Arvin Navarro

Overview:

US AutoParts Incorporated is an e-commerce business that primarily sells aftermarket automotive parts, as an alternative to OEM or stocks parts from the dealership, at a fraction of a cost. It has an in-house contact center that caters to various needs of our customers, from pre-sale to post sale. And aside from the company’s main e-commerce platform, we also have stores on eBay where our team manages all–around facets of the marketplace.

Duties and responsibilities:

• Answers incoming calls from prospective buyers visiting our eBay stores for enquiries about automotive parts listed on our eBay page; verifying stocks availability; shipping expectation and over the phone sale assistance. Technical knowledge about car parts is an edge to earn a substantial amount of sales commission.
• Assisting customers regarding their concerns about a return, refund and replacement; setting-up and obtaining a return merchandize authorization number; creating tickets for damage and lost claims, verifying warranty, labor claims and escalations that require immediate attention.
• Ensuring customers experience has been met above their expectations by providing a one-call resolution to maintain our exceptional positive feedback score and sustain our badge as one of the top rated and sellers on eBay.

Achievements:

• Has been awarded several times as a weekly and monthly top performer and was able to attend several all-star parties and dinners, a quarterly culminating event for the contact center’s top performers per work group or department, with cash incentive as a reward.

Career Highlight:

As one of the pioneer front-liners managing our eBay stores, I was able to get commendations from our team lead and customers for a job well done. Our department/team has also achieved consistently being one of the Top-Rated stores with one of the highest feedback scores or percentage on eBay. Hence, we’re able to contribute to the company’s exponential growth in terms of revenue and creating traction online, expanding our market share.

Overview:

With its continuous growth, the company acquired JC Whitney (August of 2010), the largest retailer of aftermarket automotive parts in the US and took –over its full list of catalogs and long-standing customers. As the company’s market share has grown, our department has also branched out to other online marketplaces like Amazon, NewEgg and Walmart and has soon concentrated with the two big players, eBay and Amazon. Therefore, the scope of our work and responsibilities has been expanded through integration with our non-voice team so we get to answer emails too while taking care of the queue.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Keen on spotting Catalog errors on our eBay and Amazon pages and submitting reports to our Catalog team for immediate revisions, to avoid getting hits on Item Not As Described category.
• Notifying customers about their orders being out of stock; unable to fulfill under some governing restrictions (prevailing State Laws) and Auto-industry patents; incomplete and incorrect addresses; and duplicated orders and orders not downloaded due to system glitch to avoid getting a hit on Item Not Received and Shipping and Handling Category.
• Prioritizing taking calls and assisting customers in providing one-call resolution to minimize call drivers, in anticipation of the transition to pure non-voice.
• With lots of idle time, we were introduced to a more efficient tool in answering emails, called eDesk, to support better handling of our customers’ concerns and interactions online, creating easy to manage tickets, in-lined with eBay and Amazon’s processes and policies.
• Managing and closely monitoring our return center dashboards on both platforms, eBay and Amazon, to ensure that the system integration has been successfully carried out, with little to zero setbacks.
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Achievements:

• A recipient of many weekly and monthly individual awards for having the highest CSAT, FCR and QA score, attendance and as an overall top performer.
• Has been an SME or floor support for voice in less than a year, acting as an assistant to the team lead, taking over escalations, meeting with the vendors/clients for process update and handling pre-shift team huddles.
• Through and through, we’re able to keep our Top Rated and 5 -Star rating badges on both platforms, eBay and Amazon, because of our consistency and excellent customer service.

Career Highlight:

We get incentives based on our individual performances. But when the management introduced the new financial incentive as a team effort (the mean and the standard deviation), I was enthusiastic in voicing my opinion against the intent of drastic changes in our incentive structure. I proactively get the sentiments of my teammates and ask for a dialogue with our team lead. Eventually, this paved the way to exclude our department from the roster of work groups to effectively apply the new incentive scheme. Hence, our team still enjoys getting incentives based on individual performances, after meeting all the metrics, for several months until the company decided to mandatory re-align every department/ work group into the new incentive structure.

As the company’s goal is leaning towards automating all processes online, being a tech-forward company, reducing calls to efficiently and effectively manage our resources, and to strictly adhere with eBay and Amazon’s policy, the voice team has been dissolved and we were designated as a pure non-voice, email team for online marketplaces.

Our adjustment period is momentarily since most of the processes have not changed that much, just our KPI or metrics. Before the pandemic hits, our company has been preparing us for a big change- ending our contract for lease at Cybergate and opted not to renew. After 10 years, the new management has decided to relocate and continue the business operation in BGC. Furthermore, the rebranding of the company has come to fruition hence, the change in name from US AutoParts Incorporated to Carparts.com. The transition becomes effective and apparent as we move forward to our new home.

