Resume

Jeremiah Samuel Reardon

Current Address:  Kansas City, Missouri Phone: 816.405.4312 Email: Jsrrk2@mail.missouri.edu

Education University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. Concentration in Finance/Banking and Real Estate (Dual Major). Cumulative GPA: 3.68 Member of College of Business Dean’s list for every enrolled semester.

Work Experience Beyond Credentials, Kansas City, Missouri                                                                    Fall 2009 to present Head of Applicant Affairs BeyondCredentials.com, a website dedicated to connecting elite students with exclusive employers. Responsible for organizing recruitment events, and meeting monthly recruitment goals. Quarter Sweepstakes LLC, Columbia, Missouri                                                                           Winter 2009 Financed and created Quarter Sweepstakes LLC, an online sports website developed to create a safe alternative to online gambling for college students. Recruited over 3,500 users from more than 45 states. Responsible for the expansion of the growth of the website and managing the users experience with Quarter Sweepstakes. Don Bennett and Associates, Phoenix, Arizona                                                                       Summer 2007 Developed and participated in negotiations of multimillion dollar land offers and contracts. Responsible for acquiring and creating reports of local and city wide real estate information. Researched commercial real estate data and developed mapping software. Participated in and organized presentations in city council meetings regarding prospective zoning changes and development projects. Anheueser Busch Enterprises, Kansas City, Missouri                                                               Summer 2006 Built and delivered orders according to assigned load tickets. Responsible for meeting and reporting productivity requirements. Restocked and repacked products ensuring proper data code entry and rotation.

College Activities Member of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity                                                                                 2006 to present Nominated and sponsored by alumni to attend the Wooden Institute: a seven day leadership program focused on team orientation, personal ethics and goal achievement. Elected by peers to be focused in the Rush Guide as an “Outstanding Member” of the fraternity based on extra curricular activities, GPA, and intramurals. Worked jointly with philanthropy team to raise more than $25,000 to benefit Multiple Sclerosis research. Rush Chairman                                                                                                                     Summer 2008 Managed an annual budget of $25,000 and directed the 125 members of the fraternity to recruit 500 potential members of the fall recruitment for the University of Missouri. Chairman of Rho Epsilon Professional Real Estate Fraternity                                                   2009 to present Provides real estate students with an opportunity to participate in activities that foster closer professional relationships among students, faculty members and business executives in this field.

Accomplishments

- Financed and created my own company (Quarter Sweepstakes LLC) and got 3,500 customers from 45 different states while completing my junior year of college.

- Solely designed, created and sold 360 MU football shirts in a week.

- Rush chairman of Beta Theta Pi and Marketing Chairman of Rho Epsilon (Professional Real Estate Fraternity) while earning a 3.7 in a double major at Mizzou.

- Held multiple jobs while a student to help pay expenses of college.

My Personality

Q&A

How do you handle stressful situations?
From my experience, being prepared and organized while staying on top of your responsibilities on a regular basis will help you avoid stressful situations in the first place. However, I have found it best to take a step back, look at the broad picture, and then get focused and go to work.

How has your education prepared you for your career?
I view my education from my 4 years at college as 2 fold. One, being the information I learned from the MU curriculum and the other being the information I learned about people. I have found that the manner in how you communicate is equally important as the information you communicate.

Writing Samples

• Exerpt from my capstone project at Mizzou

Microsoft, the technology tycoon, has built up a large empire over the last 20 years and has recently released their Windows 7 operating system. With a release date of summer ‘09 the company has already sold 60 million copies of the software.  However, the pure size of the company and the amount of customers they have has proven to bring its own set of problems. Currently, Microsoft does not have extensive enough customer service to ensure these customers receive adequate and timely support when experiencing a problem with their products.

The basic strategy that I am suggesting Microsoft undertake to fix this problem would be to extend the values and goals of their customer support policy to ensure greater customer satisfaction and consumer confidence in the company. The firm claims to be dedicated to supporting their customers with all dimension of their products however, there is breakdown between what they claim and how they act. When the firm finally publicly acknowledged that Windows 7 was causing battery life problems in February of this year, they ensured users that they would research the problem and disclose the findings. However, they offered no immediate solution for the effected customers even though Windows 7 had made their computer inoperable. Microsoft’s new expanded customer support mission and coverage I am proposing would offer immediate substitute software/hardware to customers until the issue at hand is fixed.

