KRKelly Reynolds

How I run the work

Good operations should not depend on constant firefighting.

I create an operating rhythm that keeps people supported, customers cared for, performance visible, and problems from becoming emergencies.

That does not mean every day runs perfectly. It means the team knows what matters, leaders can see what is changing, and we have a practical way to respond when the day goes sideways.

The first 30 minutes

I start with the operation, not my inbox.

The goal is not to inspect everything. It is to find the exceptions that could change the day before they quietly become the day.

01

Check stability

Systems, outages, major unresolved escalations, overnight incidents, and urgent legal or customer concerns.

02

Match staffing to demand

Available coverage, expected volume, live queues, wait times, service levels, backlog, and the oldest work.

03

Find the risk

High-impact cases, missing ownership, repeat contacts, unusual trends, and anything likely to worsen quickly.

04

Set the day

Three clear priorities, named owners, useful updates, and enough context for people to make good decisions without waiting for me.

Operating cadence

The work gets a rhythm, not another meeting.

Every touchpoint should help us make a decision, improve the work, or support the people doing it.

Weekly
  • Leadership meeting
  • Staffing, attendance, and adherence review with WFM
  • Voice of the Customer review
  • Cross-functional work as needed
Monthly
  • Team meeting
  • Quality calibration
  • Formal employee recognition
  • One-on-one coaching
  • Twice-monthly coaching during performance management
Quarterly
  • Continued education
  • Cross-functional reviews
  • Longer-term trend and process discussions
As needed
  • Training for new initiatives
  • Policy and system updates
  • Real-time recognition
  • Incident and escalation response

When the day goes sideways

Stabilize first. Then solve.

Two callouts. A climbing queue. An executive escalation. An urgent coaching issue. IT is investigating a possible system problem, and a leadership meeting starts in 20 minutes.

The most urgent-looking problem is not always the problem with the greatest reach.
  1. 01
    Confirm the system issue.

    Determine scope, activate downtime procedures if needed, and give IT clean examples while someone else gathers error details.

  2. 02
    Stabilize coverage.

    Move cross-trained people, pause off-floor work, adjust routing and breaks within reason, and step into the queue myself if needed.

  3. 03
    Assign the escalation.

    Give it an owner, authority, a response time, and a checkpoint. I retain it when the financial, legal, reputational, or executive risk requires me.

  4. 04
    Triage the coaching need.

    Act immediately for customer, compliance, safety, or conduct risk. Otherwise, acknowledge it and protect time later that day.

  5. 05
    Communicate and monitor.

    Update the team and meeting owner, watch service levels and customer impact, then intentionally restore the work we paused.

The team feels it, too

A difficult day is not happening only on a dashboard.

When the operation is under pressure, employees feel it before a report confirms it. I communicate honestly, explain the plan, work beside them, recognize the people carrying the load, and keep them updated as conditions improve.

After a brutal customer interaction, an employee could take a minute to breathe and privately vent with teammates who understood the work. The boundary was clear: the reset could not materially affect adherence, and the frustration from one customer could not be carried into the next interaction.

Workforce partnership

WFM owns the model. I bring the operational truth.

Good partnership is clear about ownership. Workforce Management handled forecasting and staffing models. I contributed the context needed to make those models work in the real operation.

WFM owned

Headcount forecasting, volume comparisons, attrition and hiring projections, and service-level modeling.

We partnered

Additional positions, schedules, seasonal or launch coverage, shrinkage, occupancy, service levels, and overtime.

I owned in real time

How available people were deployed, which contacts came first, when off-floor work paused, and how the team responded to changing conditions.

Scope of authority

Ownership includes knowing when not to decide alone.

I make the decisions that belong with the leader closest to the work. I bring in specialized partners when collaboration protects the employee, customer, or business.

I decide

Coaching approach, written warnings and performance plans, reasonable customer resolutions, policy exceptions, and when an issue needs executive or Legal attention.

I decide with input

Scheduling, coverage, and time-off decisions in partnership with WFM, with final operational accountability landing with me.

We decide together

Terminations with HR; overtime and workforce planning with WFM; training with L&D; and workflow changes with senior leadership and, when appropriate, Legal.

Knowing which decisions are mine, which require specialized expertise, and when collaboration matters is part of doing the job well.

Executive reporting

I do not hand leaders a dashboard and ask them to interpret it.

I explain what changed, why I believe it changed, what it is affecting, what I am already doing, and where a decision or additional support is needed.

  1. 01What changed?
  2. 02Why did it change?
  3. 03What is the impact?
  4. 04What are we doing?
  5. 05What decision or support is needed?

My first 30 days

I do not want to lead a job I have never tried to understand.

Before changing an operation, I take the new-hire training, learn the systems, experience the work as it exists today, and listen to the people already doing it.

100+employees interviewed, selected, onboarded, trained, or evaluated across progressive leadership roles

Learn the job.Complete the training, use the systems, and get my feet wet in the work.

Listen to employees.Understand what works, where friction lives, and what leaders may not see.

Review the evidence.Performance, staffing, customer feedback, quality, escalations, policies, and previous attempts.

Meet the partners.WFM, L&D, HR, IT, Legal, and the teams whose work touches the customer experience.

Separate risk from opportunity.Fix immediate harm, then establish what to protect, improve, investigate, or leave alone for now.

Proof at scale

High volume. High emotion. High standards.

Operational discipline created the structure. Human leadership made the results sustainable.

5,000monthly escalations
98%customer satisfaction
25employees led

How do you deliver consistent service when employees spend every day absorbing customers' worst moments?

My team handled escalated phone, email, chat, and social contacts. Customers were often angry before they reached us, and agents still had to stay calm, solve the problem, document the interaction, and move directly to the next customer.

We maintained quality by setting clear expectations, reviewing customer and quality trends, coaching from real interactions, empowering reasonable resolutions, strengthening knowledge and full-answer workflows, and recognizing excellent work as it happened.

Data to decision

The first answer was not always the full answer.

Contact trends showed that customers were reaching out again because the immediate question had been answered, but the entire issue had not been resolved. I used that insight to strengthen full-answer workflows, self-service resources, and knowledge content.

20%reduction in repeat contacts

See the reporting

Good data should make the next decision easier.

Explore a fictional support operations dashboard showing how I connect customer experience, efficiency, capacity, and coaching signals to action.

View the dashboard