Customer Service Sales

RICHARD OLEJNICZAK

Arlington Heights, IL ● lj46ux@r.postjobfree.com ● 847-***-****

SENIOR BUSINESS OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE

Growth-focused and profit-driven bilingual executive with more than 15 years of progressive success launching and directing successful multi-state organizations, defining strategies for operational and financial results, partnering with sales on the delivery of new products and services based on Margins and ROI. Offers proven track record of improving performance of customer care by implementing insightful, innovative approaches as well as metric based proactive policies and procedures.

Drives global resource strategy to maximize productivity and contain operating costs. Effectively draws on cross-functional leadership successes in direct customer facing teams (i.e. call center, field technicians, billing operations, underwriting) and staff areas (i.e. force utilization, service order processing, customer relationship management) to design, lead and implement business process changes to meet future business needs.

Confidently oversee diverse teams of several hundred, empowering employees with the future vision to realize their potential and deliver world-class, hands-on customer service. Proactively resolve pressing customer issues via face to face interactions to maintain satisfaction and enhance service levels. MBA and West Point graduate.

Change Management Restructuring/Transformation Communications

Project Management Team Leadership Process Improvement

Vendor Relations KPI Development Expense Control

P&L Responsibilities Needs Assessment System Design

Strategic Planning Customer Service Policy Development

Multi-State Operations Performance Metrics Definition Revenue & Profit Growth

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Trustmark Companies, Lake Forest, IL 2009 to Present

Insurance and benefit administration provider offering life and health insurance, health call center services, and integrated employee health improvement services. Employs over 6,000 individuals with $1B in annual revenues.

2VP, OPERATIONS & PROJECT OFFICE

Selected with full responsibility to build the Divisional Project Management Office and correct and complete the Life Insurance Company of New York creation project.

Continued by leading staff of over 70 associates + P&L responsible for delivering customer service contact in cross functional areas of Individual Underwriting, Agent Commissions (~$60mm) and Licensing, Divisional Project Office and Business Data Support. Drove organizational changes and process redesign efforts, leveraging the “Theory of Constraints” and Six Sigma tenants; with a focus on customer service metrics, increasing new sales implementations and revenue stream growth (~$250mm) through retention initiatives and direct interaction with Sales and end customers (agents, employers & employees).

Drives and delivers business-critical, business and technology initiatives and results:

• Reduced costs by $5M by re-factoring internal Enrollment System Development Project to a vended solution to re-focus on long term strategy and meet immediate customer needs.

• Completed and operationalized The Life Insurance Company of NY project, attaining 1st call response per plan. Delivery resulted in over $1mm in cost savings.

• Co-Led development of national broker sales strategy. Successfully negotiated and signed agreement with leading national broker with new product model.

• Reduced budget by over $400K through new training processes and “Value Add Task” review in customer contact areas; while maintaining customer call service metrics during seasonal incoming load variations.

• Successfully stopped costly compliance projects. Collaborated with Legal on HIPAA, ICD 10, and Premium Trust regulations and determined that projects were actually not needed. Compliance actions were cancelled.

• Developed financial model depicting long term margin impact to new sales enrollment options.

Continued

RICHARD OLEJNICZAK • Arlington Heights, IL • lj46ux@r.postjobfree.com • 847-***-****

• Restructured Claim Check Processes after customer call and metric reviews: NPV $300K.

• Revamped customer document and distribution processes focused on customer needs resulting in over $120k in savings through process, vendor and system enhancements.

• Operationalized Life, Health and Wellness service offering, developed and negotiated customer and vendor contracts, invoicing process and customer service enabling $20,000 revenue in Q1 ‘12.

CNA Financial, Chicago, IL 2004 to 2009

Provider of property and casualty insurance products in the United States with revenues of $10B.

AVP - CLIENT EXECUTIVE (CUSTOMER FACING OPERATIONS) (2007 to 2009)

Promoted to increase performance of customer service, contact processes and systems for Billing and Collections spread across the US. Refined and integrated customer service strategic plan focused on driving customer experience across three main service locations (~400 seat) in a non-scripted environment.

Continuously improved processes, performance, and productivity:

• Collaborated with business leadership to integrate multi-state IT operations increasing capacity by 22% resulting in exceeded financial metrics of Past Due and Statutory over Ninety, operational targets of FTE reductions and service revenue growth.

• Enabled 27% reduction in project cost by identifying solution alternatives and data analysis related to marketing, technology, customer service operations. Resulting in early benefit and project delivery.

• Created unique information exchange with #1 competitor despite resistance. Successfully established collaborative exchange on improving business processes and issue resolution.

DIRECTOR, BILLING (CUSTOMER CONTACT) (2004 to 2007)

Recruited to address $1B “Risk Management” LOB issues, encompassing complex Large-Deductible, Retrospective, and Self-Insured retention insurance plans. Directed billing operations staff of 120 with a $15M budget across all business lines in a geographically dispersed, multi-unit operation responsible for customer service and issue resolution with customers on contractually complex invoicing processes.

