Susan Thompson, Operations Manager

Relationships

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"I thrive on relationships and you get the opportunity to help your clients that come to you looking for solutions and looking for assistance; and also my direct team.

"And so, me personally, that's extremely fulfilling, because I get to spend time with them and develop those relationships and learn VOLUMES!"

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My Job

MY JOB

Title: Canadian Operations Manager
Key Tasks & Responsibilities:
- manage and direct Canadian Operations
- support a team of Account Managers
- maintain contractual objectives and positive relationships with the clients
- responsible for workplace standards including quality, workforce and scheduling
- responsible for the building; contracts, changes and additional construction
- responsible for meeting financial targets
Started Job: 2000
Supervises: 700 people
Reports to:
- Director of Operations
- Company President TOC

The Job Scope

The Job Scope

I manage and direct the daily operations of two call centers, or about 700 people in all, with duties including:
- planning and implementation of long and short term goals and policies
- sales motivation and goal setting
- expenses and profitability
- procedures and processes
- human resources and development
- client relations: maintaining and meeting contracts
- quality control
- finance: forecasting and analysis for million dollar budgets
- the voice back to the corporate office

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My Boss

My Boss

I can't say enough about how supportive my director and president have been. They have taken a real interest in this management team, making sure we too have career development and training and making sure that we are happy and have opportunities to grow.

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Lots of Variety

Lots of Variety

Every day is different. There are new ideas, suggestions and new opportunities every day in this business. We are always asking ourselves, what is the next yardstick?

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Where I Work

Where I Work

Archway Marketing Services provides integrated marketing services for clients to help them achieve higher sales, better customer communications and brand integrity.

Archway has operations all over North America, including two customer service centres in Manitoba that are Susan's responsibility. The Winnipeg facility has grown from a 50-seat pilot project in 1997 to over 700 seats today.

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Fantastic Job

Fantastic Job

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"It is a fantastic job. I love it. It's a very dynamic, fast paced job. It gives you a lot of variety, because you do everything from sales to H.R., to training, to quality, to financials, to math, to development. And it's working with people."

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About Me

ABOUT ME

Background
- true blue Manitoban
- Hungarian extraction
- married
- three dogs; two elderly Labs and one puppy

Interests/Activities
- family
- running (half marathon)
- golf
- camping, fishing, the outdoors TOC

Family

Family

My family is very important to me. I have a niece and nephew and one sister with whom I like to spend time.

On weekends my fiance and I like to get out on our 22' fish-ski boat. Recently, we landed a whopping 20 lb catfish, master angler sized. It was huge!

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Manitoba Life

Manitoba Life

I love it here. The people here really do make a difference. Manitobans are outgoing and sincere, not rigid or uptight. And they really do care about each other.

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Canine Recreation

Canine Recreation

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"I have three dogs; two older ones, they're eight and one Lab who's a puppy. He's about a year and a half and he's an interesting character.

Just a great dog if you love dogs. They're not a quiet dog. He's pretty active. But they're cute; they keep me busy."

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Surprising Venture

Surprising Venture

This was not a planned path. I took a buyout from Safeway and stumbled into a call centre job with what's now Convergys, which was Manitoba's first fundamentally large outsourcer. I thought I would try something new.

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My Day

MY DAY

8:30 am: Check voicemail/email; verify schedule; review open action list
9:00 am: Phone calls, work on various projects, follow ups
10:00 am: Meetings (such as client, contract, project mgmt)
12:00 pm: Check voicemail/email
12:30 pm: Lunch
1:00 pm: Meetings (implementation, financial, strategy, operations)
2:30 pm: Phone calls, continue work projects, follow ups, etc.
3:30 pm: Meetings (building reno, coaching, development, HR, account)
5:00 pm: Check voicemail/email
5:30 pm: Phone calls, more project work, follow ups and prepare next day's open action list

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Nowhere Like It

Nowhere Like It

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"All of a sudden I'm exposed to vacuum cleaners and I'm exposed to donuts and I'm exposed to irrigation systems. And in electronics and computers and publishing.

