We are excited to welcome Jeremy Raulinaitis to the Avolve family as our new Chief Experience Officer. He has over 15 years of experience in the Technology Industry and, after spending five years in corporate interiors and construction, decided to follow his heart back to technology. We wanted to know Jeremy a little better...
I received my undergrad degree and MBA from Utah State University (Go Aggies!) and spent 14 years at Spillman Technologies where I met and worked with Lance, Avolve’s CEO, as part of his executive team. I oversaw our customer services division for 11 of those years. After Spillman was purchased by Motorola, I took the opportunity to completely switch industries and, for five years, oversaw operations for a company that specialized in large scale corporate interiors and construction. I am a techie at heart though, so I have been very excited to get back into software.
On a personal note, I am married to Danielle and have a daughter, Ellie, and two sons, Korbin and Karson. We live in Herriman, Utah and enjoy boating, snowboarding, backpacking, and mountain biking.
What are some of the barriers you have seen to good customer experience?
In my opinion, the biggest barrier to customer service is when a company doesn’t understand that great customer service is the goal of all employees and not just one group. Aligning everyone in this goal helps to break down barriers between departments and creates synergies in customer strategy.
What is your vision for the customer experience at Avolve?
I believe that the ideal customer-vendor relationship should be based on a mutually beneficial partnership. Each succeeds when the other is successful. It is important that both the company and the customer understands this. I also believe that we should explore solutions to issues when they arise and that “no” should never be the first answer. A mentor once told me to treat your customers like your friends. I have always taken that to heart, and it has served me well.
How do you measure success?
There are many measurements of success and I like to be very data driven in looking at those measurements. However, if I had to pick my all-time favorite measurement of success it would be employee satisfaction. I truly believe that taking care of your employees and giving them a great place to work is paramount to anything else and it makes all other successes possible.
What is your biggest accomplishment?
Personally: Maintaining a successful marriage and raising three amazing kids.
Professionally: Finding great success and relevance across multiple industries.
What has been the biggest lesson you have learned in your career?
To always be honest. Trust is something that can take years to build and can shatter in an instant. Once you have lost it you may never get it back. Best to not lose it.
What is the best piece of professional advice you have received?
I don’t know if I have a singular piece of advice, but my favorite business book is Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babbin. They are two former Navy SEAL leaders that adapt lessons they learned in the SEALs into the business world. Some of their ideas, including utilizing the indirect approach, and taking ownership of situations have been huge to me.
What is your favorite part of the job so far?
Definitely getting to meet and know new people.
If you could master any sport, which would it be?
Soccer is my favorite sport, so I am tempted to go with that, but I think I would choose golf.
If you could fly anywhere in the world for lunch, where would you go?
My daughter is currently living in the Czech Republic, so I would fly to Prague and take her to lunch.
What animal closely resembles your personality?
This is the hardest question! I actually found and took a quiz for this and it spit out owl, so there you go.
Welcome to the Avolve team, Jeremy!