Company: United Camera, Bensenville, IL
Company Description: Founded in 1969, United Camera, is a full service consumer electronics depot repair facility that repairs over 150,000 cameras, camcorders, lenses, projectors, gaming consoles, iPods, and binoculars every year. Providing a 'Better Repair Experience' is the mission of every coworker at United Camera.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Leader of the Year

Nomination Title: Brad Purl, Vice President Customer Service

Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since the beginning of July last year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Brad joined United Camera during an acquisition in the spring of 2009.; In
just a few short months he has transformed the way United Camera delivers for
customers.; He recognized the opportunity to deliver a better experience in an
industry not noted for it.; His first initiative was to launch ‘A Better
Repair Experience’ which focused on making United Camera easy to do business
with and has become our tagline and mission.; The business of consumer
electronics repair is full of small to midsize repair shops where great
customer experiences and fast turn around time are the exception rather than
the rule. 

He started by evaluating every customer touch point in the organization and
all of the coworkers who supported them.; No legacy process was spared if it
hurt the customer experience.; He shadowed every department in the building,
talked to current and past customers, and mapped the path for every repair
order from the time the customer called with the problem all the way through
the point where the customer received their unit back.;

Through this exhaustive evaluation he found a number of deficiencies.
Customers would frequently get busy signals or be disconnected due to a phone
system that couldn’t handle the volume.; Customer Service coworkers handled
customer situations and problems in different ways creating inconsistent
quality and customer confusion.; Errors in order entry were causing incomplete
or inaccurate instructions to be delivered to the technical team ultimately
resulting in substandard or delayed repairs.;

Brad’s ambitious action plan involved upgrading phone systems and training for
the customer service team, embarking on ISO certification to improve quality
processes, and backing up our work with a guarantee unmatched anywhere in the
industry.; By launching the ‘Fixed Right the First Time or its Free’
guarantee, United Camera was now putting teeth behind their claims of top
quality and quick turn around time.; If a customer receives their repair and
the problem was not solved, they receive a full refund AND United picks their
units back up to repair again at our cost.; Nobody else in the industry is
standing behind their work with this kind of promise.;

The metrics Brad has been able to achieve tells the story. Phone abandonment
rates are down to less than 1% from 12%, customer survey results stating that
they are willing to recommend United Camera now stands at 98.6%, and the time
customers wait for their repairs is down to and average of 2.5 days vs. an
industry average of 7 days.;

United Camera achieved their ISO 9001:2008 certification in September and was
named as the best place to have cameras repaired in Chicago Magazines October
issue.; Accolades aside, the improvements are most notable in the comments
left by customers in the surveys that follow every repair.; With Brad’s
leadership, United Camera has begun to truly deliver ‘A Better Repair
Experience’ and has now set the bar for us to exceed in 2010.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/camera/repair/prweb3141234.htmISO9000certificationpressrelease;;;;
http://www.unitedcamera.com/fixed_right.phpFixedRightoritsFree ;
Guarantee
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/October-2009/Where-to-Get-Stuff-Fixed/Electronics/ChicagoMagazineaward;;;

Able to provide internal reporting on our turn time and phone statistics if
needed.

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:

As Vice President of Service and Engineering, Brad makes sure that our
Customer Service and Technical teams have what they need to service customers
effectively. Brad works to ensure that United has the most up-to-date
trainings, certifications, and test equipment allowing his teams to deliver
a 'Better Repair Experience'. His team success is based on overall customer
satisfaction combined with quality & speed of repair.; Before joining United
Camera, Brad spent 12 years at CDW Corporation with roles in sales, training,
and recruiting.