"Where else can you go and you get to learn so many different industries? And so my thirst for knowledge is continuous."

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Leadership

Leadership

People look to me for leadership and direction. I set the tone, pace, goals and the direction. As a team we do not let setbacks truly set us back.

We take things in stride and we try to continually move the "marks", to continually improve.

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The Pace

The Pace

My average day at the office is from 8 to 6 and can often go an hour or two longer. After going non-stop for 8 or 9 hours though, I'm not really productive anymore so I like to take a break.

I like to wrap it up at 6, go and have some time at home and then log back in around 9 and work for about an hour doing emails. I simply pull out my laptop and sit on my couch and work while I'm still with my family. So it's not too bad.

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Floor Time

Floor Time

I like to spend at least 10 percent of my day out on the call centre floor. I schedule floor time. It is my favourite time and it is where I learn the most.

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Me and My Job

ME AND MY JOB

Likes
- people
- relationships
- finances, technology

Challenges
- situations that have no resolutions

Sometimes the prospective client may not share the same vision as we do. Then the job is not a good fit. We might have to say no to a piece of business. Not every client has the same goals and objectives that we have. TOC

Strengths

Strengths

I never forget a set of numbers. That has always been a part of who I am. My forte is numbers and contracts.

The co-relationships within financial analysis have always interested me.

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Clear Path

Clear Path

Staff turnover can be a big problem in our business. Having a solid career path for people sets us apart.

At the end of the day you need to provide a nice monetary path and a rewarding, fulfilling career for someone.

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Setting the Tone

Setting the Tone

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"When you pick up the phone, whatever customer product you're representing, you're setting the tone for that product.

"And the customer on the phone doesn't know that they're calling Gage (former name of Archway). They think they're calling 'Product A'.

"So you're impacting brand, you're impacting image, you're impacting their servicing factors and how people walk away from the product."

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My Resume

MY RESUME

Education:
BA: Major in Labour Relations, Minor in Economics, U of M
Certificate in Total Quality Management Principles

Experience:
2000-Present: Operations Manager, Archway Marketing
1998-2000: Director of Account Management, C.I.B.C. Insurance
1998: Implementation Manager for TKS Software, Convergys
1996-1998: Operations Manager - Accounts/Customer Care & Inbound/Outbound Telemarketing, Convergys
1994-1996: Call Management/Scheduling, Convergys
1990-1992: Customer Service Representative, National Trust
1987-1994: Assistant Customer Service Manager, Safeway

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Clear Communication

Clear Communication

It is important to have excellent, clear communications, to be articulate, to have specific goals and thorough follow up.

Root cause analysis has been a particularly excellent tool in helping to formulate solutions to problems that occur.

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University

University

Courses in labour relations, labour law, economics and mathematics gave me a good grounding in general management principles.

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Starting Out

Starting Out

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"There's so much that depends on mathematics and fundamentals and planning. That's truly what runs this business.

"I got exposed to forecasting and reporting and analysis and scheduling. And they didn't have a system at that time, so me and Excel were basically the scheduling software package."

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Key Skills

Key Skills

Technical Skills
I have tended to focus my technical expertise on telephony and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) I do a lot of personal research in CRM. There are many different technologies available and understanding how they interface is key to the success of this kind of operation.

People Skills
I love people. Every day I get to interact with all sorts of people; customers, clients, staff. I enjoy those interactions. Coaching, development, understanding people and what their strengths and weaknesses are, are all critical components. And follow-up is essential.

Mathematical Skills
Mathematics has always been a strong suit with me. Having a facility with numbers and understanding the relationships between numbers and what they mean on the call floor helps me to keep our goals in focus.

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My Future

MY FUTURE

I would like to try some different things and I would like to stay with this company for another couple of years. If I wish, I could continue to grow with Archway, especially when I can see so many opportunities to grow.

