John Ramette

Introducing John Ramette

A brief synopsis of his experience, leadership style, and personal philosophy

A focused and driven professional who reverses

underperforming operations and understands the value of having a little fun in the process

February 2017

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Personal Philosophy & Core Values

An experienced leader with a strong business acumen, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a long history of reversing underperforming operations who believes in:

•  Doing the Right Thing •  Trusting in Teamwork •  Leading with Confidence •  Putting the Customer First and Practice the Platinum Rule •  Enhancing Revenue and Shareholder Value •  Investing in People •  The HOW is as Important as the WHAT •  Working Hard and Having Fun •  The 4 Ps – People, Processes, Performance, Profits •  Being innovative and improving processes •  Listening, Learning, then being Decisive •  Celebrating Success Often, and in Meaningful Ways

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My Sales Philosophy: •  Set High Goals then Exceed Them •  Build Relationships and Become a Trusted Advisor •  SELL is Not a 4-Letter Word, but H.E.L.P. is Better (Help, Engage,

Leverage, Proactive) •  If You Think Customers Are Not Important, Try Doing Business Without

Them •  The #1 Reason for Loosing a Sale is Because you Didn’t ASK for the

Sale •  Selling Does Not Stop When The Customer Says YES •  Open Strong, Stay Strong, Close Strong

My Sales Philosophy

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How I make it Fun and Meaningful

A picture is worth 1,000 words

Pie In The Face – Fundraise for Employee with Cancer. The Call Center raised over $1,000.

In Nov. 2014 I suggested we come together and select an Angel off an Angel tree to give back. Later that night, I realized many of our Agents were the same people I was trying to help, so instead created “Dear Santa” with agent’s kids writing letters to Santa. We did fun fundraising activities and increased our 6-week sales goals to cover the expense. This energized the team and sales increased by $338k above our current run-rate, and the families got much needed “Santa” help. In 2015 this program increased sales $253k above the 2014 Dear Santa results (overall up $591K) for a similar 6-week period. Company expense for this program was less than $2,500 a year.

Celebrating success and important milestones, like SUPER success, Special Birthdays, Weddings, the Birth of a Child, Graduations... Seeking ways to celebrate and embracing them, rather letting the busy week get in the way.

Sometimes you just need to have FUN!

Guess who lost the sales bet?

Employee Appreciation Week. Entire week celebrating our employees with a theme that reinforces our goals and values, with something a little different each day

Employees got one ticket for each key metric achieved and used them to vote what Manager would wear these

Luckily I did not “win”

Sometimes the team just needs Ice Cream, for no special reason at all!

Beyond the Resume

Hotel General Manager and Hospitality Corporate Trainer Roles I always likes hotels, so I took a 35% pay cut and got a job as a Front Desk Supervisor at a new luxury

hotel. Seven years after a ton of hard work later in corporate training and GM roles, I came back as the General Manger of that same hotel, and in 2 years took an unsellable property in a declining and depressed market and doubled it’s asset value where it sold not once, but twice.

During this time, I helped develop, test, and roll out Hampton Inns 100% Guarantee, trained over 1,200 GMs, and brought prosperity and growth to multiple under performing hotels in challenging markets. Banking Branch Manager and VP of Quality Optimization for all 32 of Bank of America’s call centers

I joined BOA’s MAPS program for new managers and used my skills as a GM to quickly absorb the necessary skills, producing the highest MAPS sales performance in the history of BOA

I was selected to assist BOA’s call center operations and after successfully revitalizing the Western QA division, was promoted to lead the entire QA division where I had significant success in driving teamwork, improved agent skills, and increased CSAT scores valued at $8MM/year. Consulting Positions

I left BOA and started my own consulting firm and found great satisfaction and success helping clients in interesting the unique ways. Sometimes I would work alone, other times with more established consulting firms. Each endeavor raised my experience level, provided me insights to new and different operating styles and cultures, and allowed me to grow professionally in an expedient and more well-rounded manner. Call Center Director Positions

I moved back to a more traditional role for it’s stability, comradery, and structure. Both the Monitornics and Frontier Communications roles were unique and interesting positions. Both offered me a chance to experience new companies and operating styles. Both advanced my experience and skills. And both brought clearly into focus the kind of leader I wanted to be and the kind of company I wanted to be associated with.

