Michael Jones

Past

• Customer Care Manager at Carnival Australia
• Program Manager at Accor Advantage Plus
• Sales and Client Service Manager at Pow Wow Events

• Call Centre Manager at Cat Media Pty Ltd
• Call Centre Manager at Zip Telecommunications Pty Ltd
• Functional Lead Consultant at Ejiva Inc
• Telstra Internet and Data Services Operations Manager at Salesforce Australia Pty Ltd
• Driver/Signaller (RAAC) at Australian Army

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Education

• Palm Beach Currumbin High School

Connections

30 connections

Industry

Hospitality

Michael Jones’s Summary

Achievements:
Moved the team from a ‘bottom of the ladder’ regular against 9 other teams, to regularly competing in the top 5 in six months

Managing all consultants through individual accountability guidelines

Winning the respect of a team that has seen many managers come and go

I feel my greatest achievement was working with long-term under-performers who feel they have ‘heard it all before’, and transformed them into hungry sales professionals, who are once again hitting and exceeding their individual targets and are reaching new ‘personal bests’.

Michael Jones’s Specialties:

Here’s what you’ll discover:

• A solid and broad 8 years of experience

• A proven track record in both inbound and outbound

• Flexibility in managing teams ranging from 3 to 120 staff

• An excellent track record at recruitment and training methodologies

• Excellent history of meeting and exceeding sales targets

• Creative in the conception and implementation of new sales and marketing campaigns

• Brilliant rapport with staff

• Communication skills that are second to none

Michael Jones’s Experience

• Customer Care Manager

  Carnival Australia

  (Hospitality industry)

  February 2008 — November 2009 (1 year 10 months)

  Carnival Australia is the Regional office for Carnival Corporation & PLC, the largest Passenger Cruise Line company in the world, listed on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges. Carnival Australia’s locally operates P&O Cruises and is a sales agent for Princess Cruises, Cunard, P&O UK and Costa.
  
  My position as Customer Care Manager was split into five main roles:
  
  Online Community Manager – As a member of the digital strategy team I managed the publishing and moderation of two corporate blogs (Pacific Dawn and Pacific Jewel). I managed the traffic generation activity such as social bookmarking and editor of content to suit the online environment. The Facebook Fan page also required constant moderation, new engagement strategy ideas, and bridging the lap between online fans and the off-line customer relations team. I also provided a feedback loop on Twitter activity, and provided all reporting on the platforms.
  
  Passenger Assistance Manager – This team managed passengers medically disembarked from any Carnival ship between India and the international date line. The team offer a 24/7 assistance line to passengers and work in co-operation with local port agents, ground handlers, insurance assistance companies and consulates to ensure every need was met and assistance offered.
  
  Loyalty Helpdesk Manager - This team managed two loyalty programs for Princess Cruises and Cunard totaling 60,000 members. The team was responsible for data management, competition and promotion management, and identifying up-sell opportunities with members.
  
  Care Manager – This role required the development of a Care Team program to mobilise up to 100 volunteers to an accident site to support affected passengers and their families. This activity known as as Human Services Response does not take the place of professional counselors, but instead creates a human link between all survivors and Carnival Australia.

• Program Manager

  Accor Advantage Plus

  (Public Company; 12040; Hospitality industry)

  July 2005 — February 2008 (2 years 8 months)

  Advantage Plus is the largest hotel and resort loyalty card in the world (240,000 members) offering dining and accommodation discounts in 260 hotels and resorts in over 17 countries.
  
  My role was in managing all aspects of an outbound sales team of over 25 ‘loyalty consultants’, responsible for renewing over 19,000 members per year, as well as joining 5,000 new members.
  
  Areas of responsibilities included, staff forecasting and restoring, call coaching and performance management, career development and succession planning, as well as twice daily motivation and training staff meetings.
  
  I feel my greatest achievement was working with long-term under-performers who feel they have ‘heard it all before’, and transformed them into hungry sales professionals, who are once again hitting and exceeding their individual targets and are reaching new ‘personal bests’.
  
  Achievements:
  • Moved the team from a ‘bottom of the ladder’ regular against 9 other teams, to regularly competing in the top 5 within six months
  • Winning the respect of a team that has seen many managers come and go

• Sales and Client Service Manager

  Pow Wow Events

  (Higher Education industry)

  July 2003 — January 2005 (1 year 7 months)

  Pow Wow Events provide educational seminars in Australia and New Zealand ranging in interests including, sales, entrepreneurial development, investing, and personal development.
  
