CAROL GILBERT

159 Murray Drive

Oceanside, New York 11572
cg72d082@westpost.net
H: 516.705.5175
M: 516.313.8095

CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER

Technical Support / Call Center / Help Desk / Service Desk / Client Services
Highly accomplished professional with a distinguished 15+-year career building,
expanding and optimizing customer service organizations to achieve results and e
nable continued business growth.
Successful in defining and implementing technologies, standards and best practic
es to enhance average speed to answer, improve resolution metrics and increase o
verall customer satisfaction.
Strategic analyst, planner and problem solver with superior communication skills
. Strength in understanding customer's needs and issues, and implementing effect
ive solutions to strengthen customer service and retention.
Natural team leader with proven ability to motivate, energize and achieve succes
s. Noted for ability to build high-performance and flexible teams that work at o
ptimum levels, improving performance of team effort.

CORE COMPETENCIES
-----------------
* Defining and aligning support organizations with evolving corporate, business
and customer service objectives.
* Managing the build out, expansion, integration and optimization of customer se
rvice teams, processes and standards.
* Establishing and leading global support teams in consistently exceeding establ
ished business and service goals.
* Forging relationships and establishing consensus with teams and leadership acr
oss multiple organizational levels.
* Delivering high standards of performance under constantly changing business an
d customer environments.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
=======================
THOMSON REUTERS / THOMSON FINANCIAL / ILX SYSTEMS - NEW YORK, NY - 1992-PREENT
Built an impressive record of achievements through a series of increasingly resp
onsible positions for these leading providers of intelligence to businesses and
individuals. Originally recruited by ILX Systems and was kept on and promoted fo
llowing merger with parent company Thomson Financial and subsequent merger with
Reuters.
MANAGER OF TECHNICAL SUPPORT (2007-PRESENT)
Promoted and given responsibility for the integration, optimization and manageme
nt of technical support operations servicing global 250,000 customers as company
merged with Thomson Financial and subsequently Reuters.
Provide leadership and framework to actively identify needs, resolve critical is
sues, and align support strategies with evolving business and customer service g
oals. Introduce new and enhance existing processes to support offshoring of tech
nical support operations while maintaining established call response and resolut
ion metrics for 6 product offerings. Hold complete oversight for team of 21 thro
ugh 3 Group Leaders utilizing blended onshore / offshore support model. Solely a
ccountable for scheduling and tracking vacations, sick leave and compensation da
ys for entire Technical Support Department.
SUCCESSES & ACHIEVEMENTS:
* Drove the seamless integration of multiple disparate technical desks into a ce
ntralized organization supporting multiple products in response to mergers. Led
the design and delivery of training to existing Technical Support Analysts on 5
new products, enabling the successful transition of operations within 3 months.
* Oversaw the creation of offshore support organizations in Bangalore and Manila
and subsequent migration of 70% of product support operations to new teams. Int
erviewed and hired team members; created training plans; and established and ens
ured communication of standard operating procedures to new offshore staff.
* Pivotal role in enhancing and streamlining technical support policies and proc
edures. Collaborated with internal groups to enhance the ACD options, create esc
alation procedures, and strengthen daily processes across all of client services
to support "Customer Plus" corporate initiative.
* Contributed to conducting a gap analysis to support the migration from Athena
and Siebel call tracking database. Interfaced with project manager and business
groups to analyze, verify and implement needed functionality into system. Arrang
ed training classes for support team on Siebel system.
SUPERVISOR OF TECHNICAL SUPPORT (1995-2001)
Advanced following merger with parent company Thomson and challenged to reduce A
verage Speed to Answer (ASA) and enhance the quality support of more than 130,00
0 customers with core real-time market data product.
Scope of accountability spanned team development and leadership, staffing and tr
aining, scheduling and tracking, project planning and management, productivity i
mprovement, customer satisfaction, software testing and distribution, and best p
ractices and continuous improvement. Interfaced extensively with sales, developm
ent, quality assurance and entitlement teams to implement key technologies and p
rocesses to enhance customer satisfaction and retention. Supervised team of 30 L
evel I and II Technical Support Analysts through a Group Leader.
SUCCESSES & ACHIEVEMENTS:
* Led the design and rollout of a complex Scheduling and Tracking system for the
entire Customer Service Department, providing a centralized means to schedule a
nd track customer support and training visits, and employee vacation, sick and c
ompensation days. Tool was recognized for completely automating previous manual
functions while enabling the creation of monthly, quarterly and yearly schedules
for customer training and support calls.
* Established an automated software distribution delivery and tracking process f
or critical updates. Partnered with development team to enhance the delivery of
real-time data to more than 130,000 customer's desktop computing environments wi
th minimal intervention from client.
GROUP LEADER, TECHNICAL SUPPORT (1994-1995)
Promoted to provide dedicated leadership to technical support group and ensure a
ppropriate resolution of issues with company's core real-time market data produc
t.
Introduced new tools, standards and best practices to enhance ticket response ti
me and problem resolution. Created technical documentation; monitored and tracke
d call statistics; resolved all escalated technical and customer service issues;
and trained and mentored new and existing team members on product and support p
rocesses. Tested new versions of software prior to release to clients. Designed
and delivered critical reports to management. Led team of 10 Technical Support a
nd Dispatch Analysts.
SUCCESSES & ACHIEVEMENTS:
* Created the organization's 1st Technical Support User Guide, standardizing all
aspects of support operations.
* Conceptualized and partnered with development team to redesign CRM database to
enable multi-users to access and update trouble tickets, eliminating duplicate
tickets while providing an effective means to track call history.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT ANALYST (1993-1994) / DISPATCH ANALYST (1992-1993)
Recruited as Dispatch Analyst to route customer's inquiries and problems on ILX
Workstation product to appropriate internal groups and external vendors. Advance
d to Technical Support Analyst to provide Level I, II and III support to custome
rs on real-time market data software.
Designed and delivered training to new and existing users. Analyzed and resolved
issues with product. Collaborated with vendor's technical teams to install new
and troubleshoot issues with hardware. Tracked trouble tickets and resolutions f
or entire Customer Service Department, and delivered status reports to leadershi
p.
SUCCESSES & ACHIEVEMENTS:
* Received numerous accolades from customers for superior phone support; and rec
ognized for consistently achieving highest response rate out of team of 6.
* Pivotal role in creating and delivering training curriculum to brokers and tra
iners nationally for new customers.
* Chosen to coordinate the rollout of new software updates to more than 20,000 n
ational customers.

EDUCATION & CREDENTIALS

=======================

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (BBA) IN BUSINESS COMPUTER INFORMATION SYSTE

MS
HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY

TECHNOLOGY PROFICIENCY
======================
MS Windows Operating System; TCP/IP and IPX Protocols; MS Access & FoxPro Databa
ses
Visual Basic, Siebel, MS Office Suite, Visio, Publisher, FrontPage and Report Wr
iter Tools