Customer 1st International - People Profile

Our people and their skills and knowledge are invaluable to the success we bring to our clients

Read about some of our customer service professionals and consultants here:

Stephanie Edwards MA BA CMICS

Stephanie Edwards is a Subject Matter Expert in Customer Service. She has developed learning resources for the Institute of Customer Service, Accenture and British American Tobacco. She also writes articles about customer service for MyCustomer.com and blogs for The Accenture Supply Chain Academy.

Trevor Arden MBA BSc MCMI

Trevor Arden is an expert in learning and development. He develops learning content for books and online courses in Customer Service and has written a range of eLearning courses for Unilever and Accenture.

Caroline Tan BSc (Hons) ACIB AMICS

Caroline is a respected expert on customer service in the UK and overseas with impressive results to confirm it. She has acquired this knowledge during a career spanning 20 years in customer service, in roles ranging from front line to strategist.

This expertise has been further refined by meticulous research, study and travel both in the UK, America and Singapore. Overseas Caroline has supported market leaders in customer service achieving sensational results.

After a long career within the Nationwide Building Society group in the UK including 8 years within Retail Management leading customer service forward at the front end, Caroline specialised in the "science of service" and after a stint as Customer Service Consultant across the retail network looking after 60 branches moved to a subsidiary (UCB Home Loans) in charge of customer service. Here she reported directly to the Managing Director and was responsible for designing and implementing a 3-year strategy.

Caroline has worked with organisations in both the public and private sectors, helping them to look at the service that they offer to their customers with a fresh pair of eyes including British Telecom and a whole raft of local authorities. Caroline writes articles for Customer First, one of the UK's customer service professional magazines.

Caroline works with Customer 1st International setting service standards linked to organisational goals and strategies specialising in the public Sector particularly supporting individuals to achieve best practice through innovative training programmes using "The Best Practice Guide for Customer Service Professionals. Her most recent work was undertaken in Singapore on behalf of Customer 1st International.

Adele Cooke CMICS ALCM

Adele is an experienced professional with 25+ years' business and commercial expertise gained during a career spanning Customer Service/Customer Experience, Change/Programme Management, Project Management, Client Relationship Management, Marketing and Product Management.

Adele has applied her broad and transferrable skill-set in Corporate, SME and Not for Profit sectors, including B2B, B2C, Retail and Wholesale. In addition, Adele has extensive operational management experience and expertise, having led Customer Service teams of 100+ across multiple UK sites, with off-shore back-office support.

Adele is a Companion Member of the Institute of Customer Service as well as being an NVQ Assessor in Customer Service and Business Administration. She is also a certified Life Coach who specialises in providing one-to-one coaching and mentoring as well as team/people development. More recently, Adele has gained a Certificate in Voluntary Sector Management as part of her own commitment to Continuing Personal Development.

As a certified online tutor, contracted by Customer 1st International Ltd to deliver their ABP accredited qualifications in Customer Service, Adele's achievements include:

Courses successfully delivered to clients in both public and private sectors such as: West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority, BT, Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe, Customer Service consultancies in Hong Kong, Kenya, UAE and the Caribbean, Unilever, Johnson Diversey and the NHS.
Assessment of candidates' course work and development of on-line discussions.
Coaching and supporting candidates through the virtual learning platform.
Evaluation and validation of Customer 1st International Ltd training documentation and website.

Adele had a successful career with BT plc and held a number of high profile Customer Service roles including General Manager, Customer Service responsible for managing all customer issues arising from BT Openreach's operations (BT Openreach employs 30,000 people including 25,000 engineers and its' network covers 30 million customer lines from 6,000 telephone exchanges).

Her other key achievements at BT plc include:

Managing BT Wholesale Division's Customer Satisfaction Programme with an annual budget of £2.5m.
Establishing and directing multi-disciplinary teams to analyse and identify the key drivers of satisfaction / dissatisfaction and build Business Improvement Plans for the top 20 customers, working in collaboration with them.
Enabling enhancements to the customer experience through the introduction of customer-focused operational measures and targets.
Improving customer loyalty and retention through the delivery of a Best Practice Guide for Internet Service Providers and a computer-based training package aimed at improving the knowledge and customer care skills of their front-line people.
Delivering new set of performance metrics to the Telecoms Industry.
Delivering the capability for Broadband "self-install" through the introduction of micro-filters into the UK market.

Having achieved her personal objective of reaching General Manager level at BT plc, Adele set up her own company, providing interim management resource. In addition, she is a Specialist Business Advisor and Expert on Demand providing seminars, business guidance, mentoring and coaching for Fashion Capital - an online support resource for all areas of the Clothing and Fashion Industry.

