AREA CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER - MIDDLE EAST & IRAN
BRITISH AIRWAYS
Total years of experience :29 years, 10 Months
Working as Area Customer Service Manager-Middle East & Iran based at Dubai. Handling a team of 21 direct & GSA staff, responsible for CS activities across 7 countries (11 stations) i.e. UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran, which contributes £12m to the business. Directly reporting to Regional CS Manager, ME South Asia and Africa, the job entails:
Devise and implement short, medium and long-term strategies incorporating financial, conformance and contractual elements.
Prepare preliminary annual cost budget, administer and manage customer service activities within the approved budget.
Introduce Customer Service Plans, in conjunction with the Commercial Teams, for the development of key business opportunities. Calculated risk taking to foster climate of innovation.
Supplier Management through SLAs. Manage the performance of suppliers in order to minimize costs and maintain/improve service levels.
Ensure complete adherence to all prescribed operational, safety and security standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Responsible for developing and enhancing a portfolio of service provider relationships, thereby ensuring BAWC delivers quality conformance, reliable and consistent service to an ever-expanding base of customers
Monitor and compare performance against the prescribed Customer Service indicators.
Lead, motivate, coach and support teams in a challenging and constantly changing business environment. Ensure that training and capability development plans exist for all staff.
Prepare, administer, test and update on a regular basis the station Business Continuity Plans (BCPs), Self Audit Programme (SAP) and address shortfalls.
Maximize area revenue from recoveries, accurate invoicing/collection, Debt management and effective revenue abuse controls.
Represent BAWC at the regulatory/ industry forums. Comprehend both industry and local regulatory and legal constraints and manage conflicting priorities appropriately.
Worked as a Customer Service Manager-Central India based at Mumbai directly reporting to Area Manager, India & Nepal. Handled a team of 45 staff. Under the customer service umbrella, was responsible for extending world-class customer service to all Global Key Accounts and Local Key Accounts in Central India who contributed £15 million to the business. Responsible for Revenue Optimisation, Telesales, Call centre, Finance, Claims, Imports, Flight Operations, and Flight Planning.
Worked as an Account Manager (Sales) based at Mumbai directly reporting to Commercial Manager, Central India. The job responsibility entailed:
• Achieve a target of GBP 4 million from 54 freight forwarding companies to deliver quality revenue results through trade, corporate, direct and specialist sales.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with Multinational freight forwarding companies like EXPEDITORS, BAX GLOBAL, UT WORLDWIDE, PANALPINA, DHL, GEOLOGISTICS, DANZAS-AEI etc.
• Develop two-way traffic i.e. Imports and Exports from the MNCs and other local forwarders. Identify and prospect for new revenue opportunities and follow up identified sales leads. Maintain account database.
• Contribute ideas for marketing campaigns and use of marketing initiatives to deliver revenue targets.
• Where applicable, use all new technology and methods of distribution as support to revenue goals and achievement.
• To call on clients who have complaints and initiate service recovery action to maintain loyalty.
• Prepare MIS weekly and monthly reports for Central India to be reviewed by the management in South-Asia, Middle East & Asia Pacific.
Worked as the Y2K Co-ordinator, South Asia based at Mumbai directly reporting to IT Manager, South Asia. The job responsibility entailed:
• Working closely with the Y2K Project Team in Asia Pacific providing support/ information to other regions.
• Rolling out the guidelines to all the lines managers/airport managers & Y2K champs to ensure that all the phases of the project are executed well within time frames.
• Preparing Management reports for line Managers in South Asia and London, to monitor progress of each milestone of the project.
• Supporting the airport managers in the region in dealing with Air traffic control, IATA, Airport Authorities and similar agencies to spread Y2K awareness through presentations, seminars & workshops.
• Guiding the Airport authorities through the IATA Y2K programme and providing support in drawing up the contingency plans for the airport.
• Dealing with external suppliers to ensure compliance certification.
• Educate the suppliers through presentations/seminars on the impact of Y2K on their business and interdependencies of businesses.
• Developing and implementing Y2K Contingency plans for IT, Marketing, Sales, Telesales & Airports to ensure Business Continuity in British Airways beyond the year 2000.
• Preparing business cases for all departments in South Asia.
• Quality Assurance.
Back office support worldwide to British Airways reservations, fare desks and agents throughout the world, through data processing.
Worked as the ‘Senior Assistant’ in the Conference Division. The job involved organizing
- International conferences and exhibitions, conducting pre/post conference tours within India &
- Neighboring countries and handling all other travel related arrangements.
Worked as the Marketing Assistant based at the corporate office of Sita World Travel dealing
in Inbound tours. New Delhi. The job responsibilities included:
• Preparing itineraries for various inbound tours within India to be used by the overseas agents responsible for selling India as a tourist destination.
• Communicating with the hoteliers and transporters to obtain their tariff for different cities within India & neighboring countries.
• Studying market trend to help in negotiating the best possible rates with the hoteliers.
