Wasif Balouch Ashrafi
Ottawa,ON
Summary
Extensive Customer Services, Sales Operations & Communications experience Fully committed to providing the highest possible standards of customer service and support Demonstrable track record of successful delivery on business objectives Team leader with a proven ability to train, supervise, motivate, and evaluate team members People Management Strategy, Business Planning & Development Project & Program Management Change Management & Career Development Recruitment, Training & Performance Management Problem Solving & Decision Making Performance Optimizer Overseeing the technical operations and customer support functions of our organization. Lead a team of technical professionals and customer support representatives, ensuring the seamless delivery of products/services and exceptional customer experiences. A balanced combination of technical expertise, leadership skills, and a customer-centric mindset.
Proactive and goal-oriented professional with excellent time management and problem-solving skills. Known for reliability and adaptability, with swift capacity to learn and apply new skills. Committed to leveraging these qualities to drive team success and contribute to organizational growth.
Overview
22
22
years of professional experience
Work History
Head of Technical Operations and Customer Support
AKHNY Solutions Inc.
10.2019 - Current
- Lead and supervise a team of technical professionals responsible for product installation, maintenance, troubleshooting, and updates
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including engineering, product management, and quality assurance, to ensure efficient product deployment and continuous improvement
- Develop and implement standard operating procedures for technical operations to maintain consistency and streamline processes
- Monitor key performance metrics related to technical operations and initiate corrective actions when necessary
- Manage a team of customer support representatives, providing guidance, training, and support to ensure excellent customer service delivery
- Foster a customer-centric culture within the team, emphasizing empathy, responsiveness, and effective issue resolution
- Develop and implement strategies to enhance the overall customer support experience, including channels such as phone, email, chat, and self-service portals
- Analyze customer support metrics to identify trends, issues, and opportunities for improvement
- Oversee the resolution of complex technical issues, ensuring timely and accurate solutions for customers
- Acted as a point of escalation for critical customer concerns and work closely with the team to address and resolve these issues promptly
- Collaborate with other departments to identify root causes of technical issues and implement preventive measures
- Recruit, onboard, and train new team members, ensuring they have the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in their roles
- Provide regular feedback, coaching, and performance evaluations to team members to foster professional growth and development
- Foster a collaborative and inclusive team environment that encourages innovation and continuous improvement
- Monitor and analyze data related to technical operations and customer support performance, deriving insights to inform decision-making
- Prepare regular reports and presentations for senior management, highlighting key performance indicators, trends, and improvement initiatives
Senior General Manager Contact Center & Customer Services
ARY Services
10.2017 - 10.2019
- Managed team of CSRs and Managers to provide help and advice to customers, using company’s products and services
- Communicate courteously with customers
- Investigate and solve customers' problems (more complex or long-standing problems)
- Answering client questions about financial plans and strategies and giving financial advice
- Implementing financial plans or referring clients to professionals who can help them
- Managing and updating client portfolios
- Contacting clients regularly to discover changes in their financial status
- Building and maintaining client base
- Handled professionally customer complaints or any crises, such as security issues or a customer being taken ill
- Kept accurate records of discussions or correspondence with customers
- Had meetings with other managers to discuss possible improvements to the sales strategies
- Defined and implemented strategies for sales targets
- Focused on improving customer care, sales and customers retention
- Regularly updated marketing department with the customers buying trend and marketing analysis for new promotions and campaigns
- Designed targeted campaigns based on seasons and other factors
- Responsible for successful roll out of new sales/marketing promotions
- Undertaken regular one to one meeting, team meetings, training and counseling/coaching sessions for all direct reporting Staff
- Planning and managing change
- Ensured on Job and Off job Training Sessions are conducted by the Managers to assure Staff is constantly trained on all key areas of customer services to provide 100% WoW Services on all Calls and accomplishing ZERO mistakes
General Manager DSC (Delivery Support Center)
Pizza Hut & Burger King Pakistan
08.2012 - 09.2017
- Responsible to assure the Centralized Contact Center for delivery & carry orders operates seamlessly catering more than 79 Pizza Hut & Burger King outlets countrywide
- Monitoring and ensuring implementation of predefined Customers Services standards
- Defined and implemented strategies for sales targets, new channel for Delivery services for customers convenience and addition in serving areas coverage
- Focusing on customers’ complaints and developing policies for avoiding those in future
- Updating marketing department with the customers buying trend and marketing analysis for new promotions and campaigns
- Designed targeted campaigns based on seasons and other factors
- Responsible for successful roll out of new sales/marketing promotions
- Successfully Increased Delivery Order Sales Share from 28% to 40% in overall sales
- Improved the overall Call vs
- Successful Order conversion ratio from 57% to 71% respectively
- Proactive Churn management by having close eyes on customers’ transactional trends for retention and winning them back
- Introduced Outbound Order Taking Call Activity on Drop Calls to win back possibly Lost Customers
- Defined Call Quality Parameters and Implement Quality Assurance process
- Delegating tasks to Contact Center Managers and work with them to clearly identify and define their responsibilities, developing key performance indicators/goals to ensure effective and efficient operation of the Call Centre
- Actively involved in New Hiring Process - Conducting fresh hire interviews and finalizing realistic job previews of Shortlisted Representatives
- Developed and Implemented Staff Retention Plan to control and curb the overall Attrition Factor
- Developed various Incentive Schemes implemented on daily and monthly basis to motivate the team to maximize the average customer amount being spent by focusing on positive suggestive selling
- Cohesive and Constant coordination with the MIS Dept
- To ensure appropriate manageability of technical resources in addition to the enhancements of Call Center Asterisk Based Software and Order Management Application to optimize the software’s assistance in overall system efficiency, speed and accuracy of the Delivery Orders taken by the Contact Center
Regional Head CS (Asia)
Kaymu.pk
06.2016 - 12.2016
- Established partnerships with industry leaders, expanding services offered and increasing market share.