  These seminars ranged in price from $1500 to $7000 and helped thousands of participants reach new levels of success in growing new and existing businesses and developing massive investment portfolios in property and the stock market. They also provided an extensive product catalogue of over 2000 title of books, CD’s, training tools and games to support ongoing learning and skill development.
  
  Pow Wow is also the largest independent publisher in Australia, producing a string on #1 bestsellers including Robert Kiyosaki’s ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’. My role included recruitment and training, general management of KPIs and SLAs, and monitoring budget expenditure.
  
  It also involved creating and developing new sales processes, developing new sales campaign and opportunities, generating comprehensive sales and activity reports and having input into marketing campaign development.

• Call Centre Manager

  Cat Media Pty Ltd

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Pharmaceuticals industry)

  March 2002 — July 2003 (1 year 5 months)

  Cat Media manufactures and markets dermaceutical and neutriceutical products under the brand names of Skindoctors and Naturopathica respectively. In 2002, Cat Media were 29th in Business Review Weekly’s 100 fastest growing companies, and 1st place in the Neutriceutical industry.
  
  My role involved managing a outbound sales team of 18 staff, and a small inbound client service team of 3. I also maintained the relationship with an outsourced call centre to assist with ‘avalanche’ call volumes from infomercials.
  
  I developed implemented new recruitment and training procedures, managed sales KPIs, and designed the call centres quality control measures required for ISO accreditation.

• Call Centre Manager

  Zip Telecommunications Pty Ltd

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Telecommunications industry)

  July 2001 — November 2001 (5 months)

  Zip Telecommunications is a small outbound call centre of approx. 30 staff based in Paddington, Sydney. The clients included Optus and RSL.COM mobile phones.
  
  My Position as call centre manager included generation of procedures and practices, implementation of bonus and incentive schemes, new business proposal development and client liaison. Whilst fulfilling this position I also managed all IT&T systems and vendor relations and ensured the greatest outcome available.

• Functional Lead Consultant

  Ejiva Inc

  (Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Information Services industry)

  June 2000 — December 2000 (7 months)

  eJiva Inc. is a Pittsburgh (USA) based Business-to-Business eCommerce solution consulting firm, dedicated to creating collaborative communities between companies and their vendors, business partners, suppliers and customers.
  
  As a lead consultant within the Enterprise Interaction Centre (eIC) practice, I utilised customer-centric solution analysis skills to enhance the client's business efficiencies within their call centres. This is achieved via definition of the client's vision, in prioritising their direction and by establishing a solid understanding of the technologies necessary to maximize past systems and/or launch new eBusiness'.
  
  In addition to process and technology key focus points, I specialised in providing staff management methodologies designed to enhance call centre morale and simplify staff management.

• Telstra Internet and Data Services Operations Manager

  Salesforce Australia Pty Ltd

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Consumer Services industry)

  August 1997 — June 2000 (2 years 11 months)

  Starting as the second member of a rapidly expanding project, I quickly developed in tactical call centre experience and within 6 months was promoted to the position of Operations Manager. Prior to my departure, the project had developed at a phenomenal rate, from two staff members in August 1997 to approximately 120 staff, due to our continual commitment in exceeding the client's expectations in customer relationship management and sales quotas.

• Driver/Signaller (RAAC)

  Australian Army

  (Government Agency; 10,001 or more employees; Military industry)

  February 1992 — November 1996 (4 years 10 months)

  Fresh from high school, I enrolled in the Australian Army as a driver and radio communications operator equipped with an M113 armoured personnel carrier. The scheme allowed for one-year full-time employment and four years part-time while pursing other interests such as tertiary education. 1992 was the first year of this scheme, and the national advertising and high school recruitment drive had 40,000 applications, which resulted in 20,000 interviews before selecting 1000 successful recruits. In addition to this, the 50 armoured core positions in which I participated were offered to those in the top 4% in health, fitness and mental agility.

Michael Jones’s Education

• Palm Beach Currumbin High School

  1987 — 1991

Additional Information

Michael Jones’s Interests:

✓ Being a good husband and dad ✓ Social media platforms i.e. Twitter, Facebook, ✓ Maintaining my personal geek news blog www.thegeekaholic.com ✓ Staying up to date with emerging web tools such as Google Wave ✓ AFL Football - The Sydney Swans ✓ Australian and New Zealand Wine ✓ Sports Motorcycles ✓ Motor-sport e.g. V8 Supercar, MotoGP

Michael Jones’s Groups:

Social Media Club, Sydney

•    The Project Management Podcast

Michael Jones’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch