Mark Knowler Email & Phone Number

Southampton, Gb

Hampshire, England, United Kingdom

Leading an inhouse team of specialists and outsourced strategic partner to deliver exceptional Customer Service across our EMEA based Contact Centres. I own the B&Q Business Engagement Strategy and Contact Centre Operational Excellence plan; both designed utilising data and insight to drive customer centric change across the business whilst continuously improving the customer experienceExperience of leading an RFP process working collaboratively with the GNFR and Legal Teams whilst also managing the relationships with our outgoing and incoming partners to ensure consistency of service during the transition Ensuring contractual compliance through robust but collaborative governance models whilst fostering a ‘One Team’ culture reflective of our values and the service we expect for our customers Leading the Operational Excellence Team (Process & MI), to drive continuous improvements in service, efficiency and contact resolution through agile processes and policies, and actionable insight to support cost to serve reductions and reduce complaints Championing the customer voice in internal / external meetings, identifying opportunities to improve the customer experience through innovation whilst holding the business to account for the removal of customer pain pointsAssess, prioritise and manage through to implementation all new demand that has a dependency on the Contact Centre to support

Hampshire

Leading Business Change for the flagship Global Customer Experience Programme – the programmes objective being to replace and align the entire IT suite across the UK, ROI, Spain, Northern Europe, Australia and New ZealandDefined and created the Business Change strategy and plan for the Customer and Corporate change elements associated with the programmeAdapted inhouse change framework to ensure change tools and methodology were transferable and fit for purposeDefined, identified and engaged with key global and corporate stakeholders to gain buy in and support for the change/programmeFacilitated Change Impact Assessment workshops to map existing ways of working, overlaying proposed ways of workings to highlight and capture impacts which then formed part of the Change PlanIdentified and mapped high level OD, Communication and Learning impacts enabling macro managed OD, Comms & Learning Partners to create respective plans / collateral to roll into the overall Change PlanDrafted high level success criteria and benefits realisation trackerIdentified key risks to the programme from an operational perspective enabling mitigation and recovery to ensure cutover/adoption success at point of go liveAs a result of the Covid Pandemic the Global Customer Experience Programme was ceased resulting in my position being made redundant.

Whiteley, Hampshire, United Kingdom

Leading the Optics IT Portfolios across the UK, ROI & Spain. Working with Senior Stakeholders, Partners and the Technology Exec Board I defined the future Optics IT Roadmap as part of the Specsavers Long Term Framework strategy and created/managed the Country/Function specific Annual IT Plans.In addition, working with Senior Stakeholders across the UK business including the Managing Director who sponsored of one of my portfolios, my teams (in house and third party consultants) successfully introduced a number of high profile IT initiatives across the 950 UK/ROI/Spanish stores. These included; A Customer Lookup application implemented across all UK and ROI Stores inc Contact Centres & Domiciliary Teams to view patient prescription information from any Specsavers StoreA mobile App allowing Partners to view their stores hourly sales/diary on their mobile deviceAn inhouse developed Track & Trace application to enable stores to better manage their Contact Lens business through enhanced visibility of customer orders, analytical data to drive sales and optimise ranges and to streamline the ordering process improving productivity and reducing costsNumerous tactical changes to enhance the Practice Management Solution – ultimately improving customer experience, streamlining processes and increasing partner profitability Also regularly attended and presented at key Partner forums including the National Store Tech User Group (STUG), Regional Customer Meetings (CMs) and the annual Partner Seminar.

Southampton, United Kingdom

Partnering IT, Local Territories and Business Change Teams created an engaging Comms and Engagement strategy to build a strong, aspirational and cohesive connection in all territories to the Flagship SAP Template (Easier) Transformation programmeCreated and owned the Easier Transformation programme communication strategy and plan through engaging with work streams, programme resources and key stakeholders to ensure that messaging was delivered in a timely and appropriate manner via appropriate channelsCustodian of all internal and external messaging ensuring it was at all times consistent and on brand and that the rhythm and tone of voice engaged and resonated effectively with maximum impact with identified audience baseDeveloped branded communications through a mix of Office 365 channels – MS Teams, Yammer, Stream etc whilst also working with external artworkers to create artwork and visuals to anchor programme objectives and keep Easier Brand profile topical and relevant across the organisationUsing various metrics including listening groups, focus workshops and data analytics analysed the audience feedback, taking actions and influencing changes to strategy to ensure future communications met the needs of the audience and where necessary key stakeholders

London, United Kingdom

Leading the Group HR workstream of the Flagship Global SAP EASIER Transformation Programme (deploying SAP to all territories); Engagement of key stakeholders across the group (including Country HR Directors) as well as the IT Senior Leadership Team, IT Central Delivery Team, and specialist functions including Architects, Business Relationship Managers, Environment Managers and UAT ManagersInstigated and led complete end to end review of all HR template processes; including the creation of new and thorough process maps through collaboration with Global HR Teams and external consultancyLeading and working alongside Local Country Process Leads and IT BAU teams, using a common methodology to map existing processes and identifying opportunities to enable group unification and alignment to HR strategyCreated a Centre of Excellence group with global representation to drive continuous improvement, share best practices and ensure compliance with new legislative/fiscal requirements through either Change Request or BAU revex processWorked collaboratively with the Central Change team to ensure each Country was fully set up to successfully manage the business change effectively – project plans, cutover plan, communication and engagement plan, training plan and embedding approachEnsured that best practice/learnings were documented and shared to improve/simplify future implementation and to shape future approach

Southampton, United Kingdom

Effective delivery of the 'Great B&Q Manager' programme incorporating Financial, People, Operational and Customer across the Corporate Office and 360 Stores.

Southampton, United Kingdom

Leading a team of retail professionals to deliver a programme of IT Transformation across 360 Stores in the UK and ROI. Projects within the Programme included;£11m Store Desktop Modernisation Programme – including UAT, Rollout, Communication, Engagement and Training plans£9m Network Refresh (WAN/LAN) programme including in store Customer WiFi £5m Corporate Office / Distribution Centre Desktop Modernisation Programme – including UAT, Rollout, Communication, Engagement and Training plansContact Centre Centralisation Transformation programme – successfully managing the implementation of an integrated VOIP telephone platform across all stores, additionally managing the successful integration of customer calls being outsourced to a Contact Centre

Southampton, United Kingdom

Southampton, United Kingdom

Southampton, United Kingdom

Southampton, United Kingdom

Effectively manage through to resolution customer issues escalated to corporate office