MICHAEL WISHNICK
Cell: 732-963-7090 | michael.wishnick@yahoo.com
Objective
An Executive Level Call Center, Customer Service or Technical Support Position.
Qualifications
· A global operations and support director with more than sixteen years of successful experience in customer service, technical support, pre-sales consulting, and research support.
· Executive management experience overseeing global teams and resources.
· Experience in outsourcing, home shoring operational model, off shoring and deploying distributed call center and workforce.
· Ability to train, motivate, and supervise global customer service and technical support employees.
· Exceptional in-depth computer skills including hardware, software, and website development.
· Experience in entrepreneurial /startup environment
· Provide administration and configuration for ACD and IVR systems
· Customers first approach
Education
ROWAN UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY, Glassboro, NJ
Bachelor of Arts, Liberal Arts
Experience
ASSOCIATED PRESS, New York, NY 2007 – 6/25/10
Deputy Director, Global Customer/Technical Support
Responsible for creating a single global customer service and technical support organization that offers 24/7 follow the sun
support for the Associated Press customer base. Direct management of the Level 1 support specialist team, Level II platform
specialist, and entitlements team. Resolve customer issues and escalations by engaging the appropriate technical, engineering or
management resources. Build a world class customer support structure that emphasizes the values: Treat all customers with
professionalism and courtesy. Take ownership of an issue from inception to resolution. Provide high quality product expertise.
· Responsible for team management and staffing. Fully staffed and trained the customer support team within seven months to launch a 24/7 customer support center.
· Created and enforced a metric for Service Level and Abandon Rate for customer contacts into customer support. Provided weekly reports that demonstrated a Service Level of ninety percent of calls answered within eighteen seconds or less, five percent or less of total calls abandoned and all emails responded within fifteen minutes or less.
· Responsible for implementing distributed work from home call center for severe weather conditions or disaster recovery.
· Rolled out the Salesforce CRM and British Telecom CosmoCom Unified Contact Center Solution Call Routing/ACD/IVR. Played an active role in the training and administration of both Salesforce CRM and BT CosmoCom Contact Center solution for customer support. Created the CRM fields and product categories for implementation of Salesforce. Appointed administrator for roll out of BT Cosmo Com agent software. Designed and built the agent profiles for successful call routing between NY customer support and operations in Kansas City, including work flow design, resume profiles, and creation of telephone queues for seamless interaction with the customer.
· Effectively led the development of a new team of four Level Two support representatives responsible for issue escalation, product and service rollout, training and specialized customer support.
· Created a key accounts program where AP enterprise customers received dedicated support from a Level Two Platform Specialist. This included monthly meetings with the customer and the account team to discuss support, product enhancements, product changes, and revenue retention.
· Implemented quality assurance program in customer support. Formalized a process for monitoring customer support agent’s calls providing structured feedback with the agent to review strengths and areas of improvement.
· Led the initiative to transition suite of AP Broadcast Products, AP Graphics, AP Photographs & Images, AP Money & Markets, AP Editorial Resends and AP Online Video Network support to AP Customer Support. Involved in the migration of AP Online Video Network customers from Microsoft Video Platform to the Comcast Video platform with minimal impact to performance issues or outages.
DOW JONES & COMPANY, Princeton, NJ 2000 – 2007
Director, Global Technical Support and Customer Service
Responsible for Global Call Center Operations in the US, UK, and Australia. Managed global teams providing first and second level product support to external and internal customers, including many on the Fortune 500 company lists, corporate partners, internal users, and global sales teams. Held primary responsibility for the Technical Delivery, Technical Support, Developer Support and Research Support Departments providing customer guidance, customer support, and advanced troubleshooting for the suite of Factiva products and solutions supported. Managed the Customer Service Team ensuring that customers were satisfied with the Dow Jones Online Products. Led the Technical Support team of Senior Support Specialists. Responsibilities included providing pre-sale trial product consulting, post-sales product delivery, technical support, technical expertise and education. Primary focus on advising customers implement the Factiva Products and Solutions in their company’s infrastructure. Managed network, infrastructure systems, CRM software, telephone switching, ACD, call tracking, call monitoring and reporting systems functions. Provided Customer Service Monthly Report to Executive Leadership Team. Reviewed Global Contact Volumes, Service Levels, Abandon Rates, and Customer Satisfaction Surveys.