Beyond the Resume Vice President – Customer Experience at Smart Start

I provided consulting services for Smart Start a couple of times, believed in their products and mission to reduce or eliminate drunk driving, and was asked to join the team in 2013.

The call center was a mess, and suffered from years of managerial neglect. Sales were underperforming, morale was dismal, the supervisory team was extremely weak, and and the operation was absent of innovation, good metrics, processes, and technology.

So, I first listened and learned, then began the transformation from an order-taking organization to a true sales organization. From a “You are a drunk so why should I care” mentality to one that was customer centric. From an operation that did not know why or what was happening to a place where metrics, communication, and sound processes were the governing force behind expectations and results.

In short order, morale was restored, sales soared, solid metrics were in place, and customer satisfaction scores were at all time highs. I left the company after 3 consecutive years of record sales and with abandonment rates, employee turnover, ASA, and cost per call at historic lows.

So, How did I do it? •  Teamwork, focused on common goals and objectives, inspired by dynamic leadership

•  Proper training and incentives, and the constant reinforcement for growth and development

•  Innovative processes that supported my initiatives, enriched the employee and customer experience, and made it easier to manage to and exceed goals and objectives

•  By putting the customer at the center of what we did, and letting that be the catalyst for driving greater satisfaction scores and revenue growth

•  Taking care of my team by rewarding strong performance, celebrating success, and taking a personal interest in the lives and dreams of my employees

Save A Life Campaign

When I came on board, it was common to reference and dismiss our clients as drunks... which created a disrespectful mindset that was affecting morale and sales. So in the first 30 days I created the Save A Life campaign, designed to bring awareness to and remind everyone why we were there, besides to just make a buck. Statically, for every six clients we installed, one person was saved from death or a life altering

impairment due to a drunk driver. Agents would draw a stick figure body part for each sale, with 6 sales completing a “person” saved. What was so impactful is that they named them using their children and friends names. Morale improved, sales skyrocketed, and we were off, now ready to take the next steps for introducing a true sales culture and mindset.

Even named one after our CEO

Getting CSAT scores up was a priority too, and what was originally just a handful of reviews a month, soared to over 100 every month with a 9.7 average score

Other Successful Initiatives

•  Development of metrics and analytics that provided me with near instant data and a method to track agent performance at the individual, team, & Center level

•  Created a tiered incentive plan designed to recognize and reward individual performance. This spurred sales close ratios to record highs for 3 years

•  Rebuilt historically poor and fractured Franchisee and State Director relationships

•  Completely revamped the training and on-boarding process, including sales specific training

•  Heavy concentration of mentoring and developing management staff

•  Created continuing learning opportunities, knowledge checks, and growth opportunities

•  Introduced IVR changes and implemented call containment strategies

•  Introduced Trust Pilot review awareness, training, and contests and increased reviews from 3 or less a month to over 100 a month, with an average score of 9.7 out of 10

•  Built morale and employee satisfaction initiatives that improved the employee experience and substantially reduce turnover

Enriching lives and making a difference

Celebrating college graduates

Coming in at 4am to clear a path for my team

Recognizing our team as super heroes for saving lives each and every day Texas State Fair outing

“Hitting our Target” celebration Celebrating the “Need for Speed”

Pausing for a moment for the call center to say THANKS to both our former Owner and CEO