Personally I would like to focus on learning and understanding more about mergers and acquisitions. TOC

Moving Up

Moving Up

I see myself in a similar role, maybe a little more strategic than tactical. There are different levels in the organization and plenty of opportunities. But I'd love to stay in the call centre world.

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Personal Plan

Personal Plan

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"My personal plan - I kind of want to move away a little bit from operations and tackle a little bit of understanding merger/acquisition, understanding some of the other core principles of fundamentally managing a business, which may be even more digging into the balance sheets of corporations."

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Special Projects

Special Projects

We are just getting ready to do our first official process audit. It's been a fabulous experience. It has meant putting everything we do, all of our practices and procedures and our policies on paper.

It allowed us to document our problems more specifically in order to execute fundamental change. It makes sure that EVERY PERSON in the organization comes to the table and is being treated in the same way.

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Technology

Technology

Technology drives us and that technology is getting more specific to the quality of the level of communication. People will be using everything they know about their customer.

As technology becomes more unified, offshore models will become a big piece of the pie.

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Future of the Business

Future of the Business

Nine out of ten Canadians call a customer contact centre in the course of a year, though many will not realize that they're dealing with an outsource service centre when they dial a company's toll-free number.

And demand is growing as more companies realize the benefits.Outsourcing offers great leverage for the clients while delivering a 'one on one' relationship with the customer.

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Useful Links

MORE INFO

There are over 10,000 people working in Customer Contact Centres in Manitoba as Customer Service Representatives, telemarketers, researchers and technical Help Desk representatives. There are several levels of management as you work your way up the ladder. Many CC companies will assist employees as they further their education while working for them.

Post-secondary studies in programs such as business, labour relations and business communications can give you a head start in becoming part of the management team in the customer contact sector.

Click below to find out more. TOC

Job Market Info

Job Market Info

The links below take you to federal and regional government information on employment, education, salary ranges and long range prospects for this career.

The official name for Susan's occupation is "Senior Manager - Other Services" and its *NOC code is 0015.

Job Futures

Manitoba Labour Market Information
(Select Manitoba, the Area in Manitoba, NOC code 0015, then click Search)

Human Resources Development Canada

*Each occupation has an official name and unique number called the 'National Occupational Classification' code or 'NOC'.

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Education

Education

Not assessed for Useful High School Subjects in Job Futures.ca

Below are links to various programs and courses that will put you on the path to a career in Management.

University of Manitoba
Asper School of Business
Management Development Programs

University of Winnipeg
Administrative Studies
Continuing Education, Professional Studies Programs

Red River College
Full Time Day Programs
(then click on Business Administration)
Distance Education Programs
(then click on Business & Administrative Studies)

Collège Saint Boniface
Les Programmes techniques et professionnels

Brandon University
Department of Business Administration

Assiniboine Community College - Brandon
All Programs
Choose from:
Business Administration - page 74
Business Administration, Parkland Campus - page 194
Con. Ed. Management Skills Certificate - page 50
Con. Ed. Human Resources Certificate - page 50

University College of the North - The Pas/Thompson
Business Administration
(see pages 22 & 23 of the pdf)

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Industry Association

Industry Association

The Manitoba Customer Contact Association (MCCA) is a group of customer contact managers, directors and owners joining together to build the industry in Manitoba. It was created in 1997 to enhance the image of Customer Contact Centres and expand Manitoba's qualified sustainable pool of human resources.

The MCCA offers support to those who are in or seek to enter the customer contact sector through networking, trade shows and training programs.

Check out the MCCA web site for the latest information on job postings, resumes, employer, career and employee profiles.

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Related Careers

Related Careers

Some related careers from Human Resources Development Canada web sites:

Senior Managers - Goods Production (NOC 0016)

Human Resources Managers (NOC 0112)

Retail Trade Managers (NOC 0621)

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Professional Associations

Professional Associations

Human Resources Management Association of Manitoba
- professional organization for human resources professionals

Canadian Council of Human Resources Associations
- a national organization for human resources professionals

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