Kirk Howard Email & Phone Number

Lead a team of up to 20 team members who support our neighbors through troubleshooting of their Ringdevices as well as assisting with billing and Ring Alarm questions. • In 2020 transitioned to WFH while maintaining a strong and consistently solid producing team with strong results and lower than average shrink. This was achieved by not only leading but diving deep into performance metrics to address any areas as needed.• Current and past projects/proposals include: Champion Metrics focusing on Concessions and Shrink, Ring of Excellence program, site TV’s, Change Management proposal, IVR addition proposal as well as weekly status update documentation for my Operations Manager.• Continue to support other areas of the business ALT and recruiting as well as stepping in to support other teams leadership needs as directed by my Operations Manager.

Phoenix, Arizona Area

Revitalized two teams (10 employees), building and restructuring processes and procedures while providing coaching and positive feedback to improve communications and eliminate personality conflicts. Planned and implemented successful rollout as lead on Visa Claims Resolution (VCR) initiative.• Reduced days out by 50% and realized boost in quality scores while maintaining strict compliance.• Earned high employee satisfaction scores – rated #1 twice with scores 6% higher than overall company ratings (Phoenix Business Journal employee surveys).

Directed all of the day-to-day operations a split team of 22 Business Card and Consumer Card Fraud Recovery analysts as well as a 5-person Business Card case setup team, coaching and training each member to increase productivity and quality performance.• Assisted with hiring, training, quality of work reviews (call quality and work process quality) audit preparation including reviewing process work flow maps, auditing existing procedures for accuracy/relevancy and data compilation.• Actively worked in a very manual department when it comes to reporting, goal preparation, performance improvement strategy creation, staffing analysis, and identifying missed opportunities.

Tempe Az

Managed daily operations as Customer Service manager during ramp down. Previously managed all levels of collections, served as dialer manager, reporting manager, control tower manager as well as taking the lead in many projects designed to improve department performance.• During 1st and 2nd quarter 2012, led all members of CHA Collections including Early Stage, Late Stage, Recovery and 3 Unit Specialist in the absence of another manager and assumed the responsibility of the Operations Manager during his absence. Recognized by leadership for my work and dedication during this time.• Assumed a lead role during the testing and rollout of a new mainframe platform for the division in 2012.• Projects included department reporting, improving Collections strategies, dialer analysis and process improvement, collection queue analysis, staffing analysis, Control Tower process design and implementation, redesign of the Quality process and assist Legal department with case preparation. • Successfully represented collections during the 2012 RCM and Business Resiliency planning in the absence of the Operations manager. Recognized by leadership for meeting all deadlines and tasks without prior training.

Led team of 13 in detecting and preventing fraudulent activity on customers’ accounts. • Refined scheduling to reduce dropped inbound calls to Spanish line and developed methods and procedures documentation for continuity.Managed team of 12 analysts and 1 lead who were responsible for detecting and preventing fraudulent activity on cardmember accounts, handling inbound calls from cardmembers regarding activity on their accounts and assisting the Telephone Banking division with increase and verification requests.• Daily activities included administration of monthly reviews and employee discipline, coaching including improvement on call handling and missed fraudulent activity, assisting on the escalation line and processing employee payroll and benefits.• Completed projects include designing and implementing a department recognition program for the analysts, redesigning a documentation process for my team and team lead, performed a full analysis of the Taser detection system and its impact on the department metrics with recommendations to upper leadership for changes. • Ongoing projects included the following: Improving the Spanish call process including metric analysis, scheduling analysis, training, language line cost analysis and Methods and Procedures documentation. Reviewing quality recording issues and improvement of analysts phone structure that includes a full remap of the call center floor.

In both roles, improved call quality and productivity by strengthening communication and interaction with departments served.• Realized overall improvement to emergency response times and increase in employee satisfaction.• Coached CCTS team to boost ranking to #3 of 15 teams – based on call quality / AHT, CS scores.Oversaw the entire day-to-day operations of a team of between 9 and 22 full-time and contract employees who were responsible for monitoring the Cox Communications plant for both customer impacting and non-impacting network outages.• Served as Remedy administrator for several areas including Network Operations, Construction, Transport and Design. Responsibilities included building access for employees, upgrading their permissions as necessary, organized and assisted in training several departments as they began using Remedy and worked with corporate headquarters as new phases of the overall Remedy implementation took place including outage declaration. • Handled escalations from all areas within Cox Communications in regards to network events including executive escalations, FCC reporting, business services, Care Center and from the National Operations Center (NOC).• Assisted in streamlining work processes including moving internet support escalations to Technical Support, moving data calls to Test Desk, training different groups to build their own Planned Maintenance Requests through the use of Remedy. Began testing the feasibility of implementing an auto dialer to validate return of service with impacted customers.• Supported Change Management activities by participating in daily conference calls to ensure all planned and emergency work to the network was completed within the assigned maintenance window, accurately and without jeopardizing the existing network.

Directly oversaw all day to day activities of 14 - 36 Technical Support Representatives who were responsible for assisting customers with technical issues regarding their services.• Coached direct reports bi-monthly to ensure team exceeded in all department metrics including RGU performance, Quality, Work Order accuracy and Agent Productivity.• Assisted with the Technical Support Leadership development program built to address the need for future leaders within the care center.• Participated in the Quality revamp process for all of Customer Care. The purpose of this project was to streamline the Quality process, address employee concerns brought to management’s attention from the last employee opinion survey and bring consistency within Customer Care.• Mentored a member of Test Desk to prepare him for future leadership roles within Cox Communications. Worked weekly with multiple members of Technical Support on their career development including leadership development, communication skills and improved time management skills.

Directly oversaw all day to day activities of 14 - 28 Security Loss Prevention representatives who were responsible for detecting fraudulent activity on the Discover Card portfolio. This included credit card purchases; cash advance activity as well as balance transfer fraud.• Participated in User Acceptance Testing of Concerto Dialer and Call Blending rollout for Security Loss Prevention Department.• Performed all daily operations for Security Loss Prevention dialer including campaign building, blast dialing, system performance monitoring, and utilization improvement along with results tracking.• Prepared detailed instruction manual documenting all aspects of Concerto Dialer daily operations including campaign building, campaign flows, reporting, employee work processes, basic troubleshooting, and blast dialing.Managed all aspects of Investigations support functions including legal/restitution functions, fraud case assignment, general bookkeeping, mail processing, document filing, and collection referrals.• Special projects included building department standards and monthly reviews for all areas under my supervision, re-organization of the collection referral process which included the implementation of an Access database, streamlined the legal documentation filing process, revised the mail handling process, and built reports for field investigators to assist in prosecution of suspects.