Celebrating weddings and babies

Having fun on all the special holidays Participating in MADD walks

References

Jim Ballard – Former President and CEO, Smart Start “I hired John in my role as CEO of Smart Start in November of 2013 because I had known John for many years and had seen his work ethic, unique style and personality in action over those years. His enthusiasm for his job was genuine and catching which made him a perfect candidate when we needed to bring in the next level of leadership in our growing call center. During his tenor with Smart Start John implemented many new process improvements, strengthened employee morale and developed more useful statistical information on call center and agent performance just to name a few. He implemented a complete new phone system and IVR and developed an online customer rating program to help ensure we were meeting our goals of providing superior service to our customers. I have no reservations recommending John for a high level leadership role and am confident he will be a successful and key contributor to a company wherever he is.” Kris Pearson – Current VP of Sales, Smart Start, Formally NY State Director “John and his call center team turned out solutions and growth. He is greatly responsive to those who seek information on territory call rates and other issues. He takes input and offers innovative suggestions on ways to grow sales and closure rates. He manages his team with integrity, enthusiasm and initiative. He motivates and grows them with leadership and creativity. He is a team member who focuses on short and long-term goals that lead to successes”

References

Jacquie Sheehey – Current Director of Marketing, Smart Start “John has been a pleasure to work with over the past 3 years at Smart Start. He exemplifies strong leadership and a phenomenal team approach in his management skills. John reached beyond the day to day with the call center and communicated a passion for how important our work is in saving lives through technology with his call center agents so they would connect with our clients and get what we are all about!” Randy Comer – Former VP, Marketing, Smart Start “John is one of the strongest analytical and creative thinkers I know. He manages extremely well and is very well respected amongst both constituents and those who report into him. While at Smart Start, John created unique ways of creating customer interest and motivated his team to perform in a stellar manner. I personally feel privileged to know John both as a business ally and from a personal perspective. He is a mentor to many and as huge encourager. Anyone who hires John will find that he contributes to the company in ways that are solution oriented and amazingly creative. His solutions resulted in significant revenue generation at Smart Start.” See all 10 Smart Start references including direct reports and employees on John’s LinkedIn profile at:https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnramette?trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile

References

Brent Heilman - Current Managing Director, Frontier Communications “John is a leader driven by navigating the corporate landscape to develop strategic initiatives from start to finish. His time working with me in product sales, marketing and technical services gives him an edge when interacting with various groups to deliver results while driving Customer Experience innovation. These factors, when coupled with his deep understanding of every aspect of running call center type operations to include digital, mobile and omni channel support and service makes him a well rounded individual for any organization.” Victor Merced-Felix–Former Call Center Manager/direct report, Frontier Communications John it's a great mentor, work with him was one of the best professional experience in my life. He is always focus on the company goal and personal ones too. He is a great acquisition for any company, he always would give his 110%. Don Jenson - Major Account Executive at Windstream Communications “John is a professional individual who is always willing to help his peers and his customers until the issue is resolved. He works hard to build relationships across departments and puts in the hours required and more. He is intelligent, works well under pressure, takes care of his team and leads by example”

References

John Mejia, Former VP, Call Center, Monitronics, now Head of Americas at [24]7 “John is a professional individual who is always willing to help his peers and his customers until the issue is resolved. He works hard to build relationships across departments and puts in the hours required and more. He is intelligent, works well under pressure, takes care of his team and leads by example.” Clark Swenson – Former IT Manager at Monitronics, now at Macrospect “At Monitronics, John brought process quality, teamwork, and greatly improved morale to the central station and the field service call centers. Productivity, customer service satisfaction, and improved company-wide integration of his departments were the payoff. As a peer, John helped me drive various technology initiatives through the organization - helping to finalize requirements, train users, test and integrate upgrades and enhancements into the production systems and processes. John is an exceptional leader and manager, inspiring the loyalty and commitment of his teams toward the company's goals.” Pam Dennis – SVP Bank of America – I reported directly to Pam “John was a great team player to work with and instrumental in pivoting the call center quality assurance teams to become more client-focused with an eye on improving the customer experience and productivity. His passion and energy permeates across teams he is partnering with and those who work directly for him. Employee satisfaction and customer experience metrics improved during his tenure, a true testament to his leadership style of serving others and coaching teammates to achieve lofty goals.”