The first implementation lever I suggest the company undertake to solve the problem is to develop a strategic leadership approach and become devoted to being an industry leader in customer support offerings. Because this is such a large undertaking, changes would first have to start at the executive level for Microsoft. Currently, Microsoft’s CPE (Customer and Partner Experience) policy is to “ensure a high level of satisfaction among our customers…” However, I am proposing that Kevin Turner, the chief operating officer change this priority to ensure that Microsoft offers the highest level of satisfaction among their users. It is a relatively small change in wording however, the impacts of this change will be drastic. By offering the best customer support in the industry, Microsoft will be dedicating to fixing the users problem no matter how small or large the issue, or how far or short the lengths needed to offer a solution.  This change can not be accomplished solely by changing the value of their CPE mission, they will also have to create better systems and structures of customer support.

The second implementation lever Microsoft needs to undertake would be to develop total alignment to help organize the elements of the customer service process to ensure that the core ideology is being accomplished. There are many components to the customer support procedure, and Microsoft should be dedicated to ensuring that they are the best in the industry at all these levels. Because most of Microsoft’s customers access customer support through the telephone, Microsoft needs to ensure that they have the shortest holding period for customers who are calling in and have the greatest amount of customer satisfaction after the problem has been resolved. Microsoft should use Zappos, the online shoe retailer, as a model company for offering customer support. Zappos customer support agents work independent of common call scripts, quotas, and call time limits, and aims to speak to every customer at least once. They encourage their customers to call in about nearly everything and often surprise their customers with upgrades on shipping and price reduction after they have solved the issue. Zappos offers a more complete customer service experience and has strong customer loyalty because of it. Microsoft needs to undertake similar steps to bring more value to the customer and offer a more complete experience with their products.

The third step Microsoft needs to integrate into their Customer and Partner Experience is to make sure they paint the whole picture. When reports first surfaced in early June that Windows 7 was not functioning properly with certain batteries, Microsoft did not immediately react because it only affected roughly 1,000 users. However, Microsoft should have addressed the issue immediately and offered a short term solution until a long term solution was created. Microsoft’s quality control measures that were in place were not sensitive enough and the company needs to address the problem. Accepting a “painting the whole picture” approach to customer service requires the company to pay attention to even small details no matter how small the amount of affected users. If they were to commence on this type of method, they might have found the problem before it surfaced and most certainly would have offered the affected users some means to fix the issue at hand.

Redefining the customer service process does not come cheap. It requires an investment of time and willpower, but also a monetary investment. If Microsoft were to undertake this new approach to providing the best customer support in their industry then they would have to invest roughly 45 million for the first three years for a new call center and employees to fill the call center. They would also need to put their employees through a more rigorous training period, approximately 5 weeks, were they would be more effectively educated on how solve customers problems efficiently. Similar to Zappos, they would also put a system in place where training employees are offered a large lump sum of money to quit. This process ensures that only the most dedicated employees are hired and become part of the customer service process. This lump sum should start around $1,500 and continue to increase if employees opt not to quit.

Microsoft should also dedicate a large investment roughly 30 million for the marketing of their new customer service values and mission. However, because actions speak louder than words, Microsoft should also strive to win different customer support awards within the first five years of undertaking the new process. Winning some of these awards such as the Recognition for Excellence in Customer Support and Service award, similar to what Zappos has done, will add credibility to their customer support based marketing scheme. The company should also strive to increase their customer satisfaction levels. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, Microsoft has a 75% customer satisfaction. Within the first ten years of implementing this new customer service department Microsoft should aim for a satisfaction ranking of 83, similar to what Nordstrom’s currently ranks. If Microsoft chooses this approach and enhances their customer service, they would not only fix the present issues surfaced in the media but they would also make their company more efficient and appealing to consumers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

1.                  Coster, H. (2008). A Step Ahead. Forbes, 181(11), 78-80. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database

 

Coster explains some of the measures that Zappos has undertaken to offer the best customer service in the industry. Some of those measures include spending $100,000,000 on free shipping given to customers, and supported customers service agents to find shoes from other retailers if they do not have the specific size a customer wants.

 

2.                  Palmeri, C. (2010). Now for Sale, The Zappos Culture. BusinessWeek, (4162),     57.   Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

 

This article explains how customers support is not just a division of Zappos, it has become the whole culture of the company. It is what they stand for and has become what they are known for. They company even gives tours 16 times a week to other companies who want to come and see how they operate.

 

3.                  Gallo, C. (2009). Delivering Happiness the Zappos Way. BusinessWeek Online, 21. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.