Adele's recent interim assignments have included:

Delivering a programme of Business Change for Verathon Medical (UK) Ltd (the UK arm of a US Corporation, supplying medical equipment to the NHS, private health sector and MoD).
Delivering a programme to transform the Customer Experience for Brookson Ltd (an SME in the Financial Services sector, with a turnover of £20m and a customer base of 8.5K).
Programme Managing Executive-level Customer Satisfaction Research for CFI Group (a US-based global research organisation).
Delivering a programme of Business Improvement and Transformation for St Giles Parochial Church Council (a Not for Profit organisation).

Bukola Olofinjana BA (Hons) CMICS MCMI MIBC

Having graduated in 1997 from the South Bank University with an upper second class honours degree in Business Studies, I began my career merchandising within a major retail chain based in the City of London. Progressive appointments within FTSE 100 organisations over a five year period, predominantly in customer service management roles, culminated towards my professional CMICS qualification in 2002. My range of experience within private and public organisations includes the following sectors: Retail, Manufacturing, Financial Services, Recruitment, E-Commerce and E-Learning.

My enthusiasm and passion for customer service has led me to roles which ultimately allow me to influence, encourage and promote superior customer service. This has been further substantiated by experience gained through international appointments within Europe, being actively involved in the National Customer Service Awards, working alongside some of the industry's most influential customer service gurus and undertaking extensive in-house research with a bias towards customer service and service management.

With a cautious yet dynamic management style, my ambition is to build and provide a full range of professional consulting services in customer service and service management to present and future clients, including within Africa and the Caribbean.

Academic Commendations:

E-Learning Facilitator - Online tutor for Best Practice Guide for Customer Service Professionals.
ITIL Service Management - Managers' Certificate.
BA Hons Business Studies - upper second class with honours.
BTEC OND Business Studies - specialising in Marketing.
BTEC General Diploma Business Studies.

Professional Commendations:

Professional Member, Institute of Business Consulting.
Professional Member, Chartered Management Institute/Institute of Management Consultancy.
Professional Member, Institute of Business Consulting.
Professional Member (Companion), Institute of Customer Service.
Professional Member, Institute of Directors.

Voluntary Commendations:

Finalists Selection Panel, National Customer Service Awards.
Judging Panel, National Customer Service and Customer Service Training Awards.
Mentor, Havering Business and Education Partnership.

Projects undertaken include:

Managed, mentored and coached service management and operational team members to ensure exceptional service is provided to all internal and external customers.
Documented all ITIL processes; published them within the central repository and communicated with all Service Management, Operations and end users to ensure best practices are adhered to throughout IT.
Process re-engineering - the standardisation of business processes and management of continual process improvements. Implementation and communication of all processes company wide, ensuring teams are trained and skilled through coaching and mentoring.
Transformed ITIL processes and service improvement projects e.g., change, incident, release and service level management, including regular communications to all employees, senior management and the board.
Developed and implemented the customer service and communication strategy for an online recruitment organisation.
Developed, implemented, enhanced and managed service/help desks and operational teams - UK and Europe - as part of a cost cutting exercise.
Introduction of IT services for a new city based investment company.
Responsible for the service management function within an IT change programme, thereby ensuring service levels and quality of service were achieved and maintained throughout the project lifecycle.

Martin Brunner BEd(Hons) FHCIMA MICS

Martin is a consultant and business adviser with broad management experience in both the private and public sectors; he specialises in business improvement using contemporary models and ideas and research techniques. He has worked with all sizes of operation.

Martin specialises in facilitating Self Assessment and Customer Service Gap Analysis to support organisations in developing prioritised action plans to improve service levels and profitability. This activity is supported with associated training and consultancy, according to the client's needs. He uses the Business Excellence Model extensively to assist organisations in developing a culture of continuous improvement.

A graduate of the University of Southampton, Martin spent a number of years in hotel management working for Rank Hotels and North Hotels in London and The Inn at English Harbour in Antigua. He has also operated as the Managing Director of two property companies in the UK and one in France.

Martin was Head of the School of Hospitality and Service Management at Highbury College, Portsmouth. The school was twice voted College of the Year by the industry and received a Grade 1 for quality from the Further Education Funding Council in 1998. He has also lectured on service management at the University of Portsmouth and was in receipt of awards from the Savoy Educational Trust and the Forte Foundation Trust.

Martin is a Fellow of the Hospitality and Catering International Manager's Association, a Member of Tomorrow's Company, a Member of the Institute of Customer Service, a qualified Excellence Model Assessor and BETA facilitator.

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