Mara L. Kaehn
(408) 735-5932
mara@technomancers.com

Objective:

To obtain a directorial position within a startup Customer Care or Quality Assurance department.

Experience:

September 1997 - Present Owner
Renaissance Technical Services
  • Work as an executive and technical liason to help problem solve company expansion or setup concerns.
  • Identify client needs ranging from helping a small screen saver company handle distribution concerns to researching alternatives to outsource a multilingual world-wide call center for GlobalStar satellite communication customers using only marketing communication ad plans for forecasting hit rates and world-wide contact scenarios.
January 1996 - March 1997 Senior Customer Support Manager/Telco Manager
Mpath Interactive, Inc.
  • Designed a plan for building a flexible technical support and customer service department that supports a multitude of computer software products and services, including Mplayer, an online interactive gaming service, and MISP, a resold PSINet service using the Mplayer brand name. Built the department up to 25 people in six months following this plan. 
  • Researched and negotiated agreements for the following: acquiring a new phone system that supported CTI/IVR for screen-pop and caller screening; the sale of  the company's ROLM and Toshiba systems; and purchase of an integrated program for tracking, managing, and searching bugs, contacts, call tickets, web submissions, and escalations through both desktop and web-based interfaces. 
  • Performed research on creating out-of-state call centers and options for technical support outsourcing to handle possible rapid expansion of services. 
  • Developed a forecasting module for pricing customer service cost under various business development and marketing scenarios, creating a point-of-view change between seeing customer service as a cost center and a profit center. 
  • Discovered and diagnosed an internal information systems problem, recruited key personnel from every affected area, working with the MIS manager and the team to create system diagrams of the current situation and idealized situations. Created a prioritized list of requirements for tool creation with the team. Coordinated the team to review options and presented the results, negotiated and purchased product (negotiating $83,000 off the price). 
  • Managed the telecommunications area of the company, overseeing all relationships with Pacific Bell, MFS, and AT&T account managers. 
  • Researched the selection of an outsourced direct sales group to set up the 1-888-MPLAYER service, and created the survey scripts that online representatives used to screen potential customers. 
  • Created and maintained Remedy schema for call tracking information. 
October 1993 - January 1996 Product Support Manager
LucasArts Entertainment Company
  • Established departmental guidelines and policies and set ultimate departmental quarterly and yearly goals. 
  • Created and implemented a $2,000,000 budget for product support as it expanded from a headcount of 4 to 48.
  • Planned, oversaw, and directed an entire departmental move to allow for expansion. 
  • Acted as Human Resource Agent identifying and hiring talent for the product support department, establishing hiring guidelines and developing differing support positions. 
  • Responsible for final sign-off on all game documentation and final product releases from Quality Assurance to Production. 
  • Developed and implemented the company's first formalized training program for support representatives. 
  • Directed departmental growth towards a greater on-line support presence on the Company BBS, expanding from 4 to 16 lines, saving the company over $600,000 in manpower and shipping costs. 
  • Initiated and coordinated regular communication meetings between development, quality assurance, and support staff, resulting in the development of diagnostic and boot disk creation utilities for inclusion in all new games. 
  • Researched, presented, and implemented a three-phase, $400,000 integrated phone, voice and fax mail, ACD, and Inference CBR help desk database system expansion plan. 
  • Designed and wrote Inference cases and questions.
January 1992 - October 1993 Product Support Representative
LucasArts Entertainment Company
  • Provided technical product support for approximately 300-700 customers each week. 
  • Wrote numerous articles, hint sheets, and technical supplements for a number of products. 
  • Worked extensively with other departments to identify and prepare for potential product problem areas. 
  • Developed a working relationship with a number of software companies in order to search for mutual product concerns. 
November 1991 - January 1992 Quality Assurance Engineer
LucasArts Entertainment Company
  • Executed a series of test suites against various products. 
  • Wrote bug reports and worked with product support in preparation for creation of technical hint supplements for products. 

Education:

M.B.A., Marketing University of Oregon
Graduated August, 1991
Additional Graduate-level classwork in the School of Art and Architecture: Computer Animation.
B.S., Human Services University of Oregon
Graduated June, 1987
Graduated Summa Cum Laude.
Counseling and public administration emphasis.
A.S., Criminal Justice and Pre-Law Lane Community College
Graduated December, 1983
Graduated with honors.

References:

Exceptional references available upon request.