Anne Marie Colangelo
Contract Project Manager
Several years ago, Anne Marie was working as the national customer service manager for a global asset management company. The organisation had national offices, and Anne Marie’s team dealt directly with customers across the country, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
What became clear to her over time was that the organisation needed a more cohesive working strategy to better meet their front-line services with clients.
“We wanted to work out a national approach to deliver our services better,” Anne Marie says. “Our customers preferred one-on-one relationships. And we needed to make sure that there was consistency in the way we provided services and responded to customer issues in every state.”
And that’s when Glass Rock Solutions’ Preetie Shehkkar became involved.
Understanding your business
The first opportunity Anne Marie had to work with Preetie was when Preetie was facilitating a session to improve the way internal departments worked together.
This was a sort of test contract for Glass Rock Solutions, as the organisation wanted to gauge what they were capable of in terms of delivering professional training.
“I met Preetie after she was appointed. And I remember feeling no apprehension at all about working with her because of how very engaging she was.
She works on a very REAL level, and she connects with people in such a way, and engages in such a way, that you immediately feel comfortable with her and open to what she’s saying.”
The other significant note Anne Marie took during that first session with Preetie was just how much Preetie understood about the business and how she was able to relate it back to staff.
“That was the biggest thing. She spent a lot of time getting to know our business and truly understanding it, so that she was able to relate the root cause of what we were trying to do back to us as if she’d been there for ages. This won over a lot of people, which is very hard to do.”
Helping internal departments to work better
This particular session was a discovery and research, so Preetie could work with the various key department personnel and develop a thorough understanding of what steps they needed to take next.
“The amazing thing about this session was that Preetie was able to facilitate it in such a way that she demonstrated every department’s benefit to the other.
Everything she did – the way she customised her facilitation, her messaging, her delivery based on her excellent understanding of the business – showed how and where improvements could be made.
After this, she analysed how to prepare people who reported to leadership on how to have better relationships in the business and who should be involved in the training and at what level.
It’s because of the tremendous effort she made to understand the intricacies of the business’s workings that she was able to achieve all this.”
Building better customer service
The next phase of the training concentrated on how the organisation could build a better service for their customers, to meet their contractual agreements.
And crucially, how the many departments across all the states could work together better to achieve that ultimate delivery of service.
“Our aim was to build a better capacity to provide a consistent service, not a silo service, across the country.
So, we needed to agree to some principles and processes for consistency, particularly where a client had a national brand. We needed to make sure we delivered the same level of service in each state for that client.
Preetie was incredible. She bridged gaps between the departments. And the way she engaged people and delivered her messaging allowed staff members to naturally adopt what she said.
The way she helped staff understand the issues, it was like they came to the same conclusion themselves, and the change needed seemed like a natural one. She empowered people in the process.”
“I’ve never met a trainer like Preetie”
Preetie’s style impressed Anne Marie greatly. So greatly, she says,
“I’ve never met a trainer like Preetie! She never ever talks at you, and the way she facilitates her sessions, you don’t feel you’re in a training session at all.
She brings all these different techniques to the table to draw out what worked and didn’t work, and just what the issues are in a very natural-feeling environment.
That’s why I’m such an advocate for her. Her process was so committed and she followed it through to the last second.
To put it simply, she delivered what she said she would do. And importantly, when the sessions were finished, she checked how many of the recommendations were actually implemented so she could demonstrate back to the senior leadership what we did, why we did it and the outcome.
She’s a consummate professional and completely thorough.”
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