- Drove innovation within the region by encouraging creative problem-solving approaches among team members.
- Increased revenue by identifying new business opportunities.
- Developed a collaborative culture, fostering teamwork and open communication throughout the region.
- Leveraged technology for improved operational efficiency, streamlining processes across multiple departments.
- Streamlined operations for increased efficiency through process improvements and staff training.
- Improved regional performance by implementing strategic sales initiatives and effective team management.
- Conducted regular performance reviews, setting clear expectations and supporting employee development initiatives.
- Attended weekly meetings to discuss and optimize strategies.
- Maintained positive customer relations by addressing problems head-on and implementing successful corrective actions.
- Recruited, interviewed and hired employees and implemented mentoring program to promote positive feedback and engagement.
- Improved staffing during busy periods by creating employee schedules and monitoring call-outs.
Head of Call Center
CATCOS Pvt Ltd.
01.2009 - 08.2012
- In this capacity I had a privilege of managing the following campaigns: KESC 118 (Karachi Electric Supply Corporation Complaint Service), Abbott Nutrition Telemarketing (Part of Abbott Pharmaceuticals), Green Star Social Marketing (Inbound Counseling), Pak Qatar Family Takaful (Inbound Services), BMA Capital (Outbound for Financial Products), International Campaign (Solo Mobility Canada), Rol N Bol (Inbound U.S)
- Setting and meeting performance targets for service, speed, efficiency, sales and quality
- Serving huge number of customer base and providing world class service to maintain the Turn Around Time (TAT) for complaints resolution by 90%
- Planning and managing change
- Liaising with supervisors, team leaders, operatives and third parties to gather information and resolve issues
- Planning and developing staff recruitment, including wording vacancy advertisements and liaising with HR staff
- Recording statistics, user rates and the performance levels of the center and preparing reports
- Implemented and supported network solutions for small businesses
- Set the performance targets for speed, efficiency, sales and quality and make sure that these targets are met accordingly
Manager Operations & Customer Services
Synergy BPO
12.2006 - 01.2009
- Contact Center & Back Office Operations of Australia Head office including Retailer Care
- Manage and direct all aspects of call center operations along with back office operations of Australia including supervision of nationwide Retailer network
- Churn management of nationwide customers
- Implements and reviews policies and procedures
- Develops and monitors quotas for service volume and timeliness
- Coaching and developing employees for world class customer services
- Motivating call center agents to achieve high performance, overseeing the design and delivery of all training programs, monitoring calls for quality assurance, recruiting and hiring new personnel, and handling escalated concerns that fall outside the purview of floor supervisors
- Establish best practices to foster an environment of continual improvement
Manager Operations & Customer Services
KATZ COMMUNICATIONS
01.2003 - 12.2006
- Managing daily operations of own and Outsourced Contact Centre Operations
- Forecasting and analyzing data against budget figures on weekly and monthly basis
- Ensure that the operations run smoothly on day to day basis by analyzing performance statistics like average speed of answer, average time of abandonment, and making decisions on the basis of performance statistics like which member of the staff need to be improved
- Analyze how effective the current scripts are
- Preparing reports for daily, weekly and monthly performance of the staff
- Set the performance targets for speed, efficiency, sales and quality and make sure that these targets are met accordingly
- Liaising with Contact Centre supervisors, managers, operatives, and clients
- Staff recruitment, including wording vacancy advertisements and liaising with HR staff
Education
MBA - Marketing
University of The Punjab
Skills
- Staff training and development
- Leadership and team building
- Team management
- Cross-functional teamwork
- Operations management
- Innovation and creativity
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Team player
- Customer satisfaction
- Performance management
- Staff training
- Efficient multi-tasker
- Public speaking
- Shift scheduling
- Client relationships
- Operations oversight
- Administrative skills
- Staff supervision
- Talent acquisition
- Skilled in CRMs and Call center softwares
Professional References
Will be furnished upon request.
Status In Canada
Citizen
Honors Awards Special Projects
- Gold Medal for Pizza hut Contact Center (Best in Customer Services APAC)
- Achieved Gold Medal in Best Customer Services and Runner Up in Contact Center Operations in the ‘APAC – Global Contact Center World Competition ‘held in Singapore from 03rd June to 07th June 2013 whereby Pizza hut Pakistan was being represented by me.
- Judge for the Global Contact Center World Competition of Contact Center World.
- Honored to be the Judge for 9th Contact Centers competition 2014, 2017 and 2018 by Contact Center World and judged/evaluated different contact centers best practices globally.
- Successfully hired, trained and inducted visually and physically impaired Customer Service Representatives under Corporate Social Responsibility initiative taken by Pizza hut call center. Designed training material and made system changes according to the requirements.
Languages
Urdu
Native or Bilingual
English
Full Professional
Hindi
Full Professional
Punjabi
Full Professional
Timeline
Head of Technical Operations and Customer Support
AKHNY Solutions Inc.
10.2019 - Current
Senior General Manager Contact Center & Customer Services
ARY Services
10.2017 - 10.2019
Regional Head CS (Asia)
Kaymu.pk
06.2016 - 12.2016
General Manager DSC (Delivery Support Center)
Pizza Hut & Burger King Pakistan
08.2012 - 09.2017
Head of Call Center
CATCOS Pvt Ltd.
01.2009 - 08.2012
Manager Operations & Customer Services
Synergy BPO
12.2006 - 01.2009
Manager Operations & Customer Services
KATZ COMMUNICATIONS
01.2003 - 12.2006
MBA - Marketing
University of The Punjab
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