Welcome to the last week of February! Hard to believe that two months of 2015 have already flown by. We hope you’ve kickstarted your year positively and that you’re on track to reach whatever milestones you’ve set for yourself.
Here at Active Screening, one of our goals for 2015 has been to show a more informative side of ourselves. We want you to meet the people working hard behind the scenes to make your Active Screening experience a positive, memorable one. People like Benton Mobley, our Director of Compliance, and IT guru Kerry Rydman. It’s important to us that you get to know our team of experts and understand why you can rely on them 100% for your screening needs.
This brings us to today’s department profile of Melissa Schol, Client Services Manager at Active Screening. We’re excited for you to get to know her!
Active Screening: How did you get started in the background screening industry? What’s your degree in and how did your work experience lead you to this career? How long have you worked at AS?
Melissa: I’ve worked for Active screening since March of 2009. I started as a Client Service Representative and moved up to Client Service Manager in January of 2012. My work experience has been my education, having spent 16 years in client service and management roles before moving to Tampa and finding my home at Active Screening.
AS: What is Client Services responsible for? How has this changed since you’ve been at AS?
Melissa: In Client Services, we manage all points of contact with our clients. We’re here to help you understand background checks, the laws surrounding background checks, choosing the correct searches for your organization and positions and help with using our systems. Our Client Services team is well-trained and very knowledgeable, you can have peace of mind leaning on their expertise. We’re always looking for better ways to keep client costs down, while streamlining the process to save time. The industry is ever-evolving, so we make continual efforts to train ourselves, so we know what the client wants and needs.
AS: What are some of the most common questions clients have about Active Screening and our services?
Melissa: The most common questions we receive in Client Services are about services in general. We do a lot of educating about background services. Clients need to know what each service entails, why it’s recommended and what it covers. There are so many layers to our court system, it’s a lot of information for a lay-person to know and understand. Client Services
helps them understand the difference between a national search and federal search, the situations when criminal statewide searches are needed, and when criminal county searches are needed, when to order a civil upper court search and when to order the civil lower court search, etc.
There’s a lot of information out there, we take pride in the education process. It’s not always necessary to order every search on the menu to get a comprehensive search. We’re here to guide clients through that process.
AS: What are some upcoming trends, products, solutions and/or security measures that clients and prospective AS clients can look forward to seeing in the future? How do you think client services is going to evolve in 2015?
Melissa: We are starting a more aggressive approach to client contact this year. We want to know what works, what doesn’t and how we can make every client’s experience with Active Screening better. Active Screening wants to make every client feel like they’re our only client. Our Client Services department is growing, already adding two new employees to our training program, to help facilitate this feel-good effort.
AS: Since we write a lot about corporate culture on ActiveCare, it’s only fair to ask – What is a typical day like at AS? What’s the culture and vibe like? How do you stay motivated and energized as a Client Services expert?
Melissa: Client Services is a tight-knit team. We like to have fun while doing our jobs. I have a very personable team that truly
like each other and our clients. We know our clients are doing serious work and we are serious about helping them, but we also like to laugh and let loose. As a team we’ve gone zip-lining, bowling, out to dinner and we love to have pot-luck lunches! Part of my training strategy involves tests as games. We play games that have to do with background screenings and of course we always play for prizes.
Thanks, Melissa! Sounds like you have a fun, active group of co-workers who are dedicated to each other and their jobs.