John Newlander Email & Phone Number

Laguna Beach

Residential real estate, specializing in the coastal strip of Orange County.

Run all operations of a Tustin-based call center that supports a high profile Internet social meeting service.

Loved this job. Director of technical support for some of the world's best audio engineers and contractors. High tech and fun at the same time. Gave me the opportunity to fine tune an already world class support team.Details:Managed all aspects of a high profile, hardware and software technical support team including service and support, customer service, shipping, receiving, and all warehouse and inventory operations. Initially hired to stabilize the operations of the company’s Technical Services team. The department needed to prepare itself for substantial growth in support capabilities as a result of the company’s growth in networked audio systems and loudspeakers.• Transformed company’s service engineering group from a standard technical support team into a full 24/7 operation which was required to provide market leadership among manufacturers providing high-end networked audio product support. • Completely revamped the technical service group’s inventory management processes to ensure that it was ready to handle the company’s growth into the loudspeaker and audio systems business.• Identified inter-departmental roadblocks that were creating a sense of isolation of the technical services team from the rest of the company. Within six months I had bridged those gaps and got the team more fully integrated into the company.• In four years as Technical Support Director, I helped transform the technical service team into a highly effective support team that could handle all of the company’s new products while maintaining a leadership role within the industry.• Instrumental in launching the company’s support operations in Hong Kong for the support of the Asia/Pacific region.• Guided team to develop a cost-saving web store for online purchases and the development of an incident tracking system to track product field issues.

This was all about raising the moral of the organization:Recruited initially to stabilize the senior level technical support staff of the company’s Image Services Server Products support team. Immediately identified key areas for improvement to quickly convert this key support group into a highly effective and well-respected customer centric support team. Success with this team resulted in the assignment of a second team of client applications support engineers who were underperforming under their current manager. Equal success was achieved with this combined team working cross-functionally.• Managed all aspects of a high profile, software technical support team. • In six years of technical support management, scope of responsibility grew from the oversight of twelve to 27 technical support engineers and three supervisors. • Transformed company’s key server products support team from a low morale, low performance group, to a highly motivated, top performing technical support team and role model within the support center.• Awarded Manager of the Year in 2002.• Awarded Certified Support Manager (CSM) from the Service and Support Professionals Association (SSPA) in 2003.• Successfully mentored an additional team of client applications support engineers into becoming top performers. Several problem employees were turned around to become key contributors to company’s success. The overall larger team continued to make improvements in customer satisfaction, call responsiveness, case resolution, and team collaboration. • Achieved success in support management despite lack of expertise in the company’s industry or products at time of hire. • Acted as certification leader for a period of 6 years to ensure the company’s continued Support Center Practices (SCP) certification.

Hired to develop a field and telephone support organization for a new company division. This was the company’s first venture into the professional broadcast products marketplace. They were seeking someone with industry experience to build a world-class support organization since they would be competing against such industry leaders as Sony, Panasonic, and Ampex. Key Results:• Defined and developed a total product support program designed to match the service needs of Odetics’ support intensive, proprietary software and hardware products.• Established the division’s first technical support help desk. Responsible for complete project implementation including defining help desk requirements, identifying help desk software, and defining business rules for worldwide and interdepartmental integration. Continued to manage the help desk and improve measuring tools to fine tune help desk effectiveness and customer satisfaction.• Responsible for Odetics’ high recognition as a product support leader. Despite the division’s lack of experience and history within the product’s market space, Odetics became recognized as a leader in its industry in terms of product support and customer satisfaction. This service record had a direct impact on the company’s follow-on business.• Assisted the company in achieving ISO-9001 certification.• Participated in a director level capacity as a member of the division’s strategic planning team.

Hired to develop a field and telephone support organization for a new subsidiary of LucasFilm. The company was entering into the Hollywood post-production marketplace with a high-end, laser disc based editing system, and they needed someone with extensive knowledge of field and call center technical support to build them a competitive service organization. Key Results:• Administered the development of a startup product support team. Bottom-up structuring included defining the company’s product support philosophy and goals, developing and implementing all operating procedures, and recruiting and managing a high caliper field and customer support team.• Established quality in every facet of the product support function including call center support procedures, installation and commissioning services, technical and operational training programs, product replacement parts and technical support policies, and extended warranties and service level agreements.