2020 CSR All-Stars: Amanda Harris, Discount Labels

AMANDA HARRIS
Senior Customer Service Representative
Discount Labels, New Albany, Ind.

Behind every good sales rep is an even better CSR. But for many CSRs, earning that respect can be tricky—that is, unless you’re Amanda Harris. Her nominator, who described Harris as “quick to react, when necessary, and incredibly good at being proactive,” said that all 14 of Discount Labels’ sales reps trust her to speak directly with their customers.

“Her efforts have not only saved us from losing existing customers, but help solidify relationships with new accounts,” the nominator added.

Harris serves as the CSR to the trade printer’s inside sales team, fielding questions or finding solutions for their customers who may be experiencing issues with orders. Other times, she is helping the customer service department with phone calls and emails, or tending to her nine personal accounts.

Prior to joining Discount Labels, Harris worked for EDS, a call center for Sprint, where she provided technical support for people having cellphone problems. She was quickly promoted to a floor lead and stayed with the company until it went out of business in 2010. Her father had been experiencing health issues, so she moved back to her home state to be closer to family. Not knowing a thing about labels, Harris applied for a CSR position with Discount Labels. The company, which traditionally hired internally for customer service, took a chance on Harris, and it paid off.

Determined to prove herself, Harris did the appropriate research.

“After making friends with people around the plant, I was able to start asking them questions about the job that they do,” Harris said. “The more questions I asked, the more knowledge I gained. I would also volunteer to work in other departments, so I could learn everything I possibly could about our company and how everything works. To this day, I am trained in over seven departments, so this has helped me in my journey of learning all I can to help our customers.”

Her Approach to Customer Service
Customer service can be tricky at times. You will get customers who are nice from start to finish, but you can also get some that are not so nice, but if they are calling us with an issue, they have every right to be mad. I do try to treat all my customers the same—you treat them with respect, and assure them that you can and will get any issues fixed for them.

How She Keeps Calm and Stays Inspired
I always remember to treat customers as [I] would want to be treated. Try to never let the customer hear your stress because they are stressed enough, and you have to be strong for your customers so they know they are in good hands.

How COVID-19 Has Changed Her Job
COVID-19 has changed everything in this world so much. To me, I feel it has made our company stronger. We have employees who had to work from home or even stop working altogether to take care of family. Schools closed early, so parents had to stay home. I was one of those employees that got to work from home and I can tell you that I am so grateful to have been able to work from home for over a month until I was able to get child care for my kids. We all have had to do a little more to cover our missing employees, but that is what makes our company so great because no one cared [about having] to do a little more. Our customers kept placing orders, so we kept being right here for our customers.

Why She Loves Her Job and the Industry
Loving my job comes easy to me. I am blessed to be part of such an amazing strong company. We all work so well together to make things happen. The printing industry is a whole different world and every day it seems I learn something new, so it keeps it exciting.

Her Proudest Career Achievement
Moving up to be our sales team customer service representative has been my biggest achievement thus far. Getting to know each representative and working one-on-one with their customers has made me so proud to be in customer service. I can see that all my hard work has been seen and recognized in a big way.

Her Best Advice
Customer service is a wonderful field to be in. Just stay positive and really listen to your customers so you can understand what their needs are. All you really have to do is be kind and understanding, and everything will fall into place for you.

What She Does for Fun
I love spending time with my fiancé JT and our two amazing kids, Emma and Mikah. We love to go camping and fishing, playing outside at the park with our kids, going on weekend trips, and spending time with our family and friends.

Read the complete CSR profiles here.