Driving America Forward with Catherine Micklo

"Zum is creating internal systems that improve communications inside the Charter group, and which help us do our jobs better–which, in turn, helps us better serve our Charter customers."

Catherine Micklo
Accounts Receivable, Charter, Coordinator
Zum

Catherine Micklo has been working in Accounts Receivable for charter bus companies for many years. After a brief break during COVID, she switched transportation companies before joining Zum, where she now works as Accounts Receivable Coordinator for the Charter business.

Question 1:
In your role at Zum, how do you think about innovation?

I think innovation is all about taking the tools you have at your disposal, and coming up with a better solution.

In my job, I manage Accounts Receivable for the Charter business. It’s my job, when a customer charters a bus, whether it’s for a wedding, or a family reunion, or whatever it is, to charge that customer quickly and accurately. In order to do that, I have to use a lot of different systems and programs, all of which have different pieces of information within them.

In order to do my job effectively, I stitch together the information in each of these programs in order to complete the whole picture of a charter customer, and use that information to accurately bill them. It’s a small thing, but to me, innovation can also be taking the tools that you have, and doing it in a better, more streamlined way.

Question 2:
From your perspective, at a company-wide level, how is Zum driving American innovation forward?

I think Zum is innovating by adapting its systems to better fit the Charter business.

Here’s an example. Early on, when we were providing bus charter services, our internal service representatives had to go through a fair amount of manual processing in order to note if a charter bus contract was canceled, or if we needed to assess a cancellation fee to the customer. Over time, however, Zum created internal systems that made it easier for us to note that information down, for each of our customers—which has helped us do our job more accurately, and assess fines when necessary.

Again, it’s a small thing, but over time, Zum is creating internal systems that improve communication inside the Charter group, and which help us do our jobs better—which, in turn, helps us better serve our Charter customers.

Question 3:
When you think of the future, what role do children/the next generation play, and how can we set them up for success?

At a high level, I think if Zum continues to make these small changes, they’ll all add up to something bigger.

I totally understand that the students who ride the bus to and from school every day aren’t ever going to hear about the small internal changes we make to Charter business, but our approach to innovation—making changes over time, in order to improve our services—is something all of our customers feel and experience, even if they don’t know it.

I think that’s also true of the kids who ride our buses.