• Created $5.4mm in annual increased investment income potential through operational improvements in decreasing manual invoice creation cycle time from 100 to 14 days utilizing the “Theory of Constraints” methods.

• Reduced average “day’s sales outstanding” by over 15 days through improved processes and system flows focusing on critical choke points and effectiveness.

• Created the vision and was the Business Lead of a $20 million customer servicing system that provided $6.3 million in annual savings. Wrote the requirements for the customer interaction portal.

• Strengthened tenured staff’s internal satisfaction by over 40% through Quality Assurance initiatives resulting in a 14% increase in externally assessed quality.

• Identified and implemented $250k in printing savings through paper reduction efforts.

SBC Communications-AT&T, IL 1995 to 2004

Largest communications holding company in the world; currently operating globally under the AT&T brand.

DIRECTOR, REGIONAL FORCE LOAD (2003 to 2004)

Selected to create the first five-state field force utilization team. Directed the daily work-load of over 9,000 unionized Field Technicians and 6 Call Centers (800 seat) in improving the customer service experience and externally measured quality. Set labor force allocations on 7x24x365 installation/repair service requests and capital projects, as well as originated daily plans to meet customer commitments and budget targets. Negotiated work rule changes with the IBEW and CWA to meet customer needs and lower operational costs.

• Developed and launched a regional work force model improving response time to customer requests by 40% resulting in increased overall productivity and regulatory commitments while reducing overtime and shift differentials.

• Created a disaster support and recovery plan to dispatch technicians to areas of need in event of hurricanes and other natural disasters. Plan was accepted and enacted in support of Hurricane Katrina recovery.

• Established contacts within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-NOAA to study trends in weather patterns and hurricanes. Developed capital improvement plan for the Ohio River Valley including moving technicians to high-need areas. Improved regulatory results in the area by over 50%.

Continued

RICHARD OLEJNICZAK • Arlington Heights, IL • lj46ux@r.postjobfree.com • 847-***-****

AREA MANAGER, NETWORK CUSTOMER CENTERS AND FIELD FORCE (2002 to 2003)

Led resolution of union issues and performance issues in a 240-member multi-site call center operation responsible for dispatching and managing customer service requests covering a 600 square mile territory and 900 field employees. Championed development of managers into leaders to embody the main thing: “Customer Service” and the resultant impact to service offering and budget and productivity targets.

• Rectified troubled relationship between union and management, enabling a 17% productivity increase within a team of 150 telecommunication field technicians on complex telecommunication services.

• Lowered cycle time from over 2 days to 8 hours on customer service requests for underground telephone cable identification (JULIE) through the development of a web based interface.

• Led the closure of two separate 60-member call centers and work transition to consolidated center. Increased efficiency by 25% and service levels by 15% through work definition and shift structure change.

DIRECTOR, IT DATA MANAGEMENT, SERVICE RESULTS & PROCESS IMPROVEMENTS (1998 to 2001)

Selected to lead a 114-member, five-state cross-functional team that designed and implemented customer requested data changes in various billing sub-systems.

• Initiated a consolidation of developers resulting in a 30% increase in productivity and a 50% decrease in resource utilization through new work development teams spread across three states within seven months.

• Launched and delivered a web-based interface site that allowed end-users to make changes directly within the systems, altering responsiveness from days to hours across five legacy mainframe systems and platforms.

DIRECTOR, SERVICE ORDER PROCESS (1995 to 1998)

Progressed from a manager role to a director role. Led the development of cross-departmental ownership methods focused on improving incoming call service order entry flow. Increased organizational focus on “day sales outstanding” and unit cost of Service Order Errors to drive system changes and reduce volume by 15%.

• Led the development, implementation and integration of the Customer Archive Retrieval System (an on-line GUI record retention system, replacing microfiche) across five business units with over 6,000 service representatives. Managed the deliverables and integration of five vendors.

Military Service, United States Army & Army Reserve 1991 to 2005

MAJOR, Earned “RANGER” Tab, Airborne & Air Assault Badges and received multiple medals and awards for multi-national operations and leadership at NATO conference. Awarded the Army Achievement and Commendation Medals for successful planning and execution of deployments to Kuwait & Saudi Arabia. Streamlined deployment sequence, increasing efficiency by 40%. Served as liaison to all foreign dignitaries on combat engineer utilization and effort for all US ground forces. Top Secret Security Clearance

EDUCATION

Master of Business Administration, DePaul University

Master of Engineering Management, Northwestern University

Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering, United States Military Academy, West Point

PROFESSIONAL DESIGNATION

Fellow Life Management Institute Designation: Completing Health Insurance Professional Designation

Member Voluntary Benefit Association Steering Committee

Member LIMRA / LOMA - Enrollment Specifications

Member PMI – Chicago Chapter

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