· Created, directed and managed the Global Technical Support Department, including staffing and training, optimizing customer satisfaction and insuring customer loyalty.
· Oversaw first and second level Customer Service and Technical Support for Wall Street Journal Online, Barron’s Online, and Market Watch suite of products.
· Responsible for mission critical production environment. Hosted and supported production servers for Dow Jones Customer solutions, internal applications and Intranet sites.
· Developed a strategy for roll out of self-service support to Global Customers. Created a self-service customer service portal that contains FAQ’s, best practices, password resets, and white papers.
· Built a support structure with emphasis of support based on revenue tier. (Gold, Silver, Bronze) Developed a strategy in responding to clients through telephone, email, and IM for 24/7 follow the sun support.
· Transitioned Global Support Department towards a ‘Work From Home’ operational model. Ensured that all Service Level and Customer Satisfaction measures were met and exceeded during the transition period.
· Developed a policy to work closely with key customers and partners as voice of the customer. Aligned Corporate Strategies for new product enhancements and releases with key customers and partners.
· Assisted global customers with technical questions and issues across multiple product lines including problems with connectivity, performance, Internet Browsers and Operating Systems.
· Built a Developer Support Department that consulted with developers offering best practices with regards to design, development and integration of XML in a suite of API products and solutions.
DOW JONES & COMPANY, Princeton, NJ 1999 – 2000
Manager, Customer Service, Technical Training Division
Managed and coordinated the staff and scheduling of Dow Jones Training Department. Held overall responsibility for staff selection and development plans, training schemes and all administrative duties for technical and infrastructure support. Oversaw the provision of courses for customer and/or employee training in the operation of company products. Planned course design and issued support documentation to ensure that training programs met company and customer objectives. Maintained communication with customers to ensure effectiveness of training.
SCHENKER INTERNATIONAL, Jersey City, NJ 1998 – 1999
System Support Specialist
Provided systems and desktop software end user support for various Microsoft Windows Network environments. Designed, configured and implemented Windows NT 4.0 network. Configured WINS, DNS, and DHCP services. Implemented and supported remote users’ access to corporate network using Microsoft Remote Access Services. Configured and maintained Microsoft Exchange Mail and HP Open Mail with Microsoft Outlook Mail client software as a corporate standard mail application. As a member of the Systems Support Team, designed and implemented Windows NT networks in branch offices across the country.
COMPUTER ASSOCIATES INC, Princeton, NJ 1998
Technical Support Consultant, Professional Services Department
Conducted on-site presentations and demos of CA Unicenter, TNG Enterprise Network Management Software, including implementation of the Network Management software, encompassing system security issues, workload management, backup strategy and integration with other applications and technologies. Provided supervision and support of the Technical and Project Management Team, created a written project plan to ensure progress was made on schedule, and conducted formal reviews.
PROPHET 21, Yardley, PA 1995 – 1998
Customer Service/Technical Support Representative
Conducted on-site group customer training, as well as one on one troubleshooting. Provided Customer Service on a variety of open software systems for a global client base. Supported IBM RS/6000 and IBM Personal Computers for AIX, DOS, and Microsoft Windows operating systems. Published works include tutorial tips and on-line help screens for new software releases.
NATIONAL BUSINESS SERVICES, Langhorne, PA 1994 – 1995
Customer Service/Technical Support Representative
Provided support and software training to global a customer base. Worked in call center answering incoming calls regarding software and hardware problems in regards to software application. Developed documentation for software manuals and on-line help screens, articles, newsletters. Responsibilities included repairing, configuring, and supporting hardware and software for the client.
EAST COAST STARTER DRIVE INC, Pompano Beach, FL 1993 – 1994
Customer Service Representative
Responsible for upgrading, testing, troubleshooting, and support of software and hardware for PCs and communication systems. Resolved operational and technical problems. Supervised DOS and Windows operating System in Marketing Department. Supported all software applications, as well as assisted in Desktop Publishing Operations.
