Lauren Appel

Experience

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  BELLSOUTH TELECOMMUNICATIONS INC

  Oct 2003 - Feb 2005

  Executive Case Writer

  Partnered with cross-functional teams on formulating solutions to maximize the end user experience within the organization. Wrote standard operating procedures (SOPs) for customer success and customer relations programs. Identified and implemented best practices, as well as clarified areas of need and created continuous improvement solutions to address root cause of customer experience issues. Communicated regularly with senior leadership and executive suite of change management and business transformation initiatives. Built consensus and buy-in for new policies and protocols. Facilitated monthly meetings for senior leadership to review customer correspondence and outreach to CEO’s office, analyzing best practices, service delivery standards, and strategic approaches to resolve concerns. Wrote C-level summaries of strategic solutions, helping executives understand high profile customer success and satisfaction issues, as well as adjusted communications to ensure action plans were in place for resolution. Coached and mentored contract employee assigned to review cases, research trends, and investigate claims. Show less

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  AT&T

  Nov 2005 - Dec 2019

  Direct SaaS product implementation in partnership with vendor (Nuance) across more than 30 business units, acting as Product Owner for all enterprise-wide Chat solutions and communicating across organizational levels on issues, features, and changes. Manage user stories and monitor functionality to ensure seamless delivery, as well as act as Release Manager for weekly Chat releases by coordinating across teams on successful delivery of new features and functionality. Establish Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with vendors and collaborate with internal stakeholders to ensure SLAs are met, meeting client success and satisfaction goals. Maintain user access list of approximately 30K to ensure access is restricted only to necessary users. Partner with Corporate Accessibility Technology Office (CATO) on monitoring accessibility of websites. Supervise and manage contractors. Show less Collaborated with clients and internal stakeholders on identifying challenges to the customer experience, clarifying the customer journey, and introducing process improvements to maximize customer success. Prepared job aides and documentation to support client-facing teams in meeting service level agreements (SLAs) for DSL services. Gathered requirements from clients and internal teams for process documentation, as well as revised documentation to address and resolve identified gaps. Trained employees across service centers. Launched escalation team from concept through training and rollout comprised of agents tasked with resolving high-profile customer challenges, empowering team to make creative decisions to preserve brand integrity. Acted as Subject Matter Expert (SME) on operations and order flow, visiting centers to advise and consult on customer-centric initiatives and processes to improve customer experience. Nurtured a collaborative team culture that leveraged individual employees’ strengths and drove accountability. Show less Identified and implemented process improvements to maximize efficiency and streamline operations. Monitored and tracked performance to ensure alignment with company expectations, client requirements, and service delivery standards. Addressed escalated and high-profile customer experience cases. Collaborated with technical teams on resolving technical issues, as well as partnered with vendors on training initiatives and performance management to maintain service delivery. Developed resource allocation plans, forecasts, and schedules. Led hiring, recruitment, and staffing for division. Guided team through operational changes as company went through transformation from Bellsouth to AT&T. Restructured team of contractors and made case to bring division in-house, earning approval from senior leadership and securing tools to support transition of employees. Managed internal and vendor teams in US and Costa Rica responsible for addressing backend DSL order fallout. Established KPIs and measures for success, introducing performance improvement plans where needed to encourage growth among team. Addressed escalated behavioral issues among staff up to and including termination, collaborating with HR to ensure compliance with labor laws and company guidelines. Show less

  • Senior Business Manager

    May 2014 - Dec 2019

  • Senior Quality M&P Process Manager

    Nov 2010 - May 2014

  • Production Support Manager

    Nov 2005 - Nov 2010
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  Cabbagetown Initiative Community Development Corporation (CICDC)

  Oct 2020 - now

  Chair of Chomp & Stomp/ CI Board Member

  Chaired the coordination and execution of the 2021 and 2022 Chomp & Stomp festivals, a 20,000+ attendee local chili and bluegrass festival. This fully volunteer-run, non-profit festival funds our focus on community development through the maintenance and enhancement of the Cabbagetown parks.

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  Rhythm Software

  Jul 2021 - Aug 2022

  Senior Implementation Project Manager

  Led migration to and implementation of associate management software (AMS) for eight customers with varying levels of complexity. Developed strong relationships with each client to build a lasting foundation that enabled their success through launch and go-live.• Established best practices across the implementation life cycle, improving existing methods and creating new, more customer-focused processes.• Central point of contact for customers, providing a friendly and informative source to answer any questions and address any concern. Provided customers with a helpful and reassuring hand during a sometimes com- plex process.• Guided customers through the AMS product, enabling and empowering them to easily find solutions and self- serve.• Generated and standardized process documentation to allow for a seamless and consistent implementation process.• Partnered with several external integrations including Higher Logic, SiteFinity, WordPress, and Campaign Monitor, to insure a successful implementation and seamless communication with the AMS. Show less