Karl Scholtz
Sr Customer Support And Program Management
Cape Town
Summary
Experienced customer service specialist with a proven track record in managing programs to enhance the customer experience and drive efficiency within organizations. Skillset in continuous improvement and background in Six Sigma enable evaluation of all aspects of an organization and implementation of meaningful change. Keen ability to see the bigger picture, confident in bringing value to any organization joined.
Overview
8
8
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
2
2
Languages
Work History
Technical Customer Service Specialist II (L5 Escalations)
Amazon Web Services
Remote
04.2023 - Current
- Independently create and deliver solutions to existing business problems with no clear, defined solutions
- I manage the optimization of the workstreams within the business unit I operate in
- This includes determining complexity of the workstream to determine if the team possesses the necessary skills to fulfil the function, determine the potential for streamlining/automation and manage the migration of the workstream
- I’m responsible for the strategy and delivery of the continuous program for the AWS customer service business in EMEA
- Directly influence cross-functional teams to drive project completion/process improvement through document writing e.g, narrative documents, six-pager documents detailing overall problem, leveraging data (Customer Satisfaction, Efficiency metrics etc.) to detail customer/associate impact, propose solutions, resources needed to achieve solutions, risk mitigation and plan to implement
- I own escalations of all severities
- Assess short-term risks and impacts to downstream customers from problems
- This includes c-suite level escalations including: VP, SVP, CEO & President of Amazon with high public visibility
- Optimize processes through the use of Kaizens and Customer Journey Mapping sessions with the most notable recent examples being a $77K cost saving, 7% improvement in overall customer satisfaction score for a given process and a 52% contact reduction i.e, partial automation across three customer contact types
- Consistently reporting to stakeholders/senior managers on current status of programs/projects within my scope of role (up to director level)
- Optimize processes through the creation of content such as knowledge center articles (customer facing) and Standard Operating Procedures (internally)
Technical Customer Service Specialist (L4 Escalations)
Amazon Web Services
Remote
04.2022 - 04.2023
- Supports initiatives to define processes to execution with guidance
- Participate in complex projects/tasks with minimal guidance
- Mentor L3 associates working towards either performance improvement or growth to L4
- Execute important tasks/activities independently as assigned
- Analyze data and is responsible for highlighting gaps, recommending solutions, driving/influencing inter-function decisions
- Identify and report significant changes or issues (i.e., volume changes, type of contact and unusual spike of customer contacts)
- Follows policy on behalf of AWS customers to issue refunds and credits, escalating as appropriate
- Supports efforts to resolve highly complex and/or high-profile customer contacts (including Jeff Bezos / Andrew Jassy escalations)
- Collaborates in continuous improvement and contributes by documenting any issues in functional area
- Insists on high standards around performance, behaviors and customer experience by demonstrating this Leadership Principle in daily performance
- Identifies gaps and contributes towards improvement/optimization initiatives that drive a metric improvement at site level
- Assists training team with content creation/review as assigned
- Reason for leaving: Promotion
Technical Customer Service Associate (Escalations L3)
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Cape Town
09.2020 - 04.2022
- Assisting customers with complex cases
- This usually is a result of cases being escalated after general queues are unable to assist our customers
- Assist with Executive Customer Relation Escalations
- Initiate and manage complex projects which affect and improve site-wide quality projects
- Mentor associates in order to improve individual performance
- Deep Dive data in order to support project proposals
- Writing up progress reports on projects which are presented to senior leadership
- Writing up business documents, presenting them to leadership for buy-in for project support
- Manage stakeholders including but not limited to, workforce management / capacity planning, specialty teams leadership and senior leadership
- Identify day-to-day operational issues and suggest tactical solutions
- Collaborate on process improvement initiatives to improve the customer experience
- Facilitate training as required
- Reason for vacating post: Promotion
Technical Customer Service Associate (Core)
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Cape Town
09.2019 - 09.2020
- Assist customers with billing issues on their AWS account
- Processing limit increases for customers to scale their resource usage according to business need
- Assist customers with technical inquiries related to all of AWS’ services
- Liaise with internal service teams on processing larger limit increases, concessions and legal inquiries
- Additional duties I undertook within my team were: Deep dive into data to determine areas of improvement for my team
- Later facilitated a deep dive team in order to create more efficiency in data mining
- Facilitated coaching sessions using the data from the mining project
- Participated in wider data deep dives to prepare for Kaizens
- Reason for vacating post: Promotion
Customer Service Associate
Amazon Development Centre
Cape Town
05.2017 - 09.2019
- - Assisting customers via phone, email and chat on a range of topics including but not limited to order issues, payment inquiries, subscription inquiries etc. Handled an average of 40 calls per day.
- - Identifying process improvement opportunities in day-to-day customer interactions
Education
Grade 12 - English Home language, Afrikaans Additional language, Mathematics, Physical sciences, Life sciences, Geography, Life Orientation
Fairmount Secondary School
Cape Town, South Africa 01.2010 - 11.2014
Business Systems Analysis - undefined
Damelin College
Six Sigma White Belt - undefined
The Council for Six Sigma Certification
Six Sigma Yellow Belt -
Six Sigma Academy Amsterdam
Amsterdam 06.2024 -
Six Sigma Green Belt -
Six Sigma Academy Amsterdam
Amsterdam 09.2024 -
Skills
- Project Management
- Data analysis
- Business writing
- Process improvement
- Complex problem solver
- Stakeholder management
- Risk Mitigation
- Six Sigma
- Lean Processes
Stateofhealth
Excellent
Personal Information
- Available: Immediately
- ID Number: 9612105237088
- Date of Birth: 12/10/96
- Nationality: South African
Certification
Six sigma
Timeline
Six Sigma Green Belt -
Six Sigma Academy Amsterdam
09.2024 -
Six Sigma Yellow Belt -
Six Sigma Academy Amsterdam
06.2024 -
Technical Customer Service Specialist II (L5 Escalations)
Amazon Web Services
04.2023 - Current
Technical Customer Service Specialist (L4 Escalations)
Amazon Web Services
04.2022 - 04.2023
Technical Customer Service Associate (Escalations L3)
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
09.2020 - 04.2022
Technical Customer Service Associate (Core)
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
09.2019 - 09.2020
Customer Service Associate
Amazon Development Centre
05.2017 - 09.2019
Grade 12 - English Home language, Afrikaans Additional language, Mathematics, Physical sciences, Life sciences, Geography, Life Orientation
Fairmount Secondary School
01.2010 - 11.2014
Business Systems Analysis - undefined
Damelin College
Six Sigma White Belt - undefined
The Council for Six Sigma Certification
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