As everything has been slowly unfolding, these organizational changes have affected us somehow, but I still manage to be productive at work, knowing how fortunate we still get to keep our job amidst the pandemic. At the time pandemic hits, when the government imposes several lockdowns, fortunately the company has been resilient in providing the option to temporarily work at home, providing all the equipments and tools to work remotely.

Overview:

This is a Hybrid Set-up (1 week on-site; 3 weeks Work-From-Home). The transition from blend to pure non-voice has left me wanting to give more value on what I do. While doing non-voice tasks is easy and less stressful, I feel the need to step up or level up my game. And so when the feeling of being burnt- out has consistently manifested, comes the opportunity to take and make calls (again). To serve customers who are in need of installation referral service- a new project/program initiative of the company, as part of its goal to expand the business by partnering with local mechanics and auto shops, DIFM or Do-It-For-Me team has launched.

A company’s project or initiative to help our customers in finding local shops that can install the parts they bought from us at a competitive price. Our job is mainly as appointment setters, connecting our customers and partner shops to conduct business and ultimately, building and sustaining good relationships for an amazing one-stop shop experience.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Our team is responsible for contacting our customers who opted for the installation referral program, completed online or over the phone, after the sale. We were trained on how to utilize SalesForce (SF) as our main tool to access all incoming leads and respond to customer’s email. Eventually, we transitioned to Kustomer, as replacement for SalesForce, and have given access to Smartsheet for lead generation.
• Then, we ask customers for relevant information prior to contacting our partner shops for labor or installation quotes. Afterwards, we look for shops based on the customer's Zip code, setting parameters from 5-50 miles or depending on customer’s preference, using a third-party provider named RepairPal (RP).
• We gather labor or installation quotes from at least 2-3 shops, depending on the number of shops available, and present it to our customers via callback or email (SalesForce/ Kustomer). After a customer has chosen their preferred shop, along with the date and time of appointment, we manually set the appointment via Repairpal’s website (an access is required). Then, we notify customers about their appointment via email.
• As for those customers who are able to make appointments on-line, through our self-booking service for selected parts ( Prio 1) like mirrors, headlights and tail lights, we call the shop to confirm the install price (which is subject to change without prior notice) and customer’s date of appointment. In case of discrepancies, it’s either we re-book customers to a different shop that honors the published price or totally cancel the appointment, depending on the customer's preference.
• We function as arbiters or a grievance committee in situations where our customers and the shops are experiencing conflicts in terms of scheduling, pricing, dissatisfaction of the service rendered by shops to clients, wrong expectations on both sides after the appointment has been secured, customer’s unable to provide full disclosure of any services done on their vehicle resulting to a higher labor cost, labor claims and other hard issues that can’t be resolved in just once call. These types of cases require escalation with our higher ups, most especially if there’s a significant amount of money involved.
• We report shops that do not follow or are inconsistent with the agreement they have signed with our company and RepairPal, the third-party provider, to strengthen our symbiotic relationship and ensure that everyone is aligned with our goals and vision.

Achievements:

• Has been one of the agents who consistently hits the target of having at least 2 successful appointments in a day or an average of at least 40 appointments in a month (22 working days).
• Has been consistently one of the agents who’s getting above 90% average in Q.A
• Has been consistently a contender for being the weekly and monthly top performer.
• Has been meeting all the metrics and required score to obtain a better pay-out.
• Our multi-tasking skills and the knowledge we gained from conversing with shop owners and sharing their expertise in their field allowed me to be independent and reliable in making sound judgment, especially at times when our supervisor is too busy with administrative work.
• And more importantly, being able to work out any disputes between our partner shops and customers before it gets escalated, that amplifies my ability to be tenacious and never lose the grit to openly communicate and listen to both parties in order to come up with a win-win solution, instead of losing any sides since our goal is to establish a sustainable partnership with everyone.

Career Highlight:

We’re able to assist a valued customer claiming for reimbursement (labor) since the shop has performed extended hours to finish the job and has been charged significantly more than what I quoted him ( that came from the shop). After careful evaluation and consistent communication with both parties involved, the management has decided to compensate our customer. It makes him satisfied and elated, not just by the shop’s excellent service, but our commitment to customer’s satisfaction. And ultimately, we gained not only that particular customer’s trust and confidence, but also his referrals and network.

Responsible for answering calls/leads randomly coming from our dialer, calltools, and to get at least 3 successful and quality appointments in a week.

Getting a single appointment in a day is very challenging and tough since most of the leads are VM's, IVR's and gatekeepers or non- primary decision maker.

The assessment is done weekly and employment status is based on hitting the target of 3 successful appointments in a week. Not hitting the quota ends your employment with the company.

As of the moment, I was able to hit the target and is still under contract with the company as a freelancer.