10 Award-Winning Tips for Celebrating Customer Service Week

Amanda Ballard Customer Support Manager, VF Imagewear

Amanda Ballard is the Customer Support Manager for VF Imagewear managing various call center operations, customer satisfaction, employee relations, and order fulfillment.    VF Imagewear is one of the world’s largest apparel manufacturers.  The Nashville division supports large uniform programs and distributors providing brand opportunities for thousands of companies.  Amanda has worked over 28 years in management and customer support functions.   In 1998, Amanda joined VF Imagewear to assist in managing customer relations, retention, and provide on-going customer support.

Amanda holds a Bachelor’s degree from Western Kentucky University and currently working towards her Masters of Business at Bethel University.  Prior to VF Imagewear, Amanda held management roles in guest services with Gaylord Properties, Opryland.

Tito Colon Sr. Director, Head of Multicultural Marketing, Aetna

Tito Colon is the Sr. Director, head of Multicultural Marketing at Aetna Inc., one of the nation’s leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving an estimated 44 million people.

Tito is a bilingual professional with over 18 years of passion in providing strategic leadership and transformative insights to target profitable growth opportunities. As head of Multicultural Marketing for Aetna he's able to apply his passion in reaching the multicultural segment to drive business growth. In 2013 Tito received Aetna’s top honor, the 2013 Chairman Leadership Award.  This year, Aetna won an ICMI Global Contact Center Award for Best Multilingual Service.

Through his efforts, he reshapes how Aetna views the multicultural opportunity by provide the thought leadership and transformational insight needed to win.  He focuses on consumer targeting, acquisition, service experience and retention initiatives that touch all Aetna business segments.  To support an authentic market presence, he also is responsible for enterprise language capabilities across print, digital and voice that enhance Aetna’s readiness in a post Healthcare Reform environment.

He holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business Management from Westfield State College. He resides in Atlanta Georgia.

Pat Rodgers Senior Customer Engagement Manager, UPMC Health Plan

Pat Rodgers is the Senior Customer Engagement Manager for UPMC Health Plan.  Pat has worked for UPMC HP since 2002  in the Customer Service Contact Center managing the Commercial products.  Accomplishments have included  winning the ACES and Superstar award. Pat has helped improve and streamline processes, drive one call resolution, and integrate of all member touch points. Pat has also helped the Call Center achieve JD Power Call Center Certification in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014, as well as, other awards from ICMI, Large Call Center of the Year 2012 and 2015 and 2013 ICMI Best Customer Experience Program.

Pat has managed in customer service call centers for the past 25+ years,  prior to UPMC HP, Operations Manager for General Electric,  with focus on customer retention, training, growth, and sales.

Pat is also certified by international organizations, such as DDI, Kaset International,  for Customer Relations .\She is a certified trainer as well for multiple corporations.

Mitchel Forney Marketing Director, Voiance Language Services

As Brand Manger with Voiance, Mitchel has overseen the development of the largest published research projects on language services in contact centers.

Mitchel joined Voiance in 2010. His responsibilities include market research, content creation, marketing campaigns in print, digital, and in-person formats, and the successful development of multi-million dollar contract proposals.

Mitchel holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona, where Mitchel currently serves a member of the Marketing Department’s Board of Advisors. Prior to joining Voiance, Mitchel held a management role with the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network.

Stephen Pappas SVP, Panviva

Stephen Pappas, SVP, Panviva, Inc: Stephen manages all aspects of Panviva’s North American operations and has more than 20 years experience in enterprise software sales and operations. He previously served as a Director of International Sales with Harte-Hanks Trillium Software, where he took their enterprise data management offering to 54 countries by establishing reseller partnerships and regional sales offices. Other roles have included Executive Vice President of a SaaS software start-up and Director of Sales and Business Development at PageFlex.

Kevin Hegebarth ,

Kevin Hegebarth is Vice President of Marketing and Product Management for HireIQ Solutions, Inc. He has over 30 years’ experience in providing software and technology solutions designed to improve the recruiting, hiring, performance, and quality of customer service professionals.

He has held executive marketing, product management and business development leadership roles with leading companies in the customer experience market.  He is a frequent contributor to industry publications and has spoken at numerous industry events on topics such as workforce acquisition and optimization, the role of social media in recruiting and customer service, and innovative human capital management strategies.

He is an inventor on a number U.S. patents relating to the use of predictive analytics in hiring and employee performance optimization.  Kevin is also an AIPMM-certified product manager.

He can be reached at [email protected].