April De Lauter
Rising Sun,MD
Summary
Insightful Manager with experience directing and improving operations through effective employee motivational strategies and strong policy enforcement. Proficient in best practices, market trends and regulatory requirements of industry operations. Talented leader with analytical approach to business planning and day-to-day problem-solving.
Overview
22
22
years of professional experience
Work History
Manager – Servicing Contact Center
Sallie Mae
06.2016 - Current
- Provide direction, mentorship, feedback, coaching, and goal setting to a team of new-to-firm, senior level specialists, and associates ensuring alignment with organizational objectives and individual career development
- Improvement initiatives focusing on consistency between servicing, origination, collections, and account management
- Manage recruitment efforts for general and senior-level specialist as well as facilitate associate-level promotions
- Update policy resources to reflect current best practices and regulatory requirements, ensuring compliance and consistency across the organization
- Partner with Workforce Management to analyze daily performance, monitor weekly forecasting, and make recommendation for strategic hiring of general and senior-level new hire classes to maintain necessary staffing while adhering to organizational budgets
- Manage the peer mentor program, facilitating knowledge transfer and professional development opportunities for team members
- Develop and implement strategies to enhance team performance, productivity, and efficiency, resulting in the a 10% more favorable budget than the previous year, as well an increase in service levels year over year, and improvement of the CX goal by 3% year over year
- Foster a positive and inclusive work environment, promoting open communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing among team members as well as departments.
Team Lead – Customer Care Contact Center
Sallie Mae
04.2019 - 03.2022
- Responsible for oversight and management of internal teams during manager PTO
- Implemented and managed New Hire Peer Mentor Pilot Program aimed at increasing new hire retention, improving new hire average handle time to reduce costs, and mitigate new hire compliance errors
- Facilitated onboarding for new Team Leads
- Managed internal team during Teleperformance vendor task force
- Completed monthly 1:1's and call reviews during Teleperformance vendor task force
- Managed First Line of Defense (1LOD) compliance and procedural error coaching, remediation, and secondary reviews
- Responsible for working daily internal reports to mitigate risk and prevent compliance errors including the Rejected IDT Report, Accounts Worked Report, More Information Needed Cases and Root Cause Resolution Report
- Handled manager call back requests and customer complaints to remediate accounts, de-escalate calls and improve customer satisfaction
- Partnered with additional lines of business, Collections, Back Office Processing, School Assist, Sales Call Center, to identify communication and procedural gaps, recommend enhancement opportunities, and implement process
- Improvements to enhancement customer experience and meet SLA's
- Assisted with New Hire Education and On-going Education to make education more efficient and make recommendations for new hire retention strategies.
Loan Servicing Specialist III – Customer Operations Fulfillment & Support
Sallie Mae
08.2018 - 04.2019
- Processed account adjustments, including military benefits, enrollment updates, forbearance exceptions, graduated repayment, and auto debit updates, return mail
- Acted as the liaison between COFS and Office of Customer Advocate (OCA) regarding any COFS-related complaints, providing OCA with subject matter expertise within a 48-hour SLA
- Collaborated with business partners (e.g., Compliance) to identify areas of risk and provide recommendations to address such risk, including enhancements to policies/procedures, training, or technology
- Subject matter expert on bank's regulatory requirements under the Service Members Civil Relief Act (SCRA) Coached new and existing colleagues when processes are worked incorrectly
- Identified gaps and mitigated risk in SCRA process by reducing the amount of manual processing of SCRA accounts and transitioning into an automated development.
Specialized Customer Care Advisor – Customer Care Contact Center
Sallie Mae
10.2016 - 08.2018
- Partnered with external business areas to provide resolution to customer concerns
- Decreased escalated calls and reduced customer risk by providing accurate, extensive research, and exceptional customer service
- Provided recommendations to Business Support on opportunities to mitigate forbearance exceptions
- Assisted with creation of new procedures to address undocumented processes (both new and existing processes) Supported Education by providing input on new hire education material as well as creating several new hire PowerPoint presentations
- Responded to customer inquiries and concerns posted from customers on social media platforms.
Customer Care Advisor – Customer Care Contact Center
Sallie Mae
06.2016 - 10.2016
Client Manager – Corporate Banking Division
Citi Banking Corp.
07.2004 - 11.2009
Team Lead – Credit Card Customer Care Department
Citi Banking Corp.
10.2002 - 07.2004
Customer Service Agent – Credit Card Customer Care Department
Citi Banking Corp.
03.2002 - 10.2002
- Took inbound calls to assist with customer's credit card accounts
- Tasked with upselling of additional credit card programs such as traveler's insurance, job loss insurance, car roadside insurance and other add-ons.
Skills
- Strategic Planning
- Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Operations Management
- Talent Development
Timeline
Team Lead – Customer Care Contact Center
Sallie Mae
04.2019 - 03.2022
Loan Servicing Specialist III – Customer Operations Fulfillment & Support
Sallie Mae
08.2018 - 04.2019
Specialized Customer Care Advisor – Customer Care Contact Center
Sallie Mae
10.2016 - 08.2018
Manager – Servicing Contact Center
Sallie Mae
06.2016 - Current
Customer Care Advisor – Customer Care Contact Center
Sallie Mae
06.2016 - 10.2016
Client Manager – Corporate Banking Division
Citi Banking Corp.
07.2004 - 11.2009
Team Lead – Credit Card Customer Care Department
Citi Banking Corp.
10.2002 - 07.2004
Customer Service Agent – Credit Card Customer Care Department
Citi Banking Corp.
03.2002 - 10.2002