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CGS

How to EnterCompany: CGS, New York, NY
Company Description: For 30 years, CGS has enabled global enterprises, regional companies and government agencies to drive breakthrough performance through technology and services. Headquartered in New York City, CGS employs more than 5,000 professionals across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. With global delivery capabilities, expertise across leading platforms and deep experience in multiple industries
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Contact Center Leader of the Year

Nomination Title: Tom Walsh, Executive Director

Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since the beginning of July 2012 (up to 525 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes: TEXT REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION

Tom Walsh is an outstanding call center site director for CGS’s Edison, NJ call center, where he is responsible for the 170 person technical support help desk for a multinational photography and imaging company. Through thick and thin, he manages his people with enthusiasm and care while managing the business with attention to results. He thinks creatively and works within the constraints of a call center operation to constantly re-invent and improve.

During his tenure, Tom has faced a number of challenges including:

Managing through Superstorm Sandy in coastal New Jersey where the contact center building lost power and Internet connections, employees lost homes and property, and the client phones still needed to be answered and problems resolved. Tom rose to the challenge to keep the client’s operations running by:

    • Working with the client to secure alternate call center space
    • Personally coordinating shuttle bus rental AND DRIVING A BUS HIMSELF to transport employees to the alternate space – this leadership and self-sacrifice inspired employees to attend work and push through hardships
    • Managing to sustain 75% of full capacity throughout a five day period while empathizing with employees and a client who were all in difficult personal situations
    • Effectively implementing work-from-home disaster recovery procedures

Tom knows we always need to do “more with less,” and in order to meet increasing customer expectations in a time of shrinking budgets and resources he has implemented programs to re-focus his organization to work in a new way. He has designed and implemented a compensation program for agents that makes them “owners” of their own “business” by:

    • Driving measurable and actionable metrics to the individual agent level
    • Creating personal P&Ls for each agent so they understand their impact on revenue, cost, quality and client outcomes
    • Linking pay for performance with these metrics and provides quarterly “business reviews” for each agents’ performance
    • Tom’s agents make 30% more than the average US-based agent wage and his margins are equal to or above other, similarly sized, customers. He achieves this through 25-30% better efficiency, 10-15 points higher First Call Resolution Rates and 10% annual attrition rates

Tom is also considered an invaluable part of the client’s own operations team:

    • He is included in all of the regular and strategic planning meetings that our client holds
    • He is routinely looked to as the SME for knowing what is and what is not possible to expect from our client’s field services repair team
    • He is brought to all significant sales efforts by our client – they view his management of their call center operation as a strategic asset in the sales process and in the ongoing support and management of existing clients

Since Tom is a great collaborator, many of the programs and initiatives he has implemented at his center are being used as best practices and are being driven into the processes and procedures at CGS’s contact centers globally throughout the organization.

 

Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the nominee:

Tom Walsh is Executive Director of Technical Help Desk and Contact Center Operations for CGS’s Edison, NJ location. A 30-year industry veteran, Tom joined CGS in 2004, and has demonstrated strong leadership by not only building a successful management team for the Edison facility, but also designing and implementing a team structure throughout the organization that provides greater queue control, faster response time and minimal abandonment rates. During his tenure with CGS created a successful pay for performance program based on Net Margin Contribution per employee that has been recognized and adopted company-wide.

Prior to CGS, Tom held leadership positions with Metro One Telecommunications, where he was a general manager and assistant vice president, as well as director of operations for Genuine Parts Company, NAPA.