS Workforce Management,

Meridian Telephony Equipment Canadian Dialer ACD and IVR based applications

REFERENCES

Available upon request

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